Matt Hardy knows what “this mat game is” and the legacy star has sage advice for young wrestlers today. Hardy was joined by co-host Jon Alba on the latest Extreme Life With Matt Hardy to discuss the 22 year anniversary in which the Hardy Boyz battled the Dudley Boyz in the first-ever tag team table match at Royal Rumble 2000. The fight took place in the historic Madision Square Garden and although Matt & Jeff were still making their hay in WWF, Matt made clear that he and his brother were always sure to cover all corners of the canvas.
“One thing I tell young guys is make pro wrestling a lifestyle. If you’re going to do it, you gotta do it right. You gotta train right, you gotta eat right, you gotta take care of your body in the right way, you’ve gotta train and work out, but you also have have to know the product. Not only the company that you work for or want to work for you need to know all the companies across the industry so obviously we got ECW very late at night on the MSG Network which we happened to have. It was 12, 1 AM.”
Whether it was on MSG Network or recording it via VCR, Matt noted that he and Jeff always made a point to watch ECW and something about Buh Buh Ray and D-Von really stood out.
“I was like, wow, these guys are very good at being heels because the stuff that they would do to go out there and get heat and there were a lot of times they’d almost incite many riots in the venue so I knew they were a special team in that capacity,” he said before that the “brothers” were great at getting a reaction.
“The most important thing we can do as a pro wrestler, it doesn’t make a difference if they cheer you or they boo you, as long as they care about you. As long as they are emotionally attached and they are able to react to you in a certain way and they were definitely getting a reactions as far as inciting people’s anger.”
Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone
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Listen to the full episode of Extreme Life below!
