Team Extreme Matt & Jeff Hardy

the show. Boys. How are you doing well? Man? And I just want to say when it when it comes to the scenario where I punched you in the eye, I just want to say this, it couldn't happen to a better guy. That's great to be here. I appreciate you both. In truth, it was my fault. You were warming up and I was not looking, and I walked right into your spinning arm that was taped to the gills, and it am near gave me a black guy. My mom, when I was a little kid, Legit used to read

me the Hardy Boys books. So the first time I ever saw The Hardy Boys on TV and you guys lost in the beginning, I was already kind of like cued in and and locked into what you wanted to do just on the name recognition alone, right, And so then I started to watch what both of you did, and you're so complete opposites as far as your presentation. Matt, I've always found you to be more extroverted. Jeff's more introverted. Um,

Jeff's an expressionist. You're like this tech wizard. Like, so you guys just have these like two little like you were always thinking what's next. Jeff was always like, this is who I am, this is what's right now. As a as a fan member, that's that's that's what I saw.

And as I watched you guys grow from the dudes that would lose, like, that's what guys like would say to all of a sudden becoming one of the greatest tag teams in the history of professional wrestling, and then to be able to separate and have massive success in solo careers at the same time and be able to seamlessly sort of come back together and be great again. I don't think anyone else has ever pulled this off.

And it may sound like I'm blowing smoke, but I was just always so impressed by both of you before I even got to the company. My question is, when you guys got started, were you just happy to be living the dream or did you guys legit see those types of stories happening when we first started. I think we're just very happy to be living the dream. And I just want to say, as far as your description of the two of us, we are are very different.

We are very different souls and you knowed it, like you can tell you know us well just from that description. But yeah, our dream was just to to to wrestle, you know, on the w WF at the time, and and and and and make it. And our goal ultimately was to win the world Tag team titles one time, you know, the on the highest level obviously over so so we did, Okay, that was our goal. If we did one time and then we were good, it's a wrap.

And uh, I feel like once we were there, we were just so humbled to be there and to get the opportunity to be in the ring, even if we're gonna aspet. I remember, our goal was like, hey, let's figure out a real awesome bump we can take for this guy, you know, so so it'll make him look good if we do that they'll bring us back. That was our secret. And Jeff was just such a Jeff is he was and is such an incredible seller, like

he was awesome in that role. And and we believe there were a lot of independent people who said, like, if you guys keep doing this, if you keep doing jobs. There's a guy who told us that instead of doing Carney and says, saying jazz obs, he just shortened his jobs. He said, if you keep doing jobs, you guys are gonna be labeled like that forever. I said, no, man, I think we think we can make it if we keep bust our asks and working hard on I guarantee it. I believe we can make it. How old were you

when that conversation happened? How old were you when they said you can't keep doing that? Jeff was six fifteen years old, gidding there's tennis stars that have retired at that age. Oh my gosh. Okay, So you come into the wrestling company. I worked directly under Michael Hayes when I when I started, And the way Michael speaks about the two of you is the way a dad speaks about his sons. He's our wrestling daddy. Well, That's how

he felt. When I was there and I had never met either one of you, I was I was brand new. I was not getting the what the writers would call the good assignments. I was getting the ones that know, the assignments that no one wanted. And as I started getting a little better and and figuring stuff out while still making a lot of mistakes, I started to have

a little bit more access. And I remember, Matt, when you won the e c W Championship, when they changed the belt that I loved the Some people didn't like it, but I loved that big silver blon And it was the first ever scramble match in W two B history, So that that's a little piece of wrestling trivia that

always hold. I won the first ever scramble match, that was the first one, and then they did it again on SmackDown like a year later, right, So I remember being in guerrilla position when you won that and came back. And the reason this popped in my head was you said something that you said the word humble or humility earlier, and you walked back and Vince gave you the nod, and you said, I just want to let you know I appreciate this so much and I won't let you down.

And it was such a humble moment for a champion, and his head kind of cocked and he gave you that like that grunt, right, that all right? And he walked, yeah, and you walked backstage, and I was sitting and I had never seen an instance like that before. I didn't have access to grill a position. Before that moment. I was just like, whoa that was? That was intense, and it was my first kind of taste of what it meant for a wrestler to be a champion in that company.

And before that, like I had made mistakes. I didn't understand the value of the belt and what it truly meant outside of a fan going hey, that's cool. So I'm getting schooled up on there, like learning on the fly. And then Michael comes in and he says Jeff had a lot of momentum at the time, and he said, uh, to the whole writing team, we're gonna try to make Jeff chance. And I remember there was a guy named

christ to Joseph If and he was like hyped. He was so excited, right, and some of the other Writersom was like, how are we gonna how are we going to do that? And for me it was an opportunity to get a better assignment. And I had never even met Jeff yet outside of maybe like a head nod like that. That was all we did, and I wrote up a story and Jeff, you had been going through ship at the time, and I thought, instead of hiding

from that, we should kind of lean into it. And my philosophy, you know, my dad struggled in the seventies with a lot of different stuff, like when he died, he had enough coludes in his system to kill a damn horse. I had a lot of experience with that, and I had gone through psychologist after psychologist and a

lot of it. They talked about, you know, the brain knows when it needs help, it goes to whatever the quickest route to that help is, right, And so I tried to come up with this thing that you executed so beautifully where we talked about the gray area and the world's not just black and white. That just doesn't exist in the real world, and there is a gray area.

And it's not about good people are bad people, because there's good people that make bad choices every day, and there's bad people to make good choices in their life and the rest of us are in the middle and we're all just trying to get by. And I thought that could be a truthful and honest and this may sound weird, but a beautiful way to tell your story. I just didn't know if we could get it approved. What was going through your head as I'm kind of

throwing these these weird o promos your way? I mean, was it exciting? Was it? What the hell was this guy? Like? Whatever, You're not gonna hurt my feelings, even if you're like, dude, they suck, Like I loved it no matter what. So I'm just curious as to what was going through your heart and head at the time. It was crazy exciting and thank you for helping me become the world champion for the first time. Is that it's for wrestling. It's it's an amazing craft and man, I'm just me like

what you see is what you get. And man, but when that happened, I was like, oh, I do have something special about me and I don't know what it is, like the connection between me and the fans, but there's something The energy I guess is oh my god, there's no gravity and like we can just soar to the stars and and and take over whatever when I see these people. But there's just something special about me, and I thank you for recognizing that within me, and pro

wrestling is a is a crazy world. Man. It's like a circus, is like a side show, and um and I'm just so proud to be a part of it. Jeff, you talked about that energy, you know, for me, it was always like when you're when you're not the cool kid and you're not the popular kid in school, which I was not, you feel like an outcast and you try to seek out others that are like minded. But before the Internet that was impossible, so you legitimately were

an outcast. You you felt ostracized, right, And that's I think something that people saw and connected with your character out there, because, like you said, it's you. The character is you. It's not Jeff Hardy is not out there faking it and putting on some persona. Is just this is who I am right now, and I hope you love me. And it's like you feel that every time

you can, you climb up to the top, right. So I always felt that connection was Wrestling fans have always been like those sports fan that has been disrespected the most, the one that's like discounted the most. I remember calling Cowherd used to call us mouth breathers, and and then Fox bought it, and all of a sudden he was so nice and polite and respectful. Um. But I always felt those fans kind of felt that way. And so when they have someone where they can go, that's our guy.

All of a sudden, that's their guy. And that crowd was always willing to go up to the top and jump with you if need be. And I remember you said that energy. I remember when the crowd believed that it was gonna happen. I didn't watch from Guerilla, even though I was supposed to. I got yelled at. I went out to one of the side hallways so I could see it, you know, the way I the way I would want to see it if I bought it. Yeah, and uh, and my phone was going crab free bird.

I was like, get back and where are you. I didn't even like answer it. I'm just there, like watching from the wings. And that crowd all of a sudden when they realized it was Hunter outside the ring and not you, and that the finish was about to actually happen. You said there was no gravity, Like I literally felt like I was floating in that moment because their voices and the sound like reverberated so damn much that it's

like lifting you up off of the ground. And then they did the finish, and because you're beautifully insane, you then climbed the entire scaffold of Armageddon all the way to the top, which came up just gave me a heart attack. I was a new father, so like all my bravery just vanished. And all I'm thinking is I hope he's okay. Talk about that moment, man, because you talked about just the regular energy that you get from

a regular match, which sounds like winning a championship. So what was it like when you actually did like a little boy's dream come true? Man, like up on that castle at Armageddon and Armageddon iss coming eventually maybe I'm getting okay, could help you go, what did Jeffy? But no, uh, it's such a crazy world. But yeah, it's a little little boy's dream come true man and God, and then to do it over and over again. One of my favorite things, as far as being like world champion is

when Punk and it's so crazy. We're in the same company now, and there's a huge moment between me and Punk. Yeah it's gonna I'm sure, Uh it has to. He was. I mean, I remember when he walked out to your music. I'm rocked out like jazz. Oh my god. The crowd got so angry, like bro, you you guys gotta get it on again, you gotta get I mean you you tell me, man, And I think there's a huge moment, like just in the hallway, like me and Matt beat the Young Bucks or whatever it uh whatever pay per

views coming up or whatever happens. But then we were me and Punk just have a face off. I love faceoffs first of all, big hug, you know, but also let him know, Yeah, I'm gonna see you though, Matt, I've always had a question for this, and I guess I could have asked Freebird over the years, but I just I wanted to ask you. During Jeff's run, there was this sneaky little thing that you and Freebird did where Matt hard He's coming out to help his brother, but Jeff gets hurt and we didn't show it at

that pay per view, we revealed it. I believe at the next pay per view, But the Matt Hardy character smiled and wasn't necessarily out there to help his brother. Is what it seemed was this and this eventually led to you turning on Jeff. Was this something that you came up with, Michael came up with. The two of you sat together and and came Because I wasn't even aware of it until after it happened in Free Bird,

was like, well, that's just a little extra touch. Um, so I know they pitched it to me, and it's so funny. There was like these old rumors that float around like, oh my god, it was supposed to be Christian, but then they changed it. They made it mad. It was always gonna be me, and they just I feel like they felt the best path forward for me because always, historically Jeff has always been more popular, probably always will be more popular. I just want to tack on something

to what you're saying earlier. We do these massive autograph signings now that we're back, you know the parties, you know whenever we go to these uh you know, autograph signings are like four hours four and a half hours are long and massive, and there's so many people that have watched us for so long in October of this year, We've been doing this for thirty years, and you know, we've been doing it like on the highest level now for almost almost twenty five years, which is crazy and

and and like you said, is it's very special that we can be a tag team and win multiple world tag team titles together and then split off and when other titles and come out the other one titles again, Like, I don't think there's ever been a team that has had that sort of success as as a team and uh singles, you know when it when it when you think about the big scheme of things. The only person

I can really think that's close is Edging Christian. But they both had to take off, like you know, seven to nine years because of their severe injuries and whatnot. So Jeff has this thing about him. Whenever we're doing these signings, people come up to all the time they go, oh, my god, you inspired me to be me because you were just someone who like this is who you are. If you like me, great, if you don't, great, I

don't care. I'm me and I'm happy this moment. I'm doing what I love in this moment, and I'm living my life to the fullest in this moment, and I don't care what anybody else says. And that's a huge inspiration to him, and people all the time come and say thank you so much. You helped me during a tough period of my childhood or whatever, like you made

me not afraid to be myself. So I think that's one of the very special things that goes along with him, and that leads, I think to him being historically the most popular of the two of us. And then Michael

Hayes had pitches. I think the best way forward for you, Matt is now that you're the c c W champion and he's the w B champion, if we did a thing where like you were almost jealous, you know, he's getting all the you know, he's getting all the light shined on him right now as being the big champion,

and you've been a big champion even longer. Like, what if we do a thing where you get so frustrated and ultimately you turn on him and we do a big match at WrestleMania and you guys can face one another on the you know, the the biggest platform possible. And I was all down for it and said, yeah, that sounds good, and I didn't disagree, so they started

planning those seeds. I want to say. The first thing was like you were found like uh out in a stairwell, and it was almost like a play in real life, like, oh my god, was was Jeff Hardy messed up? We know he's had his demons and we know he has had his issues, but it turns out in the backstory that I was the one that did that to him. There was a deal where there was a car crash and remember the film that you some girl like as your wife is bed and and and I ended up

being me as well. And then the Pyro thing, which is one of my favorite deals because he made it look so amazing the way he sold it. And then ultimately ended up where my worst enemy, a guy that I have historically hated Edge. You know, he is wrestling Jeff and I screwed Jeff out of the match and allow Edge to win, which really solidified that I was a real piece of ship. Terrible bad guy. That's long term storytelling that doesn't get done as much anymore. I

