Matt Hardy Recalls Owen Hart Ribbing Him When They First Met

Having been wrestling for nearly 30 years now, Matt and Jeff Hardy are two of the few workers in AEW that can say they worked and rode with Owen Hart back during his peak in WWE. Thus, they have several fun stories to tell about some of the famous ribs Hart once pulled, which both Hardys proceeded to do in their return to "Talk is Jericho".

"One of my favorite Owen stories is the first time he ribbed me, so to say," Matt Hardy said. "Like I didn't know him, we were just extra. This is the fall of 1994, and I'm wrestling Owen in the Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. So we're there and he goes, 'Oh yeah, people really like the Hardy kids. They take good bumps for all the guys. I really want to highlight you in the match. I have an idea, but I want to make sure you master it, that you've got it down.' He said, 'Follow me.' We walk out into the concourse, and he has this big tarp like you'd use to cover up something if it's going to rain. A big plastic tarp.

"It's laid out... he said, 'Alright, let's just get down on all fours in the center. Let's pretend like this is the ring. Let's say I take you down. I want you to take off like you're trying to get to the ropes, but then I'll stop you before you get there. Then you'll go 90 degrees to your left and you try to get to the ropes there, and I'll stop you again. Then you go 90 degrees to the left, and we'll go to all four sides. It'll really be like you're resilient, and you'll look great at this.' I do it and we crawl, and he says, 'That was really good. Let's do it again.' I was like, 'God, this is going to hurt my knees.' ... We do it like four or five times, and then on the fifth time he's asking me to do it, I go, 'Dude, are you messing with me?' He says, 'Yes! What took you so long to catch on?!'"

Jeff Hardy, who recently competed in the Owen Hart Cup tournament, then proceeded to tell a story about the time Owen, along with Davey Boy Smith, ribbed the wrestler known as Hakushi, also known as Japanese wrestling legend Jinsei Shinzaki.

"Hakushi was riding with Owen and someone else," Jeff Hardy said. "They had the heat [up]. It was in the summer and hot as hell, and they had the heat wide open in the car. And they picked up a hitchhiker, like kind of just messing with him, right? He's in America now, he's in a new place. They picked up a hitchhiker and I forget where it went from there, but I was like, 'No way you guys were messing with him that much.' "

Matt Hardy then chimed in to add more information regarding the rib.

"They picked up a hitchhiker, and they got in there and apparently they turned the temperature up to 99 degrees," Matt Hardy said. "The hottest they could put it in the car. Hakushi was there and he was sweating, and the hitchhiker they picked up in the back, we said to him, 'You'll have to excuse our friend, he has a very rare disease. If it doesn't stay over 95 degrees, he'll get intensely sick.'

"And Hakushi can't understand any of this because he doesn't speak any English. And this hitchhiker is in the back, sweating his balls off, and Hakushi's up there going, 'Woo! No no, I need. I need [air].' And then the hitchhiker gets in and to pop themselves, Hakushi and this hitchhiker, they're sweating it out, and they're like playing them against one another, and they're ribbing themselves in the process! Just to get a good laugh."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription