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#Post#: 33580--------------------------------------------------
Chat with Matt Hardy. Talks TNA on POP, WWE & More
By: ChrissiCalvert Date: January 4, 2016, 3:39 pm
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When TNA Impact Wrestling makes its Pop TV debut on Tuesday,
Jan. 5, Matt Hardy will be an integral part of the Pop.
“I heard rumors there were a couple of networks that TNA was
talking with [at the time], and I knew [Pop] was one of the
networks in the running,” Hardy said. “I knew it was official
whenever TNA announced it.”
Hardy knew Pop, formerly the TV Guide channel.
“I followed Paragon Pro Wrestling out of Vegas on [Pop],” Hardy
said.
Paragon Pro Wrestling with Wes Brisco, Tyshaun Prince, Jessy
Sorenson, Alex Chamberlain, Gangrel, Darin Corbin and more aired
on Pop from July to November.
Hardy continued: “I try to be a student of the game. I try to
keep up with everything -- all wrestling across the board. I
want to know what the competition is doing, what the up-n-comers
are doing. So I was actually familiar with [Pop].”
After ending its time with Destination America, TNA President
Dixie Carter once again saved the company domestically by luring
Pop, a network with a bigger audience reach.
“[The deal] means a lot to me because TNA is going to continue
to have a home in America,” Hardy said. “We would have been OK,
in theory, if we would have just had our overseas programming,
but if you’re an American brand, you need to have American
television.
“So it was a big deal, and it’s important, and I really think
the Pop TV people understand and have a good grasp of what it
takes to make professional wrestling successful on their network
-- much better than the Destination America people did.
“I think Destination America just thought, ‘Wrestling is a very
popular sport/entertainment type industry. We can put it on our
network, and viewers are going to flock over and watch the
program, and it’s gonna make money.’
“That’s not it. There’s a lot more to it than that. It entails
much more, and I think the Pop TV people have a good grasp of
what it entails, and I think they’re really gonna stand behind
Impact Wrestling, the performers and management. I think we’re
going to work together, and it’s going to be a great group
effort to make this successful.”
Pop TV already began that effort by airing “Best of Impact
Wrestling 2015,” leading to its debut of Impact Wrestling on
Tuesday, Jan. 5.
“One of the most important things Impact Wrestling needs to do
to evolve -- or for that matter any wrestling promotion -- is
you have to take into consideration not just the casual fans but
also the smart fans. There’s so much information accessible to
everyone now because the Internet is so powerful; social media
is so powerful. You have to play off both of those. You have to
cater to two different fan bases.”
He noted: “You need original ideas. You don’t need rehashed
ideas. You don’t need to do the same thing in a different
capacity over and over again, because wrestling needs something
fresh, something original, something different. Me, personally,
that’s the direction I want to take. I’m certainly going to do
my damnedest to get some new original content and cross over
some unchartered waters that’s never been touched before.”
Hardy expanded further on the subject.
“I think it should be a challenge to each of us -- no matter
what your title is, whether you’re the head of talent relations,
a creative writer or a performer -- to do something new, to do
something different that’s never been seen before. I think
that’s what sparks major interest that brings a boom to your
product. Obviously, the whole Stone Cold Steve Austin [persona],
when he was the anti-hero, had never been done like that before.
It brought a huge boost to the business and the industry. The
nWo, when [Hulk] Hogan was a bad guy for the first time, was a
big deal. Even when Hogan started with the rock-n-wrestling era.
You need to be creative. You need to be different. Think outside
the box.
“It’s tricky now because it seems like everything has been done,
but it still hasn’t. So as artists and as creators, we have to
challenge ourselves to be even more creative now.”
The Internet and social media make it an even greater challenge.
“If you go on YouTube, you can pretty much watch any kind of
wrestling from any era,” Hardy said. “It’s unbelievable. It’s
incredible.
“As a performer, it helps us because fans are even able to go
back and watch the past. If you’re a new fan and all you know is
Matt Hardy is the guy who’s in a heated rivalry with EC3 on
Impact Wrestling, they can look back and learn all about the
Hardy Boyz and Team Xtreme, and they can see Jeff and I doing
the first-ever TLC matches, and they can know our history. They
can know Matt Hardy had this feud with Edge; Matt Hardy had this
feud with MVP. Then they can look past that, and they can see
older things. That makes it a little trickier from a creative
standpoint to come up with new ideas, because it seems like so
many things are rekindled.
“I’ll be honest. On WWE programming, I really feel like the bad
guy Authority figures have been overdone to death. My goal in
2016 is to do something that’s new, do something that’s fresh,
do something that hasn’t been done before.”
Hardy, 41, did something different in 2015. He not only won the
TNA world title on Oct. 4 at Bound for Glory in his home state
North Carolina, but he also became a dad.
“When I won the title, my newborn child [Maxel] was there, and
my beautiful wife [Rebecca Reby Sky Reyes] was there to
celebrate with me,” he said. “What I do now, I do for my family,
and that’s certainly going to be a big part of my motivation
going forward in 2016.”
What’s it like being a dad?
“It’s great,” he said. “It’s truly amazing. You really can’t
understand how amazing it is, until you actually experience it.
Once you have a small child who depends on you for every little
thing. You’re responsible for him. It’s a huge responsibility.
For me, it makes me into a more responsible person. A stricter
schedule...it makes me better, makes me want to be better.”
Family man, Hardy is also a solid company man, interested in the
present and future of TNA.
“Personally, I try to be very hands-on now, and it’s really
important to me to try to give back,” he said. “I was constantly
on the phone with my superiors, my bosses, and I had a pretty
good idea what was going on [with the TV deal process].
“I didn’t know exact details, but I was extremely confident they
were going to land back on TV.”
He added: “It’s good, and it’s also important, because the
wrestlers need Impact Wrestling to be successful. The fans need
Impact Wrestling to be successful. They need to thrive. They
need to roll. It’s important to keep the industry healthy right
now.”
Thanks to Carter, TNA enters its 16th year, quite an
accomplishment for any pro wrestling company.
“I like Dixie Carter as a person a lot. I think she’s great,”
Hardy said. “Every step of the way from when my wife was
pregnant to when my son, Maxel, was born, she was so supportive
and always checking in, text, calls. She’s very accessible and
very sincere as a person.
“As a business person, that’s different. I haven’t dealt with
her on that level as much. I think she has a lot of drive to be
great, and she’s trying to put all the right pieces in the right
places to get the correct formula to make TNA successful. We
have a good locker room. We have management and creative who are
open to ideas and are listening to feedback from the guys. I
think we can make a good run at this thing.”
Hardy is thinking future, too.
“I’m probably trying to work behind the scenes more than I
probably should be,” Hardy chuckled. “Every time I get an
opportunity, and I have an idea, I’ll put in a call to [TNA
Executive Vice President of Television Production/Director of
Talent Relations] Jon Gaburick or to the writers or creative,
and I’ll give my input on it.
“My good friend Shane Helms is an agent/producer, and he’s in on
the creative meetings, and we have a lot of interaction week to
week. There are a lot of new things and a lot of great ideas we
have that we put on the list to try and make [an impact] on
Impact Wrestling this year. I think it’s going to be great. I
think it’s going to be beneficial to the roster, to the
programming and most importantly to the fans. The more I can be
behind the scenes the better.”
- Social media
““I truly enjoy it.”
He continued: “When it comes to social media, it’s hard to get
to me, because I have few insecurities. I have weaknesses and
flaws. I know what they are, and I’m comfortable with them. I do
what I can do to make them better, but I’m truly comfortable in
my own skin.”
He added: “I really enjoy getting a reaction out of people who
are haters. They’re going to dislike Matt Hardy either A)
because of some event that has taken place in my personal life
or B) because I made my name in WWE and now I’m in TNA or C)
just because they don’t like the way I carry myself on Twitter.
“When it’s all said and done, Twitter is just words, and it’s
simply entertainment, and I love to treat someone who is like a
hater or coming at me as a troll, I love to treat them like a
keyboard and push their buttons and almost be a puppeteer and
turn them into my puppet. I really enjoy that. I almost find it
euphoric in some ways.”
“I have learned a lot about myself as time has gone on,” Hardy
said. “I come from a very small town [Cameron] in the middle of
North Carolina with a population of less than 300 people. I
wasn’t the most educated or the most emotional. Through good
times and bad, I’ve learned so much. Going through those tough
experiences really truly introduces you to who you are, and it
makes you learn to have resolve. Everything, whether it’s good
or bad, I use it as a learning tool. I really feel comfortable
with life, who I am. I know who I am. I totally understand that.
“Every day I get up, through my good experiences and bad, and I
just enjoy life to the maximum. I’ve done everything I’ve ever
wanted to do in life, so it’s been a great ride.”
TNA Impact Wrestling announced the semifinals and finals of the
World Title Series, a tournament-style competition to crown a
new undisputed World Champion, will occur during the live debut
of Impact Wrestling at 9 p.m. ET/PT Tuesday, Jan. 5 on Pop TV.
Thirty-two competitors entered the World Title Series. After
weeks of group round and single elimination round matches, four
Stars, each of whom has previously held the World Championship,
will compete to regain the gold.
The semifinals, which will kick-off the Jan. 5 live premiere,
will feature Matt Hardy against Eric Young, and Lashley squaring
off against Ethan Carter III (EC3). The winner of each match
will compete in the main event, where one man will become the
undisputed World Champion of Impact Wrestling.
“If you look at the final four guys, I think it’s a really great
combination of different talent from different places. You have
me who’s been doing this 23 years and received the validation of
being the man recognized as a global promotion’s world champion
at Bouind for Glory and then having it stripped away from me due
to the actions of EC3 getting a lawyer and an injunction.
“I think EC3 is one of the best characters to come down the pike
in quite some time, and I think he will probably go down as
being the greatest TNA homegrown talent there’s ever been, and
there’s a lot of great guys on that list.
“Bobby Lashley is a guy who is legitimate. He’s another version
of Brock Lesnar. He’s not quite as flamboyant or flashy as Brock
Lesnar, but he is the real deal, He’s as dangerous as they come.
He’s also an amazing athlete and an amazing professional
wrestler.
“EY, Eric Young, in my opinion I think he’s the best mic guy in
the business currently. I have a ton of respect for him. He’s
been there since day one, when they opened the doors, and that’s
just the very top of the iceberg.
“You have the Wolves, which is a great tag team. You have Bobby
Roode. X-Division guys. There’s a ton of talent from top to
bottom. Not only from a talent perspective but from an attitude
perspective it’s a great locker.”
Thousands of fans from around the world have made their picks of
who will become the next Champion by completing a bracket in the
World Title Series Bracket Brawl Sweepstakes for a chance to win
a trip to a future Impact Wrestling television event.
#Post#: 33598--------------------------------------------------
Re: Chat with Matt Hardy. Talks TNA on POP, WWE & More
By: enigma_angel27 Date: January 14, 2016, 4:32 pm
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Great interview with Matt Hardy,this interview has no filler
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