miss it, man, and that was done really well. I feel like at that point, if we would have just focused on me being jealous and my envy of him being so popular when he has the title. The thing I think where we we went a little too far is because his house legitimately did burn down. Whenever I burned down his house and killed his dog, I felt like a lot of people say, I, I mean kind of in on him being joles, but that's that's a little too much, and I remember that became part of

the story. Yeah, I remember that too. I feel like fans disconnected there a little bit, and that that was my feeling from reading the crowd as well. Well. When that's well, let's talk about that reading the crowd and that. Okay, So to me, professional wrestling and stand up comedy are the two most brutal forms of art. Okay. The crowd lets you know right away if they don't like your joke,

because they don't laugh. They let you know right away if they don't like your work in the ring, and they'll scream at you, they'll start you suck chance, not because you're the heel, because they genuinely hate you. So when you talk about feeling that in the crowd, how do you communicate that to creative Have you ever been able to communicate that successfully is it? Does it fall on deaf ears? What to talk about that real quick

if you could. There was one moment like before I went out and the like I think Michael Hays is up and advance and you know everybody, uh man, And they played the video package and like Jack are dog that died in the fire was the last visual of that almost like broke down there. You gotta be fired up that that was right before. I'm not getting fired up. I'm going to have a stone cold because man, that

ship had really happened. This ship is fake. You know what we're doing now, it's just an act, you know, so to speak. And that was one I just went on like just stone called us and I'm not I'm not getting fired up at all. I I feel like inserting reality in the storylines. It's important and it needs to be done, especially now in the age of the Internet and the age of information, because everybody knows everything.

I think you do. But there there's also some things and I think we were right on the cusp of this period of this time. That was an event that was so tragic and so sad that it literally his house burned out, you know, all the old tits, all

this old gear, his his dog died. I mean, it was a really traumatic event on him, and just for for them to put that in their storyline was almost like where it was bad taste and that that's what I felt whenever I see that, especially in high whenever they had me come out and they had like a I'll never forget them burning a dog collar and then I held the dog collar like you know, the guy who did the props, he was like, Okay, well he's burning more sho. I said, I think it's fine. It's

like I remember saying like I don't know. I mean, i'll do it. This is what you guys want me to do. I'll do it, but like this could be too much, and I could just feel like you guys weren't alone the air. The air came out of the crowd. They're like, it's not like we're not mad at you because you're playing the bad guy in the story. We're mad at you because this is a poor taste. So

that's how it felt, you're not alone in that. I remember m v P and Jeff had a thing after that, and m v P had some of that commentary and his and he was even saying like, hey, I think we've already kind of done this, and you know, I'm not a good going there, and and they were still you know, real real aggressive about about trying to make

that work. But I I see what you because it's so easy to get to a good place and then quickly say what's next when you work at W W E instead of living in that moment and allowing that moment to be more organic. A lot of times, when it works, two weeks later, it's like, well, now that has to evolve to something else, and it's like, man, it's still so fresh, like they've literally only gotten about ten minutes of this so far as far as like TV time that you've allowed, like we can let this

play out. And sometimes they get it right, you know, sometimes they do do a nice, slow, drawn out story. A W did a great one this year with with m JF and Punk. I thought that was slow and and and beautiful as well. So let's let's transition to a E W Jeff, you already planted the seed as far as CM punk, but as far as tag teams go. And look, this is me as a as a fan and a guy who who got to work with both

you and has love for both of you. You guys need to shoot straight to the top of this division. You guys need to have all the belts around you. I would even want the Ring of Hunter belts around you. What's the goal for you guys as the tag team right now at least in the coming year. I mean, I agree with you. Our goal here in a W is to submit our legacy. And the first business we want to conduct his winning the a W World Tag

