Broken Matt Hardy finally surfaced on this week’s AEW Dynamite and it’s safe to say that it was WONDERFUL.
Hardy will now participate in a match alongside The Elite against the Inner Circle at Blood & Guts in his AEW in-ring debut. However, before that, Hardy sat down with one of his opponents come Blood & Guts – Chris Jericho to record a great edition of Talk is Jericho.
Hardy appeared on the podcast and candidly talked about what led to his departure from the WWE and why nothing worked out between them.
Hardy stated that he was very clear in letting WWE know that he wished to be used in a prominent capacity on TV. However, Vince never saw that for him and decided to go the other way.
I pitched idea after idea after idea after idea to WWE and just like, on my own, just never got any feedback. I would hear a little chatter [and] a little chatter there but there wasn’t anything that like stuck or anything that sparked any kind of creative fire in Vince’s mind. And you know, it became frustrating.
And then they were just trying to re-sign me now at this point, just to have me under contract so I was a WWE property. And like, I kept turning down money, which was good money. But I wanted to be in a prominent role on Television and I don’t think Vince saw that for me.
Hardy then went on to talk about his final two segments with Randy Orton on RAW that drew great ratings. He said that although this happened, he still had made up his mind about his departure.
He also stated that he wanted a dialogue with Vince wherein he’d receive creative assurance from the boss himself.
And then even right towards the end, when I did that stuff with Randy – that was supposed to my write-off and it did some great ratings. And I did that and they brought it back the next week, you know, and we end up doing two. And that week, in the production meeting, we were going to have a two-segment match that was going to end RAW.
I had already pretty much made up my mind, I was going at this point. Even though they had actively tried to sign me, I couldn’t like have any kind of creative assurances and that’s what I wanted at this point. I wanted like, a dialouge with Vince, like ‘hey, I need to know that you have my back and you’re going to like, protect my creative interest.’
Hardy then recalled the production meeting with Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman before his final appearance on RAW. He talked about how McMahon canceled his two-segment match with Orton because he’d learned that Matt’s leaving.
So that day in the production meeting Vince is like, “I don’t think we should have this match because I think Matt’s leaving, I don’t think he’s gonna stay, I don’t think he’s sign, I think he’s leaving.”
And I remember Paul Heyman grabbing me and [asking], “are you leaving?” and I said I don’t know. I said if there’s nothing for me to do here, I can go elsewhere and be utilized in a better way and that’s what’s important to me here towards the end of my career.
What a weird day, it was like I was very honest and open with everyone. I told everyone from Vince to all the way down [about] what I wanted and like what I expected if I was gonna stay around. And once we weren’t on the same page, I said okay, well, thank you guys very much I’ll just go my own way.”
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