Matt Hardy knows that stars raise all sea levels and the tag team legend forsees that coming to fruition for AEW with Dark and Dark: Elevation. On the latest episode of Extreme Life, Matt made mention of the Hardys recently competing on Dark: Elevation. He says the simple fact that Tony Khan treats veterans with such respect is a reason why including established stars on the company’s YouTube shows will ultimately work.
“He always takes legends or veterans and puts them in position to succeed, whatever it may be, and then I said ‘On top of this, it helps Elevation,'” Matt said to Jon Alba, citing the one time he fought Hangman Page in the main event of an episode on Elevation. Matt makes clear that the AEW operation is a team effort from the top down.
“Everybody on AEW is willing and open to do that and that’s why AEW actually succeed so much I think because they have everybody that’s kind of like on the same page to do what’s best for the company and myself and Jeff we knew that being on Elevation is going to have people tune into that show. It’s gonna help Elevation be a known event, a show, and then once again, when AEW ultimately gets their streaming service all that stuff can land there so TK is very smart. He’s getting content. He’s getting content very quickly.”
Matt recounted back to his childhood as a perfect example of such a formula working.
“I would love it when Superstars or Challenge would have like a big main event. It really felt huge like, ‘Oh my God, Macho Man is going to be on against this other big star,’ or whatever it was. Those were great. That always motivated me to tune in when I knew those matches were gonna be on. So yeah, I think it’s great to put big matches and sometimes use some really big guns, put star power out there and let them rock and roll.”
Hardy goes into further detail about how Dark and Dark: Elevation are beneficial for talent looking to get their name established.
“Those shows are also important cause guys from the middle of the card down they need to get wins and get victories to be taken serious and it’s a great place for them to be able to do that, especially if there’s not time and they’re not a big enough star where they can always make the TV shows, the Dynamites or the Rampages. It’s a great place to try and build everyone up and Tony Khan tries to take that win/loss record serious and I think it has paid off and I think it has succeeded in far as doing that because it has helped established acts and it adds legitimacy to whoever the act is once they start winning matches as opposed to someone who just loses every time on TV.”
“I just think having that sports-centric feel from a booking perspective is a very good thing and I think that’s one of the things that fuels the success of AEW.”
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Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone
