Matt Hardy Comments On Joe Hendry's WWE WrestleMania Match, Women's Title Three-Way

A month removed, WWE WrestleMania 41 still remains a hot topic of discussion. TNA Wrestling's Matt Hardy previously described the two-night premium live event as "solid," with a few notable standout performances. One of the highlights in Hardy's eyes involved his current TNA colleague Joe Hendry, who stepped up to answer Randy Orton's open challenge on night two. While brief, Hardy believes the match between Orton and Hendry greatly elevated the latter and TNA.

"I think having [Hendry] on WrestleMania was huge for the TNA brand in general," Hardy said on "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy." "I think there's so many people that miss the whole point of him appearing verse Randy Orton. The match was irrelevant at the end of the day. The only people that are worried about that are the die-hards, the sickos. You have the TNA World Champion have a match against Randy Orton, a legit legend, one of the greatest of all time. Everybody was highlighted. Everybody got their stuff."

"It's helped TNA. I can tell from the boom in business. I can tell just because we were doing the meet and greets at Rebellion and after that Joe Hendry was there much later in the night than he was previously ... That helped his popularity. I could even feel out in front of a crowd as well, like him doing this NXT thing is only going to be beneficial for him as well."

At WrestleMania, Orton defeated Hendry, the TNA World Champion, in just over three minutes, courtesy of an RKO. In the weeks following, Hendry returned to the "NXT" brand, with Trick Williams calling for a shot at his championship. Looking ahead, reports say that Hendry is considered a "lock" to sign with WWE following the eventual expiration of his TNA contract.

For Hardy, another WrestleMania 41 highlight can be found in the night two opener, which pitted WWE Women's World Champion IYO SKY against Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair. SKY ultimately retained her title after breaking up Belair's pinfall attempt on Ripley with an Over The Moonsault.

"It was excellent in every capacity," Hardy said of the triple threat bout. "I love the fact that they went out and a lot of people criticized how they got to the match because they didn't have weeks of solid storytelling, building a story with these three people getting in there, and having this strong competitive match and whatnot. They went out there and killed it. Their match was excellent. IYO killed it, Bianca killed it, and Rhea killed it. It was just such an excellent match. It was one of the better three-way matches you'll see with the inclusion of all three people in there doing spots that utilize each other."

Like Hardy, a number of fans and pundits have praised the championship match between SKY, Belair, and Ripley. WWE Hall of Famer "Stone Cold" Steve Austin personally commended SKY backstage in the moments following her WrestleMania victory, with SKY latter describing their encounter as surreal.

In the weeks following the grand event, SKY has kept her momentum rolling with wins on "WWE Raw" and "WWE NXT." Meanwhile, Ripley has qualified for the 2025 Women's Money in the Bank ladder match. Belair, on the other hand, is now out of action after suffering a finger injury.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.