Team Championships. And on top of that, I love to win the Triple A. I'd love to win the Ring of Honor. I'd love to win the new Japan titles. Will win them all, man. We really want to submit our legacy. As you know, the legit goats one of the greatest of all town. You guys are already subment, just so you know. At this point, it's just layering gold on top of the submit. But I had this one out as far as like two Sweet or Delete is one cinematic match that we never got to do

before we went back to WB in seventeen. But I had this idea about us going into the ocean in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and coming out and of the Ocean in Long Beach, California, and then Man, the Young Us and the Young let go out of you know, brother complete an hour from Long Beach. Y'all could come out like James Bond from the James Bond movie on the or halle Berry Portals. Oh my god, I just I just said what my dream match would be today on our podcast on the Extreme Life mat Hardy. It

would be all the greatest tag teams. I would use everyone, you know, like Totally and Arn and the Rock and Roll Express, used the Young Bucks and and we have. It starts at the Hardy Compound and then there's portals, and it leads all over the world. We can be it, you know. We can be in Japan, we can be in the e c W Arena. We're making a worldwide If you guys have all the belts, you can do it.

If you guys have all the belts. I've been looking at some properties commercial real estate because I want to have a home base for a little independent wrestling company that I want to start in about a year and a half out here. Yeah, yeah, I've heard these rumors. Man.

I was looking at a place in downtown Los Angeles, that was like a rooftop supper club that had gone out of business, and it was like the Downtown l A skyline, and all I could think of was a Hardy here and a Hardy here on turn buckles with the l A. Scott's. The only skyline we got is downtown with the l A Skyline behind, while both you guys just jump off twelve feet in the air Atlanta.

But I remember seeing that being like wow, man, like rooftop wrestling with the Hardy boys would be insane watching you guys, watching you guys go mad there. I do want to say this, and I got one more question for you. But as you know, as soon as we hang up, I'm gonna try to write a CM punk Jeff Hardy storyline and I'm gonna send it to Tony Cohn like submitted to submitted to Papa con Like that's all my Once you said that, I literally like, oh my god, Yeah, they're in the same company. Of course

they know there's so much they got it. I mean, it was such a it was such a wonderful story. But both you guys have been in some of my favorite stories and what my well, he hated me when I joined the company, but he's held both my baby since. Uh one of the stories met that you were involved in that I've loved and and the US title hasn't meant anything since. Was you an m v P? I

thought this was it was basically competitive friendship rivalry. It wasn't hate it first, and it allowed itself, in a slow, long format, to develop into something more than you've got what I want? Give it to me. It was it was no, you're not better than I'm better than you, or it was that old song anything you can do, I can do better I could. I think that's literally

it had this old school field to it. Was that something that was brought to you guys, or was that something that you guys wanted to do that that ended up being a touch we decided to put on it, and I feel like at that time it was a single m v P and single Matt. We were doing that in real life too. We were like competitive. We would go out to eat in by bar. Later we would they see who could drink the most route, pick

up the most chicks or whatever. We were just super competitive and everything really good and it almost like translated way on a TV. So that was supposed to be a short term thing for the U S title, and then like later we added details and you know, I said, well, what if you decided you wouldn't try to make me your tag team partner and we go after the tag team go with us, said, and that kind of gives us a way to extend this and we can make that happen. And Vince was so open to us there.

There would be times you remember the lines that would be outside Vince's door. You know, there'd be eight or nine people just wait and they were waiting for an hour, ninety minutes outside his door to getting to see him m v P. And I like, if we'd be at the line, we'd say, hey, Vince, we should in the text, Hey we're outside. He said he'd come in to there. He said, Matt MVP, come right in and we'd passed the whole line. We did that almost every single week.

He was like we were his favorites in that time. Every time we kind of suggested something, he was always open to it. That was one of that was one of the most fun times as far as working with Vince, and he was liking what we're doing and it was succeeding on television, and he was always open ideas. When I first did Matt Hardy v. One two, he was very open I'd is and I got to interact with him a lot too, which was which was very cool.

Do you think maybe that's the issue with some of the younger talent these days, is not either having the ideas or not having the confidence to bring their ideas to the top people. Do you think maybe they're waiting

for ideas to come to them. I think so. I mean, you have to be hungry, you have to be willing to, you know, go out on a limb and try something different and think out of the box, especially because in pro wrestling now everything's been done, Like, how can we switch up our storytelling in a different way which is kind of fresh and creative, which will well, we'll have people.

