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August 4, 2025 11 mins
Matt Hardy opens up about TNA’s creative revival, rekindling the legendary feud with the Dudley's ahead of Bound for Glory, and the emotional ride of losing and regaining the tag team titles with Jeff Hardy. Matt shares insights into their evolving mindset, physical upkeep in their fifth decade, and the Hardys' return to the indie scene. No retirement plans—just pure passion. Don’t miss this deep dive into the present and future of The Hardy Boyz.
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
You playing and exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Around pot stop it. What's up you guys? Welcome back
into Iheartradia's official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast. And man,
what a time it is to be alive to be
a wrestling fan, for sure, especially after everything that has

(00:35):
been buzzing around TNA recently. And joining us on the
show today is somebody who's not a stranger to this show.
Give it up for Matt Hardy joining us. Matt, thanks
taking the time and being here with us today.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
You got it, man, Thank you for having me. Man
excited to get on here and and talk shop with you.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
For a bit, absolutely for sure, So let's just jump
right into it. You and Jeff have spoken about feeling
new and fresh about TNA's recent research ur and of
course all of us fans have been noticing it as well.
What's changed behind the scenes mentally or creatively that's reignited
that spark?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I mean, I just think all the stars have aligned
in the right ways. You have the right guys in
charge doing creative Tommy Dramer, I have to take my
head off to him. He's been fantastic. Also, Hunter Johnson delirious.
He's been fantastic to work with two And they're they're
really letting guys. They're putting guys in positions to succeed

(01:29):
and doing smart booking, and we're doing you know, standard
pro wrestling what it is, and that's what we're focusing on,
telling stories. You know, we just went into Slammiversary where
myself and Jeff we kind of question ourselves and we
put a do or die situation in scenario on it,
where like, if we don't win, maybe it's time for
us a step away. But you know, we're able to
pull through and we're able to become the four time

(01:49):
TNA World Tag Team Champions, fifteen time World Tag Team
Champions all together. I just think that these guys putting,
you know, an igl like myself and Jeff where we
didn't really necessarily get this opportunity in aw but putting
us in a position to succeed and let us be
us and play our own music. Man, you got something
because we've been loved for over three decades now. You know,
we've been on TV for twenty seven years straight. It's wild,

(02:11):
you know, you let us just go do our thing man,
and it's gonna be a positive.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, absolutely for sure. And I want to go back
a little bit a few months ago. We had you
and Jeff here on the show and we put this
out in the universe, a what if we could ever
get a Hardy Boys and Dudley Boys final match, and
of course that set the internet on fire. You responded,
then Bubba's responded, and well, months later, let's fast forward

(02:37):
to it Slammiversary, Bubba Ray Dudley came out called out
you and Jeff for that final match between Team three
D and the Hardy's. We're getting it at Bound for Glory.
Of course, fans are losing it right now because of
this match. Walk me through what that combo was like
backstage and what would it mean to put that rivalry

(02:57):
to rest one last time after you've been doing this
for twenty six years with them?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Well, walking through this, there was no kindo backstage. So
Bubba had showed up later in that day and I
think he was hitting a room whatever. I just knew
from Tommy Dreamer that he would be coming out at
the end, and I thought it was gonna be about
ninety seconds.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
It was a little bit longer.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I think but Bubba was gonna come out and throw
the challenge out for you know, bound for glory and
see if would be you know, for accepting it, which
obviously he knew he would. And then after we finished
and he left and went to the back and we celebrated.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
A little more.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
When I went to the back, he was already gone.
So that was I didn't have any interaction with him.
And I think he did that by design, just to
try and make all the reactions be as genuine as possible.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
And one thing that I love about this is, you know,
you get to you said, you've been doing this for
so long. A lot of generations are getting to see
what this rivalry was and is between the Dudley's and
the Hardy Boys, because I mean, I remember growing up
watching this. It was the dudley it was Hearty's, it
was Edging Christian. My oldest kid was able to watch this.

(04:05):
Now my youngest kid is able to watch this rivalry.
Put that into terms for the fans, like, how does
it fail to bust out this rivalry one last time?

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean, I'll be honest, I know, you know, Bubba
has still been actively competing a little bit Devine has
not in a while, you know, he's had some health issues.
I had no idea where he stood, if he could
get back in the ring, if he would be okay,
if he'd be cleared h And apparently, according according to
Bubba and and and and those guys, he is. So
I I think I kind of almost came to the

(04:39):
conclusion that probably wasn't gonna happen just because these guys,
you know, because Debone wasn't healthy enough. But now that
it is, it's it's really cool, and I want to
make it as special as possible. And I feel like
this match, we want to celebrate the legacy of everything
we've done, you know, for all these decades, especially looking
back at that one night, the night that we had
the tag team Tables match in Madison Square Garden and

(04:59):
ja anyway of two thousand man, like we we we
did a type of match that no one had ever
seen in w B. Like it was a car crash
and non stop.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Boom boom boom, boom boom, you know, just full of
full of bombs.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
And uh, you know, we're we're we're probably not going
to go that all out again, but we are going
to uh surprise a lot of people. I think we
were going to definitely exceed expectations, and I think it's
going to be a very smart match that we put together.
I think it's gonna be I think it's gonna be excellent.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Though. Super excited to see that that that final match
at Bound for Glory coming up here in October. Uh,
you know, I want to go back because at Rebellion,
you and Jeff and I just kind of ripped the
band aid off. You and Jeff lost the tag titles
to Nick and Ryan Nemath. Then you won them back
in an amazing ladder match at Slammiversary in front of
Tena's biggest crowd to date. How did that rollercoaster of

(05:49):
defining moments shape your mindset? It was, Uh.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
I enjoyed that journey. So we we we told a
little bit of a story like after we lost the
titles and THEMNUS, we said, sure they cheated, but we
we shouldn't have any kind of excuse if we're still
the greatest tag team, you know, if we're still on
top of our.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Game, like no one should be able to beat us.
We should be that good.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
And then we kind of questioned ourselves because we took
a few more losses in between Rebellion and Slammiversary, and
then we kind of made Slammiversary a do or die
situation for us where we said, hey, we need to
really push ourselves on this, like, if we can't go
in here and win these tag team titles back for
a fourth time, if we can't prove that we're still
on top of our game, like we don't want to
come out here and be a shell of ourselves, you know,

(06:33):
then maybe it is time for us to step away
and go into the TNA Hall of Fame, go into
the w B Hall of Fame, whatever else. So I
thought it was a pretty compelling story going into the match,
and then once we got to the match man, we
showed off.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Absolutely, And it was definitely a fun that match for sure,
because it was like watching that ladder match and then
Jeff pointing up and then we just have the ladder
drop from the ceiling and I was like, what is
about to happen here?

Speaker 3 (06:58):
It was incredible.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
And somebody else on that card that you guys have
taken him under your wing. We recently had Leon Slater
on and he had high praises for you and Jeff
for you know, being that mentor for him in TNA.
What has made Leon the choice for you guys to say, hey,
you know what, Leon Slater, come over here under our wing.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
We've got you.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
I mean, Leon reminds us both of you know, our
younger selves in so many ways. He's the guy who
he's got a great attitude, he is open to criticism,
he is ready and willing to listen, and he's spectacular.
I mean, he can do all of these amazing cool things.
But he also gets the fact that you still need
to be physicality. You know, you still need to be physical.

(07:41):
There needs to be a certain level of physicality in
your matches as well.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
So do he.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
He absorbs stuff just like a sponge. So he has
been an absolute honor to work with. Man he is
he is going to be a huge, huge toy if
he can stay healthy, no doubt about it. And I
think he could be the guy, the pillar, a guy
who carries TNA for years to come.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
You know you've said that you and Jeff aren't putting
a retirement timeline on your careers. Instead, you're letting your
bodies and you know, daily rituals like ice bass guide
you how is that physical upkeep kept you evolving as
you push into another amazing year of your career.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
I mean, we use we make it paramount to take
care of ourselves, you know, whether it be an ice bath,
whether it be our training or cardio, whatever it may be.
We make taking care of ourselves and staying healthy paramount,
so that that's what we've been doing.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
And we love this.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
We're both passionate. We're in an amazing hot period right now.
So jeff and I man, we're gonna we're gonna ride
the spiral field.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Ins right and talking about what's great about wrestling right
now in TNA. You see, TNA has this this open
door with everybody with WWE and everywhere else. And you
know the great thing about TNA is they play well
with others. And one of the things that a lot
of peop we'll kind of been talking about as you
and Jeffer going to Game Changing Wrestling and you're gonna

(09:04):
be at the Hit Them Up Show, what do independent
resurgences like that mean for you guys right now?

Speaker 3 (09:12):
It's nice. It just kind of adds to what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
And I think that's the very special thing about t
and A is like we can do outside ventures. You know,
you're not just limited to just TNA and TNA exclusively.
So we do a ton of cons, we do a
ton of signings. We're gonna be at wrestle Con this weekend.
We're popping into the GCW show to kind of do
a promo and advertise ourselves because we're doing a Hardy
Party where I do a live one hour and change

(09:36):
edition of my podcast extremely for Matt Hardy and Jeff
does an hour and change live acoustic concert. And we
have so much fun with these things, and it also
allows us to build things for the future once we
are out of being you know in the ring pro wrestlers.
You know, we we we're also gaining experience on the
plat two.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, And I think the one great thing that I
love about what they're doing with TNA, what you guys
are doing. I want to say it was a recent interview,
maybe it was like with Nick and Ryan. They said
that it was like you guys and everybody else on
the TNA roster stayed together and still sign autographs until
like three o'clock in the morning because you wanted to
make sure that every fan got a chance to meet

(10:15):
you guys and say thank you.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
We do that constantly whenever Jeff and I we're on
every post show meet and greet, and every time and
every time that we are at those post show meet
and greets, were there till two or three in the morning.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, And it's it's insane because I was a part
of one of these post show meet and greets, and
my eight year old was super excited to meet you
guys after a TNA show, and he thought it was
cool that Jeff threw out the sleeves and the crowd,
so he was getting all excited about that. And again
it's one of those full circle moments that I was
watching you guys and now my kid's watching you guys.
And I don't want to make anybody feel old at
the moment, because I mean, you're only as old as

(10:55):
you feel. But again, it's an honor and a privilege
to have you on here. Matt. Last question before we
let you go, this is always a fun one. If
we were to look at your playlist right now, and
we scrolled through your music playlist, what is that one
song on there that might surprise us that Matt Hardy
is listening to right now?

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Maybe Psycho by Jack Kettell. You think I'm psychoed, don't you, Mama.
It was actually a song that my wife found somewhere
and was playing it randomly one time, and I heard
about it and made me think of my youngest kid, Barty.
So that's a song that's.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Just kind of a unicorn in my playlist. Awesome, that's
a solid pick right there.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Well, Matt, it's an honor at Polvigiy to have you
back here on the show. Before I let you go,
anything you want to say to the fans watching or
listening to this right now, No, I.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Just want to say thank you to all the diehardies
that have supported us for so so long. You know,
we're thirty three years deep on this journey and excited
to see everybody in Baltimore, which we've got coming up
very very soon, and then we're stoked for Bound for Glory.
The Hardy's in Dudley's one last time. Let's get it done.
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