Matt Hardy Interview 28.2.2011
Posted by David Damage on Thursday, November 17, 2011
Under: Interview
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Matt Hardy on being in TNA: "It’s been great. For me it’s really
revitalized my love and passion of the business. I didn’t realize like
the last six or eight months I was with WWE that actually that
uncomfortable, miserable and unhappy I was going into work. That’s not a
shot against WWE. I mean WWE is a phenomenal, great, company. They
[WWE] did so many great things for me. They made me a star. I wouldn’t
be sitting here with you right now if it weren’t for them. I’m grateful
to everyone there who’s you know done so many good things for me and
allowed me to have the great living that I have. It just came to a point
where there were several different circumstances that kind of came into
play. It was just time for me to move on and do something different."
Matt Hardy on "Cold Blood" and his conditioning: "No this all mine
[Creation of Cold Blood Character]. It’s very similar to the ‘Mattitude’
version, one thing that was all mine too. Both of those drew from real
life. You know ‘Cold Blood’ actually comes from just my theories
like…about a year and a half ago whenever I had my abdominal injuries I
just remember getting into my surgery and the surgeon actually told me
‘Well I know you love wrestling and you’ve pretty much done it for your
entire adult life, but you might not be able to wrestle after this.’
That was a pretty hard pill to swallow. I was going ‘Wow. I didn’t know
it was this bad.’
Even after I had that surgery I found out I
had intestinal issues where almost like you have a water hose and you
can’t get water through the hose. I have two spots, almost three, two
and half I guess in my intestines. I had to change my diet. I had to
completely re-invent it actually steak is something I can’t eat at all. I
never eat steak and I hate that because I eat steak all the time. Red
meat is out. Between that and I felt like you know a lot of my fans that
had always supported me, which were the hardcore fans, earn it fans.
They definitely didn’t mind making fun of me because of injuries or
because my pants looked different, which wasn’t terribly drastic. Which
is funny because compared to a normal person it’s not really anything in
the scheme of things.
Actually when I started with TNA I knew I
would never have three or four months off again, so I tried to do all
good to gain size and than I was just going to die down. I will continue
to get in better shape because now I know what I can put into my body
and what I can’t. That was kind of scary. That was a whole new thing in
life to kind of figure out, so there’s like little things I can’t eat
and some things I can, but between that and when Jeff showed up on that
January 4 show, when they did the Monday impact you know I got a call
from Johnny Ace.
"Matt. What’s going on?’ I don’t know Johnny.
He said, ‘Is Jeff showing up there? How could you let him do this?’ I
mean I’m not him like you know I kept getting phone calls saying ‘Is he
there? What’s he doing?’ Ever since that day on Jeff didn’t have
intentions of signing with TNA. You know I think Jeff was rubbed wrong
by how they…you know they had Dr.Sampon [WWE] go out and mention his
legal situation. I think from that point on he was rubbed the wrong way
by WWE and he got an awesome deal to go there and he’s real happy to go
there because the schedule is so much more laid back. Also the
environment is laid back, but between Jeff going and just like you know I
was working so much. I just couldn’t get time off. I couldn’t get my
body right. I couldn’t get my mind right. I ended up just being unhappy.
"I needed a change and TNA became that change for me. That’s where
‘Cold Blooded’ came from because I’m always the guy you know like people
always say ‘Do you see the glass half full or half empty?’ I always go
‘Well it’s half full.’ Actually I always say ‘It’s like two-thirds
full.’ You know more than half-full because I’ve had a great life. I
have nothing to complain about and I’m happy you know pretty much every
day of my life.
"It’s one of those things like I drew from
those bad experiences, from my last few months in WWE for how some of
the hard-core fans treated me to how I felt was pretty unfair
considering there were a lot of things out of my control like physical
issues. Sacrifices I made like throwing myself off three-foot ladders,
through tables, for twelve/thirteen years. You know that does make you
‘Cold Blooded’ to a degree, so that’s actually where all that’s drawn
from. I wanted to build on it as time goes. The character is really in
it’s beginning stages. It’s in 101 now. I have a lot of really cool
ideas going forward."
Matt Hardy on John Cena’s promo on Raw in
response to The Rock: Umm I actually caught the highlights back on
YouTube. Actually thought that’s something John’s needed for a while. He
just kind of needed an edge because the ‘PG thing’ is one thing that I
think TNA they have an advantage over WWE it’s like I don’t think they
have to go crazy as far as bleeding or swearing or sex, violence,
whatever. It’s nice they don’t have a super tight parameter to be in and
all these boundaries.
"For the longest time John would come on
and go ‘Yeah and all this PG and all this PG.’ It’s just like I think
pushing your audience, like the 18-to-34 you’re looking for out the
door, it’s like I don’t want to hear that and for John to have that
little edge again. I think that was important. He needed that you know.
They’re not in the grand scheme of things [WWE targeting an 18-to-34
audience], but when it comes down to advertising bucks and the
demographics. That’s the demographics that make money. In the big scheme
of things that’s what it’s all about."
Matt Hardy on his
supposed heat backstage (for commenting on Twitter about being
responsible for ratings boost in TNA): "God I love the Internet. No I
mean obviously sure it’s ‘tongue-in-cheek.’ Even I don’t have the
popularity of Jeff, but still as I wrestle as a heell like when I go out
it’s a baby faced reaction. I really have to work hard and bust it to
get the crowd to turn against me, but that’s my whole goal.
"Even on Twitter I’ve played on those things, obviously I would never
come out and say those things in a serious light. That’s just like
saying if I cut a promo on TV obviously I’m going to say stuff that’s
full of stuff that is trash you know. It’s the same thing on Twitter I
incorporate things here, there or whatever. People that are intelligent
much like yourself like you said it was ‘tongue-in-cheek,’ they know the
difference. It’s supposed to be entertaining to a degree."
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