And I think that's one of the toughest deals in this day and age, and I feel like now it w be it's even harder my last time that I was back, and Jeff was there a couple of years after me, but like, it's very hard to get in and have that one on one FaceTime with Vince Snow and I feel like that's very important because he he has almost become like, you know, the Wizard of Oz. He's like the man behind the curtain, and it's very hard to get FaceTime with him. But I think guys

have to stay driven. They have to continue to submit ideas even if you get if you have fifty ideas shot down, you might get when they roll with. I mean, I think you have to do that as part of your obligation from creative aspect in this in this industry, Jeff. But before I get to my last question, which is more family driven and brother driven, did you ever hear about the production meeting before you went over as champion? Did anyone ever share that with you? I never did.

Is it ideas or politicking? I think it was politicing, right, Yeah, well some of us had two politics, So yeah, I know if Legends Stars make correct, I've read this and heard the rumors. I would love to hear the official story though. So this was like the craziest, coolest, most passionate moment I ever had in not the wrestling business, in show business. I'd never been in a position where it was this like creative and realistic debate going back

and forth. And you've got those production meetings are like forty people deep, right. So there was the group that was pro Jeff winning the title, which was a larger group in that room, and then there was a smaller group that did not want that to happen. And it was it was a smaller group, but their voices carried weight. And all of a sudden, I'm sitting next to Freebird and the conversation starts going away from all this work and what I described out loud as sacrifice Jeff's made

as far as giving you real stuff. We can't take this away. But I'm seeing it getting taken away, and Freebirds starts squeezing my wrist, like, get get up, get up. You gotta say something. You gotta because if he He's like if I, if I do it, that they won't go for it. And so I'm sitting there and literally like he's got a wrestler's grip. You know, it's no joke.

I'm feeling it, man, I'm like, oh my god. So I stand up and I start giving that that speech where it's like, yo, man, this guy's sacrificed so much and he's given so much, and I know there's been you know, choices, We're not going to call him mistakes, I'll call them choices, But damn, what did we do this for if not now? And it keeps going back and forth, And finally, and I had looked up the numbers on your merchandise sales because I was paranoid that

something like this might happen. And over the last six months, you had outsold everyone in the company at that time, including the person that was most against this decision, and that was my aces Spades that I that I had, no not that one, and it was it was three letters, They're all this, they were all the same. So I'm sitting there, I'm like, man, if I pull this card, it's it's my last move. Like I'm not gonna be

able to like outshoot that. So I had to wait for everybody to get there saying and then finally I just went All those armed bands out there, all those crazy Spider Man looking things, they're on every single person in the crowd. This man has sold more merchandise than every single person, including the people in this room, over the last six months because of the sacrifices he's put

in this story. Those people believe in him. That's why they're buying that even though they already have three of them. They're putting on four and five over that because they actually believe in this. And I remember Kevin Dunn when I mentioned the Mercht numbers because I'm not gonna throw your business out there, but I said what they were because we had access to all that stuff in the company, and Kevin Dunn just went only ship and once he

said that, I was like, Oh, we're good. And then Vince goes, all right, everybody get out of here, and he throws us all out except you know a few people. I wasn't in those people. Neither was Freebird. And we go out and DJ and I are both like, it's it's on, It's on. And I'm like, I'm going to tell Jeff and Freeber. It's like, you're not telling Thatnie to spot over again. You gotta wait till they come out. And I'm like, well, what, what what do you mean?

He goes, if they if you come out, if they come out here and they see you celebrating Freddy, I swear to God to be the last thing you work. And I'm like all right. I'm like, all right, I'll keep it cool. I'll keep it cool. And so I've tried to keep it cool in DJ's elbow and be like, dude, I can't believe we're gonna get this because DJ shot all this stuff, almost all the stuff that I wrote

for you, Like I remember where he took. He was in London with you when you did that great Undertaker bit with him at the London Show, and uh so he was very heavily invested in this as well. And then all of a sudden, the naysayers all came out and none of them even looked at me, And so that's when I knew. I was like, oh, we're good, We're good to go. And you just hear Vinceco get in there, and free Bird goes in, and we all

go in. It's just the three of us, and he goes nobody touches Jeff to larm aged and that's and Freebird was just like, well, I can't say what he said, but dude, dude, dude, it's basically what he said as we walked out, and then we were running from that moment forward and it was such a crazy I had so much fun. It felt like the stakes were so high. I never felt like the stakes were high in any movie I ever did, or any like job that I wrote,

