Matt Hardy Discusses Tony Khan’s Mistake With Satnam Singh AEW Debut
AEW superstar Matt Hardy spoke on the latest episode of his podcast, The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, about the recent debut of former basketball player Satnam Singh.
A few weeks ago, Singh debuted at the end of a Wednesday night Dynamite where Samoa Joe defeated Minoru Suzuki to become ROH TV Champion, laying out Joe and aligning with Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt. Many criticized the debut when the lights went out and Satnam appeared.
Talking about Satnam's debut, Tony Khan mentioned that he made a mistake having the lights go out, signifying that a major star was appearing to confront Joe. Matt Hardy spoke about Khan's ability to admit a mistake publicly and why he also believes AEW made a mistake having Singh debut in that manner.
"I totally understand why this guy debuted in the spot that he did," Hardy said. "We obviously have a big budding television deal coming up in India and he's going to play into that. And I get the ramifications for debuting him and wanting to use him and highlight him, it's a big deal. The use of turning the lights out and then turning them back on, if you do that, it builds anticipation with the fans and I feel like it has to be a known star. It's got to be someone when the lights come on they're like, 'oh my god, it's him!' Sabu was so famous for doing that in ECW all the time but whenever you turn off the lights, there's automatically anticipation from the crowd.
"Like, oh my god, who are we going to see, who are we going to see, it's going to be a surprise, it's going to be great. It needs to be someone that immediately when the crowd sees them, they know who it is. Like, oh my god, this is great, Samoa Joe is here or Jeff Hardy is here — whoever it is. I feel like that was definitely the reason why they should've brought him out in a different way. But it is what it is, we live and we learn. We all make mistakes and Tony Khan, once again, three years in, it is what it is. He is trying his hardest and his best, and I love the fact that he was very accountable for it and he owned it.
Also on the podcast, Matt Hardy spoke about the narrative surrounding several tag teams over the years having their own version of "Marty Jannetty," referring to a partner who is an outcast after his team is broken up. Although Jeff had the bigger singles career with WWE as the WWE Champion, Hardy spoke about this notion and revealed why it doesn't work for The Hardy Boyz or himself because he's made more money over his career than his brother Jeff has.
"No, not at all," Hardy said. "I don't know, people go to that so quick, they would go to that with like me, or Christian, or Devon or whatever, but like, there's no comparison. There's just no comparison in the big scheme of things. I get it, that was the first case where you had a tag team that people liked and then they split up, and you had one guy that extremely succeeded and then the other guy did a little bit but then [faded away]. That hadn't been the case with any of us.
"People love to throw those terms, especially people that are just negative or don't really like you, that's one of the first terms they'll go to. I don't even think about wrestling as much in terms of how successful your character is or how many trophies or titles you've won, I think of it now like a business and it's all about the money you'll make. It's a business at the end of the day, you can't forget that.
"There've been years where Jeff didn't work where I still had like these big salaries and big years. I'm very proud of what I've done as a business person in this business, I almost think of it in that capacity because that's how you should think about it. When people get too wrapped up in how over they are and winning a championship, sometimes that's a dangerous territory where you get lost in yourself.
"You have to remember at the end of the day that this is a business and you can only do it for a finite amount of time, and have to make as much money as you possibly can. Especially when you reach out and call me Marty Jannetty in terms of that, it's like, I've made more money than Jeff has in the big scheme of things just because my run has been more consistent — even though he's been historically more popular and always will. If people come my way with that, it's fine, but it's a very silly reference and it doesn't work, there's no logic or psychology behind it in the big scheme of things."
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.