Vince McMahon Wanted Matt Hardy To Cut Promos From Unique Location
When Matt Hardy came back to WWE with his brother Jeff at WrestleMania 33, the Hardy Boyz had just established "The Broken Universe" and were becoming one of the most talked-about acts in the wrestling business. With all the hype surrounding "Broken Matt Hardy," many fans were in fear of what WWE would do with the character, and from day one, it was clear the character would be undergoing several changes.
Just before they got to WWE, Matt and Jeff started declaring themselves as "The Greatest Tag Team In All Of Space And Time." The Hardys started to collect tag team titles across several different promotions, leading to their WWE return where they captured the "Raw" Tag Team Championships.
During the latest episode of "The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy," the AEW Superstar detailed his initial talks with Vince McMahon about his new persona, revealing a funny thing McMahon kept fixated on while Matt was describing his "Broken Universe" and "Space and Time" to the WWE CEO.
"I was saying 'We're the greatest tag team in space and time,' and I tried to create a different venue for myself, it wasn't just normal wrestling, this thing was out of the wrestling venue and the more remote locations I shoot things the better it feels. Being in the ring and having regular wrestling matches are more attractions and special times, I feel that's how this character is most successful if you want to get the most out of it. You let him entertain in these remote locations. Space and time is the concept I've attached to it in the lure.
"He goes 'Oh, space and time? So this character he would do promos in a planetarium?' I said 'Well, I don't know...' [Vince said] 'Space and time sounds good, maybe a promo in a planetarium?' I said 'Oh, well, maybe, I feel like there could be a good difference if Abigail touched me, brings out the light in me and that's darkness and it's the basic concept of good vs. evil, light and dark, that's a good play on it.' [Vince said again] 'So you think we can do promos in a planetarium?' He hit me with that three or four times, I'll never forget man, it was so funny."
The former WWE superstar also detailed how crazy Vince had thought he was during the 30-minute conversation they had about the character, saying Vince looked at him like he was a lunatic.
"I could see when I said [Broken Matt] can communicate with other animals he was [thinking to himself] 'Oh god, like maybe I do need to drug test him right now,' such a wild experience," Hardy said. "We're just having a conversation, sitting across from one another on his couch. He's going 'Do you think this character would do a promo in planetariums?' That was a recurring theme in there. So anyway, we talk about it and it's like 32 minutes we were in there, I really tried to explain things. I have a great appreciation for Vince because he sat back and listened to all of it, he seemed open to all of it, half the time he looked at me like I was a f*cking raving lunatic but he was, he listened to every single minute of it."
After that meeting, Hardy established "Woken Matt Hardy" with the WWE, leading to a feud with Bray Wyatt, WWE's version of "The Ultimate Deletion" and then a partnership with Wyatt as "The Deleters of Worlds." Hardy has recently stated he'd like to bring back "The Broken Universe" for a TV or streaming series.
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.