Jeff Hardy just had to juke before he saved his brother from a beatdown.
During an appearance on Talk Is Jericho, Matt and Jeff Hardy reflected on reuniting in AEW and how Jeff debuted by saving Matt. The segment was highlighted by Jeff’s “running juke” that drew quite the response online since it appeared as if Jeff stopped to dance before making the save. Matt recalls wanting to set it up so that Jeff got a proper welcome, but
Matt: “I remember telling my guys, whenever they all turned on me, I was like look man, I think you guys should like whip the sh-t out of me, beat my ass, but once that Hardy Boyz music hits — and we knew we had the original Hardy Boyz music, what a godsend that was — I knew we had that in our back pocket. So I was like I think the HFO guys turn on me, whip the sh-t out of me for a little bit, but once that music hits, it’s gonna get a great reaction and I feel like you guys should all stop like [act surprised] what the hell? And all turn towards [the stage] and just stop beating me. I said, ‘Jeff, I think you should come out and f-cking do the juke. You’re a huge star and this is a big deal. I don’t wanna burn through your entrance’ or whatever.
“And then I feel like he was looking, too, a couple guys stayed on me, kicking me or whatever, and he’s like, ‘ah, I kinda wanna do the juke,’ but he ran, too. And I love the fact that people were like, ‘Oh my god, he’s out there dancing while his brother’s getting his ass kicked.’ It’s a running juke. That’s one of my favorites, man.”
Jeff: “I didn’t know what I was gonna do. I said let me get the best of both worlds here, kinda run and juke at the same time. It looked so silly.”
Matt: “And you know, man, wrestling fans especially in this day and age, they’re so particular about everything. Like if this would have happened in the Attitude Era, brother, it would have been the greatest thing ever. They’re very picky.”
Jeff previously commented on his debut getting the meme treatment on an episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast and said that he felt like it still worked out for the best. Read more about how the debut was planned out at this link.