In 2024, AEW officially signed a handful of new talent. The new signees were Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, and Mercedes Moné. During the latest episode of the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, the Broken One, Matt Hardy shared his thoughts on the new signees. Hardy mentioned that AEW did not give much time for the new signees to settle in.
“Will Ospreay who is incredible, one of the greatest athletes I’ve ever seen. You have Will Ospreay show up, ‘Boom!’ It’s a big deal. I feel like that is something that should have just been talked about for four to six weeks. Directly after that, Okada, ‘Boom!’ Okada is a big star. Still a lot of the people here in America are probably familiarizing themselves with him. Obviously. Especially a more casual fan, if you know, if you understand kind of my idea of the AEW casual fan, people in America that might not follow New Japan Pro Wrestling. So he shows up the next week and I feel like that should have been a big deal. That for four to six weeks, we should have really highlighted him.
Matt Hardy wanted the stars to grow at least for four to six weeks
“That should have been what everybody was talking about. The week after that, boom, Mercedes Moné shows up. And that could have been another big deal for four to six weeks. That’s what I am saying, when a lot is going on, you have jammed a lot of stuff on the program and into the viewer’s eyes and I feel like these events could have been longer and taken more time to develop and really highlight how big of a deal it is to get this huge Superstar to AEW. And whenever I say there’s a lot going on, I feel like that’s what I mean, when I’m saying there’s a lot going on.”
Matt Hardy claims AEW announcing new talents every week takes the importance off of the previous new signee
During the same episode, Hardy mentioned that not giving the new signees any time to grow, and introducing new signees every week kind of detriments the arrival of the new talent who showed up on the Jacksonville-based promotion.
“I just feel like, even the buzz, that they are working on, creating when you had Ospreay, you had Okada, you had Mercedes, back to back to back. I feel like, Ospreay now gets caught in Okada avalanche. People are still going to love him, they’re till going to feel him. But I feel, it takes a little bit of the importance off of him. It takes a little bit off of the spotlight off of him. And then, once you do Mercedes after that, it does the same thing to Okada. And a little more on Ospreay. It’s just like I feel we could have, those guys, just could be… They are such great huge, big stars. And I feel like when you see them show up on the TV the next four weeks of your programming.
Matt Hardy wanted the new signees to be the focal point
“The next four weeks of your programming, they need to be one of the focal points. And nothing else. Nothing else new because, they are the new deal that you are promoting. You’re putting on the map, you need to make them seem as important as they could possibly be. And I understand that mindset. Where they’re like, ‘Oh my God, we got to get something get them buzzing this week, gotta get them buzzing this week. We gotta get people talking again this week.’ But that also isn’t sustainable. I mean, what you’re going to have to get people talking with is your whatever story or this arc you have.
“This character on this journey you have these characters on. And then eventually once they get to that big match that is the blowoff, with the finale of their deal, then they go out and they tear the house down and have a great match. I feel like that is what has to be done, because that is sustainable. Bringing someone in, every single week to make the people tune in… I don’t think that’s sustainable,” Matt Hardy said.
Do you agree with Matt Hardy?
