Matt Hardy reflects on the Hardy Family Office and what went wrong with the group.
In 2021, Hardy formed the Hardy Family Office (HFO) in AEW after he joined forces with Private Party at the end of 2020. The trio later expanded into a group that included The Butcher, The Blade, The Bunny, Angelico, Jack Evans, Jora Johl, and eventually Andrade El Idolo.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the veteran discussed how his pairing with Private Party came about. When asked whether they pitched the idea, he confirmed that was the case and emphasize that he liked the pitch because he wants to help people at this stage of his career.
“They did. They pitched that about me being a mentor for them,” Hardy said. “That was originally their idea, they pitched it to me and asked what I thought and I said ‘Guys, I know you don’t know me that well but I’m always down for anything, I mean that.’ I mean, if something is good and it’s productive and it helps people, I’m down for anything, especially at the stage I’m at in my career.
“If I can do anything to elevate you, that’s very important. I’ve said this many many times, I think a big part of my legacy right now ultimately ends up with how great Isiah [Kassidy] and [Marq] Quen turn out. I’ve invested in those guys, I’ve specifically invested in those guys and they’re a huge part of my legacy going forward.”
Hardy continued by noting how Private Party’;’s heel turn eventually led to the expansion of the group, and he called it the “Island of Misfit Toys” as he stated that it felt like the stable was directionless.
“When we first started doing that, after we went to the IMPACT Wrestling tapings, there was a couple matches where they did stuff a little bit heelish and Tony [Khan] asked me following the IMPACT tapings, ‘Do you think we should turn these guys? They embrace this change that you’re kind of pushing on them,'” Hardy said. “I said ‘I do, I think it’ll work.’ We ended up doing it, they turned in the match with Top Flight if you remember, they grabbed a chair, hit someone and they won and we actually got pretty hot at that point with the six man tags we were doing as heels you know with Big Money Matt, Heel Zay and Heel Quen. I really feel like we had a lot of momentum, we were doing good and we would have continued to elevate as a trios tag until we started adding people and like… Tony said ‘We don’t have anyone speaking for Butcher & Blade, they’re better when they have a mouthpiece. Do you mind if we put them with you?
“’ I was like sure, I’ll do that but then it became a little excessive. They added TH2 and then it was Jora Johl and it just became so watered down and I know in the notes you kind of described the HFO as the island of misfit toys, I described it [the same way] at the time. That’s exactly how I described the group and it just became so many guys that we really didn’t know what to do with it and it was kind of directionless. It just kind of ended up being people that would put other people over.”
Hardy then stated that he appreciated the way Tony Khan trusted him with the responsibility of being the mouthpiece of the group, despite some of its shortcomings from a creative standpoint.
“Yeah, I mean and a lot of those guys, they were looking to get on TV but they were also trying to get an established veteran who could be a mouthpiece, who could speak for them and help them very clearly explain their motivations and their character,” Hardy said. “Considering he entrusted me in that, I’m very grateful and appreciative obviously, but it just kind of became too much. We added too many people and it became so over saturated with talent that we really couldn’t focus on elevating two or three different guys at one time” (H/t Fightful for the transcription).
Hardy was kicked out of the HFO the same day his brother, Jeff Hardy, made his AEW debut, and the two reunited as a tag team. The HFO then became the Andrade Family Office, after Andrade El Idolo had already been brought in during Matt’s run with the stable. It gradually broke up following RUSH’s debut at AEW Double or Nothing 2022.
Check out the card for the March 15 episode of AEW Dynamite here. WrestleZone will have coverage of the show once it airs.
