AEW's Matt Hardy Taken Aback By Jim Cornette's Mentality: 'Who Thinks Like That?'
Jim Cornette is one of the most controversial figures in wrestling, with his old-school beliefs about the sport often clashing with its modern reality. While many are quick to defend Jim and his opinions, Matt Hardy recently fired back against Cornette's conduct on Twitter before following up his sentiment on a recent episode of "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy."
Before addressing Cornette directly, the elder Hardy brother discussed his feelings about figures in wrestling holding grudges and consistently promoting negativity in recent years. "Life is too precious to waste your time on the petty stuff," Hardy began. He continued, "Life is too short to be negative. To hold some sort of a resentment or some sort of grudge or a vendetta against someone, I don't have time for any of that."
Hardy then directly spoke about Cornette from the perspective of someone who has had positive interactions with him in the past. "I always got along great with him and I had a great [deal of] respect for him," Hardy said. Hardy commended Cornette on his speaking talents before explaining how that respect went away saying, "Jim Cornette had the audacity to say, 'Because Matt Hardy and Chris Jericho were involved in the Stadium Stampede match I can no longer be their friends.'"
Matt took great offense to this statement from Cornette, noting, "Is this real life? Who says that? Who thinks like that?"
He can't evolve, change, and adapt with pro wrestling
Hardy's discussion about Jim Cornette also touched on the former wrestling manager's captivating rhetoric and just how compelling he is to his base. "I understand why people like him; I understand why people are drawn to him," Hardy admitted before noting just how much Cornette has captivated a section of wrestling fans.
"He is like one of those cult leader people ... The Cornette Cult is quite the appropriate name for his followers," Hardy added.
Ultimately, the AEW star chalks up Cornette's negativity to a failure to progress alongside the wrestling world and instead rebelling and profiting off negativity. "Jim Cornette has got his schtick to do ... he's not a hot commodity," Hardy said. He added, "His whole bit is going in there and hate-watching AEW and saying all the negative things he can to feed all his Cult of Cornette followers ... this hatred and this negativity."
Ultimately, the AEW star chalks up Cornette's negativity to a failure to progress alongside the wrestling world. "He can't evolve, and change, and adapt with pro wrestling," Hardy concluded.
Matt Hardy's involvement in the more peculiar side of pro wrestling has rubbed Cornette the wrong way despite it being some of Hardy's proudest work. Beyond just the Stadium Stampede that both Hardy and Jericho take a lot of pride in, Matt's Broken Universe is well-known for turning traditional wrestling storytelling up on its head.