or if I did, I just couldn't. It wasn't at that level, but the stakes felt so high because of that energy that you described in the beginning of this. It was real old man like those fans when they and I never had that. Like my fanship was more girls who wanted to fall in love in the nineties, right, but it was never but but for real like Matt's were real about you know, like his popularity and who

loves him and who respects him. And I have a good perspective on that too, probably because we're older Matt and we have wisdom. But Jeff had this way where you just give more than guys like me, and people respect that and they love that. And that energy was real. I've heard comedians talk about that, that energy, and it's such a I said this before I think I even said it to you, and we were working together. I said, dude,

you're wrestling is like a Jackson Pollock painting. It's like it's like your vomiting emotion all over a literal canvas, except it's actual blood, sweat and tears and face paint on a literal canvas. I was like, it's the true definition of our and I've always described you as that way, as Jackson Pollock, whereas like hard Matt is literally like Andy Warhol, like what's next? What are the people gonna be looking for? What's next? And then he hits him

with it. And so to see these two complete like, no way Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock ever hung out, No way they could live on the same compound together. So my my final question is I'm an only child. My brother, my son, and my daughter fight all the time. I'm sure you guys have as well. How have you guys managed to keep this bond, to stay so tight and to be like the true definition of brothers. I used to ask my mom at Christmas, I don't want

any presents. I just want a brother. She's like, Babe, I have my tubes, tide, that's not happening. So she had twenty three hours of labor with me. She was done. But how how have you guys done this? Man? And maybe there's no answer, and that's fine too, but how how have you guys managed you said thirty years used eighteen and sixteen. That's insane. You guys are still doing this at the highest levels. Yeah, it should be. It's

a beautiful history that will never bet. It's the story you know of us, and he has the you know. For me, it's just like faith and hope. I over pray all the time. I talked to something more than me, like every day, and I believe in that. I I really feel like, you know, our mom died young, and we we very much modeled ourselves after her in many ways, um until we had in wrestling, and then those guys kind of tour away hand us and get us all all screwed up. But obviously we're not gonna blame that

on pro wrestling. UM. You know. I just feel like from early on, we just realized, like whenever our mom passed, I remember our dad said to us, and he was there, and our dad's like a real hard Southern man. First time we've ever saw him cry, and he said, like, guys, we have to be strong, we have to go on

for her. That's what she would want. So I just even from that moment on, I feel like there was a very special bond where there's been times where we've been at each other's throats, we've had disagreements or whatever, but we always know our bond as brothers are is very special and it will always come back and it always be there. Even if we have a just agreement or there's a period where we're on different pages, we always get back on the same page every single time.

And I just think we understand how special it is. And that's something I really try and reinforce in in my kids. I have three young boys, you know, Maxwell, Woffie and Barty his brothers. Like guys, your brothers, you're gonna fight with them, You're gonna argue, especially when you're younger.

Now you're gonna fight all the time. But remember they are the most important people in your life, Like you can always depend on them, and I think we know that we can always depend on one another, no regardless of what the situation or scenario is. Yeah, for sure. I have the hearty girls like Ruby and Near a man. Eleven and six is crazy when you look back at everything and it really does fly by. But like Matt's like little boys, man, they're so entertaining. I'll tell you

a real quick story. They were on the motocross track one day, like and they were all playing and Wolfie wanted the snack, you know, so he was trying to go in our house. We have dogs in the house. We have a lot of too many dogs. Thinking about he's he's not at home. We were like out on the motocross track and they're running up down the hill and was going towards my house to go go get a snack, you know, and and Matt said, woof where are you going? I need I need a snack. Where

you gonna get it from? He said, from the fridge, of course, so broken, No you can't. There's dogs in there. They'll they'll buy you or something. Matt, what you had like a kangaroo, damn zebra? Yeah, kala, bears and all kinds of ship Yeah, some of the best. What was your kangaroo's name was smoking Joe Frasier, the kingoo man, the Kingaroo, his vessel. It contained the essence, the joke of smoking Joe Frasier. You know, I new smoking in a minute decades ago, and now I've kept track of

his essence and his essences now in this kangaroo. So he would teach us how to strike with his hans and feet. Yo. That's what got me back in touch with you on social media because I was like, yod, what character is this guy created? Now? Like I legit reached out to you. I was like, what what is

