Featured Article: Matt Hardy

This article and main picture was taken from WWFHardys.com. 

Matt Hardy talks to WWFHardys.com

The staff at WWFHardys.com recently had the opportunity to speak with Matt about numerous topics. In addition to answering the following questions, Matt also commented that he and his brother are very excited about providing their own commentaries for the site. The high flying duo also asked if they could provide photos of themselves from their younger years. WWFHardys.com graciously accepted the offer. Look for these additions very soon.

Q: How were you originally approached about a job with the WWF?

Matt: The first time that a future in the Federation was presented was in Roanoke, VA. Jeff and I had been on the show the day before in Fayetteville, and I rode up to the Tuesday taping with Steve Corino. J.R. pulled me to the side and said, "If you and your brother get any offers to work anywhere, give me a call first.  We have a couple of ideas about doing something with you guys. So before you sign anything, let us offer you something." Jeff and I worked a couple more TV tapings, and in April of '98, J.R. asked Jeff and I to come to the next day's taping in Richmond, VA, even though we weren't booked. That day he and Bruce Prichard spoke with us and offered us developmental contracts. The contracts were for 3 years and $300 dollars a week. They were the lowest contracts the WWF offered but Jeff and I felt like we had just signed for millions. Needless to say, this was a dream come true.

Q: What were your thoughts at the time?

Matt: I just wanted to get an opportunity to prove ourselves as good wrestlers and secure a "spot" in the WWF. I was happy everyday I woke up, and was training in the gym and ring the hardest I ever had.

Q: Did you expect to make an immediate impact?

Matt: Honestly, I didn't know what to expect.  I knew that I wouldn't make a big impact in the effect that I was a big star coming in from WCW or ECW. I was just a guy who they thought had a lot of potential.  A lot of the WWF fans recognized Jeff and I from doing TV jobs. I figured the WWF would have us shave our heads or wear masks, or at least change our image and names. But they didn't. We started on TV in September of '98 just as we had last been seen--The Hardy Boyz. After being destroyed on TV for the last couple of years, that made it hard to make an immediate impact. I was bound and determined to one day make an impact.

Q: Did you ever think you would never make it?

Matt: There was never a doubt in my mind that we wouldn't make it back then because we always showed improvement. We continued to get better, and I think that people were taking note of that.

Q: When would you say you really felt like you made it?

Matt: The first signs of making it was when they put us with Michael Hayes and we reinvented our image. We knew that the WWF was giving us an opportunity so we were gonna make the best of it. Even though we had already won the WWF Tag Team Titles, the ladder match was when we knew we had made it. At No Mercy '99, the ladder match was the fifth and deciding match of the Terri Invitational Tournament, which had been catching a lot of people's eyes up to this point. What we did that night in the tag team ladder match was historic and can never be duplicated or re-lived. We set a monument in the wrestling business and cemented our spot in the WWF. I like to say that it's the point where we went from being WWF wrestlers to WWF superstars.

Q: How did it feel to win the WWF Tag Team Championship the first time?

Matt: When we found out the the WWF had the faith in us to be recognized as their champions to gain a little credibility, it was definitely an indescribable feeling. I actually couldn't believe it first. I had to keep reminding myself, "I'm one of the WWF Tag Team Champions." I always took the belt with me to lunch, I slept with it in my bed, it went everywhere I went. To say I was proud would be a huge understatement. I'm not just someone who stumbled into wrestling because I'm a genetic freak or a former professional athlete--I was a kid who was living out my dream to be a wrestler. Not many people get to do that, and I cherish everyday I have that opportunity.

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