Matt Hardy talks about how much different the creative process is between AEW and WWE.
Hardy officially announced his departure from WWE on March 1, but this week he made his debut in AEW. Chris Jericho pointed out that The Elite and Inner Circle were one person short (how nice of Jericho to do that) and then the Vanguard 1 drone landed in the middle of the ring. The camera panned over to the balcony and there stood Matt Hardy in all his broken brilliance. Hardy will join The Elite and Inner Circle to face Jericho’s posse at the Blood & Guts PPV.
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Since Hardy chose to not renew his contract with WWE the 90-day non-compete clause did not apply to him. This is how he was able to appear on AEW so soon after he left WWE. After his AEW appearance he appeared on Jericho’s podcast, Talk Is Jericho.
Matt Hardy Shares Some Of His Broken Brilliance
While on the podcast he talked about how AEW allows a lot more freedom when it comes to the wrestler’s storyline and their promos.
“The one thing that I really noticed was like ‘hey I’m thinking about doing this’ and they’re like ‘that sounds great,’ as opposed to like ‘well we’ve got to ask so and so and then we have to ask so and so and he has to ask Vince.’ As far as going through all those different levels of authority, it was just like ‘sure, that sounds great.’ You know, it made it super easy.
I did some promos and vignettes at the end of the night and I was just like ‘I’m thinking about saying this, does it sound cool?’ And they said ‘sounds cool,’ and I did it. So, it was just very easy and just very refreshing just to like not have any kind of restraints on you, and to just go and be creative and do your thing and do you, because nobody does themselves better than them,” Hardy said.
Talk Is Jericho Podcast
Hardy Gets A Pass Because He Is A Living Legend
There are two things I want to say about that statement. The first is that Hardy is a veteran and was one half of one of the biggest tag teams of the late ‘90s and early 2000s. He has earned a lot of respect in the business. It is unlikely that people are going to say “no that’s a stupid idea” to him.
It would probably be a lot different if some young guy brought up the same idea. Hardy has earned the luxury of hearing his ideas out. This especially applies when he pitches the Broken Matt Hardy character which was a huge success in TNA. It is not a big risk.
Filters, It’s A Good Thing
Also something like what happened with Vince Russo in WCW could happen to AEW. A little wrestling history lesson for you all. Russo was one of the head writers for WWE during the Attitude Era. Some of the great WWE storylines of the time he had a hand in. He got a lot of positive attention and decided to go to WCW. In WCW he introduced some of the worst storylines of all time and was the beginning of the end for WCW. What happened you ask. In WCW he was given basically complete creative control, but in WWE he had to bounce ideas off Jim Cornette, Bruce Prichard and ultimately Vince himself.
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The point is without a filter or someone to say “no” or atleast “no, but what about if we do it like this” crap will make it on TV. It isn’t even just bad ideas will make it on TV, but good ideas could be made great if someone is there to bounce ideas off of.
I think it is a good idea to have a filter to strain out or strengthen ideas. As long as that person is not out of touch with what modern wrestling fans are looking for. Which Vince might be at times.
What do you think of Hardy joining AEW? Do you think his Broken Matt Hardy character will work in AEW? What do you think of the two ways ideas are proposed in WWE vs AEW? Drop those comments or you’ll be DELETED!!!
Sources: Cultaholic, AEW, Matt Hardy’s Tweet, Talk Is Jericho
