Pro wrestling veteran Matt Hardy took to an episode of his “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff joining TNA Wrestling in 2010.
Hardy said, “I was intrigued. Hulk Hogan, one of the biggest names and one of the biggest stars in the history of pro wrestling, Eric Bischoff, obviously he did huge things at WCW back in the day. I was hoping it would be good, you know, I was hoping it would be positive. And it’s one of those things, you know, you kind of — as we say, here at the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, you kind of have to let it play out. So it was going to be interesting to see how this all did play out.”
On Jeff Hardy’s TNA return in 2010:
“And I remember after Jeff had left his [WWE] contract, they had asked him about coming to TNA. And he’s like, ‘Eh, I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I’m gonna go back == you know, I’ll probably just do WWE whenever I go back.’ He left real nice, or whatever. And whenever they did that deal where, after he got in trouble and got arrested and [CM] Punk referenced it in a promo saying that he was right all along when he was talking about Jeff Hardy — or whatever the comment was, he referenced him in a promo. Jeff actually called them and said, ‘You know what, man? F**k that.’ He said, ‘I’ll show up. I’ll be there.’ And that’s — Punk saying that in that promo is what made Jeff decide to go to that debut show of TNA.”
On TNA changing when they joined the promotion:
“I don’t know [what changed when Hogan and Bischoff came in]. It’s hard for me to comment on that, just because I wasn’t there before, you know? But I would imagine with Hogan and Bischoff having there, two guys who probably are very stern, solid believers in whatever their take is, they’re gonna go with what they think, you know what I mean? I’m more of an advocate for a melting pot in some ways. You know, if I’m talking about a match with guys, or putting the other show with guys, I’ll have my point of view and my perspective. But you know, I don’t see everything like the younger audience does, like, ‘How do you guys see how the younger audience would see this? What is best for everyone?’”
“I kind of try and make whatever I’m doing, if it’s a match, or a segment, or even if I was putting together a show, I try and make it into a melting pot and get everyone’s ideas and contributions, and try and come out with what works best for everyone. I just don’t know if you were necessarily going to get that with Hogan and Eric. You know, they may have just seen things a certain way, and that’s the way that they were going to run with it.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