going on? Of the hell are you? This is years ago now, but Lily Man, I can't say how many people how many people said that was friends with Whenever I started doing Broken Mat and I went all in right method, acting all the way like they said, hey, t NA said, hey, we want to put you on Meltzer show. You know, he wants you to do the whole show, you know, because it's gonna getting hot whatever. I said, you know, it's like it's gonna be like

fifty minutes. He said, So it is that cool? You know, they're just like talking wrestling, said, you tell Dave if I'm gonna be on there. It's all Broken Mat, the whole whow It's the whole gimmick. I'm not I'm not changing. And I did everything in gimmick. People were contacting me going like hey, bro, man, is everything all right? Like I just want to see, like make sure you hadn't fell off or anything. Man, it's everything cool, Like you need me to come up and stay with you or

help you out. It's everything cool. And I was like, oh, I'm good, I said, I've never been better. I said, I'm just trying to suck everyone into into this broken universe I'm creating. Bro. I would send those videos to Karen Culkin, who used to be like my wrestling show running mate back in the day, like he's been thrown out of Wrestling Show. He was such like a psychophane and um to the best actor on HBO, but he started off as a psycho fan and I literally be like, yo, Checko,

what hard he's doing? And he literally straight back, you know, what the funk is going on right now? But we loved it, man, we loved it. So a little insight into that there's this place like fifteen minutes from us, which is so crazy because we live out in the middle of rural North Carolina, obviously little po dunk Town, Cameron. There's this place where there's a little privately owned zoo and they had these couple of animals they had, like

you know, the giraffe was George Washington. He was always a bit and like Jeremy boor Rash who was shooting all that stuff. Loved going out there and I was like, I mean, I would talk to these animals like I'm talking to you right now. I would be fully invested, you know, with whatever we're doing, and this is a great story. The first sound with Smoking Joe, we were there. I said, yes, I said, brother Nero, you know, I said,

I have established a very special boxing match. He's going to help us with our strikes so we can take out the books of youth. And I said, yeah, let me to get into And I'm sure how Smoking Joe works, I said. And then like they told us, they said, this guy's an older Kingaroo. They said, he throws some pretty vicious kids, but he's the most tame of the three we have. So if you guys are gonna shoot some with him and be best do with him. And he one time rare up into a real hard kick.

And then I remember, I told you so, brother Nero, you're such a spot monkey. You jump off the top rope, off every purcabaable. You should fight him fust And the cameras was like, and I had him the Kingaroo first, I want to see how bad the damage was, Just like I got, I'm sitting there with Dr Doolittle and I gotta take a book from a real kangaroo. And the jet locked up the man, I was like, and he kicked the shot, and then and then after Jeff went,

I said, dude, I said, I said, dude. I said, all right, man, I said, I'll go bad thank you man for taking the first bull. I said, I'll go, I'll go. And I was in there and I looked up with him. He started kicking me and he was kicking the ship out of my knee, and I thought, he's gonna bug on my knee. I was gonna have to go in and jale surgery and in character and brokemancing, Yes, punish me, Joe, punish me. And I was like, I'd

getting wrong. I had to run out of there. You to tap out, bro You gotta get locked up with the room. Oh my god, Oh my god. No one else could ever tell that unless they live in Australia. Nobody else can tell that story. Listen to you, guys. I appreciate both of you so much for taking time out of your day, from taking time away from the Animal Kingdom and from the Hardy Compound and from flying all over the place. Matt, keep that active brain of

yours going, keep reinventing, keep evolving. I love it. Jeff, keep living in the moment. Brother. I hope you're still painting. I hope you're still making music. If not, please start again. A balanced artist is a happy artist, so please continue. I'm I'm playing at the Whiskey on June second. Yeah, please come out if you can. Man the Whiskey. Where where where on sunset and l a, get out of here.

The Whiskey the legendary place, my Whiskey. Dude, I haven't been there, And dude, I would love to come see you. Jazarian like Kazarians bands opening up for us, so it's like a full band. Then it's like a ghostic a second like Whiskey nice too. Oh dude, well ship l A show up, show up? All right, you guys. I appreciate you both. Lots of love to you both, and uh to everybody listening, thank you for the time. And this was wrestling with Freddy. This has been a production

of I Hearts Michael podcast Network. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah,