In a recent conversation with TV Insider, The Multifarious Matt Hardy went into detail about his time so far in All Elite Wrestling, as well as the original plans for his feud with Sammy Guevara. If memory serves, Hardy originally went all-in against the entire Inner Circle, including challenging Chris Jericho to a battle on the Hardy Compound. As best he can remember, the plan was always to have a big dust-up against The Spanish God.
I challenged Jericho, but the idea was for it to get pushed off to Sammy. Things went differently when North Carolina and other states went into lockdown. There was this six-week period where AEW literally survived on a day or two of shooting footage, which was pretty amazing.
We had to change course in many ways. From the very beginning, I was going to end up having a feud with Sammy, and Jericho was my bridge to get to that. As far as the Hardy Compound fight with Sammy, that may happen one day. We’ll see.
But why Hardy was paired with Sammy rather than Jericho? The answer is simple. The veterans both want to focus on building new names in wrestling.
When you look back, we’ve had a long-running story considering we are entering September. I think the thing that is very important, and I think Chris is also an advocate for this, is once you’re established with name value, it’s so important to work with the younger guy. If myself and Chris Jericho were together, we’re not helping anyone. We’re still doing a good story and trying to build one another. Whenever you’re working with a Sammy Guevara, or Chris working with Orange Cassidy, you’re building up stock in wrestling. That’s something done well in AEW. We have to build these new guys for the future.
As for the future, Hardy stated that AEW’s focus on tag team wrestling would make it perfect for one more run with his brother Jeff, but there’s no guarantee.
With the incredible deep division there is in AEW, I’d love to have my brother there to wrestle against the Young Bucks, Hangman Page and Kenny Omega, Private Party, FTR. There is such a deep roster. I’d love to do that one day if it was a possibility.
