Wardlow says The Hardy Boyz were a huge part of his life when he was a kid, and the brothers were a vital factor on his road to stardom.
During an appearance on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, Wardlow discussed the impact Matt and Jeff Hardy had on his career. He made it clear that he was “obsessed” with them when he was growing up, and he credited them as two of the biggest reasons he’s where he is today.
“I know like the whole thing, you’re supposed to act like you’ve been here before, but the fact that I’m sitting on a couch next to [Matt] right now is mind-blowing,” Wardlow said. “He’s, himself and his brother are probably two of the biggest reasons I’m sitting here today. I was so inspired by Matt and Jeff Hardy. I mean obsessed, like I have books still of every magazine that they were in, I cut pictures of you guys out and made a collage when I was a kid. I have art pictures painted and drawn of them. I mean I was obsessed with The Hardy Boyz. They were the reason I woke up happy, they were the reason I went to school because during breaks, I could go on the computer and look up pictures and videos.
“They were the reason I was excited to get home so I could get on my trampoline or my neighbor’s team looks because I couldn’t afford one, thank god my neighbor let me and my friends jump on their trampoline so I could practice doing Swanton Bombs. Go home and play with my action figures of them, play on the video games. I mean, The Hardy Boyz were such a big part of my life. Realistically, I’ve always said professional wrestlers have taught me the two most important lessons in life. ‘Don’t trust anybody,’ Stone Cold, and Matt Hardy, ‘To achieve you have to believe.’ Truly, the only reason why I’m here is because I believed in myself.”
The reigning AEW TNT Champion went on to describe how, long before he was a muscular powerhouse, he was a self-described “runt”, so he was inspired by Matt and Jeff’s success as two relatively small wrestlers in a world of “monsters.”
“Yeah, so I was actually, believe it or not, you talked about my physique, I was the runt growing up,” Wardlow said. ” I really didn’t start to grow until junior/senior year and beyond high school, so that was even more of a reason they were so inspiring because they were, especially that era, these are actually big dudes. It’s just the era they came up with, they were monsters. But as a smaller high-flyer guy, I looked to them like okay, you can be a smaller high-flyer dude and still be extremely successful in this business.
“I think that was the biggest thing, like I wanted to be the next Matt or Jeff Hardy. Now obviously I blew up and few physically. But as you see, I still have some of those attributes that I trained my body for so many years, it doesn’t forget that stuff.”
When asked why he especially resonated with the Hardy brothers, Wardlow emphasized how he admired their individuality and the way they embraced that about themselves.
“Man for me, I think it was just, I discovered The Hardy Boyz like sixth grade,” Wardlow said. “So sixth/seventh grade, when you’re starting to go through puberty, well I was a little late to the party. But you’re going through that kind of awkward stage where you’re kind of discovering yourself. There’s a lot of pressure of being a part of this group or that group. The Hardy Boyz were just, they did their own thing. I think that was the most important thing to me was just like, I don’t have to be popular. I don’t have to go ship at Abercrombie & Fitch to fit in with everybody else. I’m gonna do me, and I’m gonna be unique because I think that was the biggest thing about The Hardy Boyz, they were unique.
“They were themselves, and they didn’t give a s— about what the normal was. They were truly wholeheartedly themselves, and they were different, and they stood out above the rest. Of course, they were amazing at wrestling, and they did the coolest stuff you’ve ever seen in the ring, so obviously that helps. But it’s just the total package. The arm sleeves, the shirts, the pants, the hair, which I mean, this [points to his hair] is all because of that. So it was just everything, the total package of them.”
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