Matt Hardy Talks His Goal In WWE Using Different Characters
WWE superstar and one-half of the legendary "The Hardy Boyz" tag team, Matt Hardy, sat down with Inside The Ropes to discuss the character changes that he's gone through in WWE and other pro wrestling promotions during his career. Hardy's goal moving forward is to stay a singles competitor and use his varying character gimmicks to keep the viewers interested.
"I think what I would like to do is, obviously, go back on TV as Matt Hardy in a singles capacity," Matt explained. "While I've been off, I've realized that you have to stay relevant, you have to keep people talking about you. I've been doing a series, the 'you don't understand how hard it is to be Matt Hardy' series. And I explained this a little earlier today, my whole inspiration behind that is social media is a weird, tricky thing. The greatest thing about social media is it gives everyone a voice; the worst thing about social media is it gives everyone a voice, you know? And people will complain about anything even if their situation isn't that bad, so that was the whole inspiration behind 'you don't understand how hard it is to be Matt Hardy'. You have this guy that has a pretty kick-ass life and is doing this but there is like a snag in this day or a snag in his day and, of course, that's the point he's going to b—h about and complain about. So, that was my whole motivation."
Matt revealed that he's determined to incorporate his "Version 1" character from 2002 into his character in present day WWE. Apart from his gimmicks of the past, Hardy has also been brainstorming new personas to introduce to the WWE universe when the time is right.
"But I would love to do something to transition to that on to TV, into another character, and into another character, and then ultimately get back to doing 'Broken' Matt Hardy. I would like to incorporate V1 at some point because I feel like people bereave the Matt facts and the entrance music," Matt said. "I do to a degree, so that's something in my game-plan. But there's also new stuff, I have a couple of other new things in the back of my mind, too, that I would like to utilize. But I would like to be this crazy, constant stream of change character on television, and almost like you said, when I use that would 'multifarious' earlier on, like someone who has all of these identities in his body, within his mind... I would love to do something like that because I feel like as entertainment changes, and especially professional wrestling, you can't be the same thing for too long. People's attention's spans are so short, there has to be a constant, gradual change going on at some point."
Matt acknowledges that he is getting older and doesn't have the same athletic abilities that he once had, but who can blame a legend that has spent nearly three decades and his entire adult life in the squared circle? Hardy is focused on raising the entertainment factor up with his performances as the athleticism starts to dwindle.
"I am much higher in the entertainment column than I am in the athleticism column right now," Matt explained. "I'm still physically good enough that I can hold down that end of the deal, but I need to be more entertainment driven than athletic driven."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Inside The Ropes with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.