Jeff Hardy Reveals What Made Him So Nervous With WWE Return At WrestleMania 33
After nearly an eight-year hiatus, the Hardy Boyz made their WWE return at WrestleMania 33 and captured the Raw Tag Team Titles in the process. It was a surprise appearance and Jeff Hardy talked with Lilian Garcia about why that moment is the favorite of his career.
"I was super nervous and in the distance we can here the 'DELETE' chants because we had started that whole thing in TNA with the Broken Universe. It had gotten really big, and the 'DELETE' chants had gotten really big, there was about 70,000 people so we thought, wow, it's going to happen," said Hardy. "That whole month of March leading up to that night was extremely stressful because it was hard holding our secret, which can be hard during this day and time. But we worked for Ring of Honor that whole month, and the night before that we had a crazy ladder match with the Young Bucks where they won the titles from us.
"We had done a five hour appearance leading up to WrestleMania telling everybody that we were going to catch the first flight to Raleigh, North Carolina after the [ROH] event. Then after all of that was over and coming through that curtain it happened finally. It is my favorite moment of my career. People ask me that; the swanton, the ladder matches, but that moment was my favorite."
The defining moment of that WrestleMania match was Jeff Hardy performing the swanton bomb off a ladder. It's not the kind of move you can really practice beforehand so Hardy mentioned the nerves he had performing that move for the first time in years.
"I think for me, not jumping off of a 14 foot ladder since SummerSlam in 2009 I think against CM Punk so I was kind of nervous, and I was worried whether or not something was going to go wrong," Hardy admitted. "Was I going to be alright? After we went through the curtain everything went back to normal it was crazy. I knew that this was what I was born to do and that rush of climbing up to the ladder and looking at the crowd and doing my hand sign, it's like succeeding in a big motocross jump and when you survive it and don't get very seriously injured.
"I think that was what I was most nervous about because it had been a long time since I jumped from that high of a ladder. I just wanted everything to be as close to perfect as possible during that match. We were out there Wednesday before and came in really early secretly and met with those guys and so we had it down when that bell rung, so yeah, I was just glad it was over after it was over."
Shortly after executing that move, Matt Hardy would climb the ladder and capture the Tag Titles. It was the first Raw Tag Team Championship won by the Hardy Boyz and the eighth overall tag titles that Jeff claimed with his brother.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.