On the latest edition of the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, AEW superstar Matt Hardy spoke about his WWE rivalry with MVP, and how the two formed a deep friendship off-screen during that time. Check out the future hall of famer’s full thoughts on the subject in the highlights below.
Recalls when him and MVP lost the titles and JBL got pissed at the Miz and John Morrison for nearly ruining their post-match angle:
There was a deal where Miz and [John] Morrison, they got a little bit of heat. They got chewed out [at] the end because they wanted them as soon it was over to get out of the ring as opposed to staying there celebrating. So we [Matt & MVP] could get into our business or whatever, which is so funny because Miz was so excited. It was his first title and then I remember Morrison too, they both got read the riot act by J.B.L at the very end and Miz was like, ‘So sorry’ and then Morrison fired up and was ready to fight him, whatever, at the very end. He’s like, ‘What the hell is wrong with you two? Get the f*ck out of the ring. If they tell you to get out of the ring, get out of the ring. It’s not about you. It’s about them.’ I was fine. They apologized and they were sorry they did. I try [to be a rational person]. I try to be.
Discusses the time he and MVP played a game of basketball on live TV, and how Vince McMahon told Hardy to dribble as white as possible:
He [MVP] had like a sore shoulder or whatever so he was worried his shot was gonna be off [for the basketball game on SmackDown] and he said Vince [McMahon] thought he really couldn’t play basketball and he was a pretty decent basketball player and when I was in elementary school and the first couple years of high school, I played every sport. I was really good at baseball, that was my thing. I was pretty good at football and basketball was my weakest for sure. But I’ll never forget as we’re doing this, we talked about what we’re gonna do and Vince had the idea about throwing and hitting him with the ball and bouncing off whatever and he said, ‘Now look Matt, I need you to do me one thing.’ He said, ‘I don’t know if you’re f*cking good at basketball or not. I don’t give a sh*t.’ But he said, ‘Whenever you dribble that ball and you do that layup,’ he said, ‘I need you to be overly white. Be as white as possible’ which is so funny, which is so great. There’s that thing — the movie ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ and he said, ‘I think that’s just something in someone’s mind. I think it’s much more entertaining if you dribble it as white as possible’ and I was like, ‘Sure. I can do that. It won’t be a problem’ and I did. I exaggerated to a degree, but I’m not a great dribbler. I am not a Harlem Globetrotter. I exaggerate to a degree and did the stupid layup and that was the main thing. I couldn’t miss that layup. That was the deal. So that was the most pressure. I didn’t worry about the dribble. He just wanted me to dribble white… It was just so different and so out of the box and just so unique. It really stood out and people dug it.
Remembers when they brought in boxing legend Evander Holyfield for their feud:
And we came in and we talked to him [Evander Holyfield] and we got off to a great start, really good. We had great interactions, it was so much fun and we’re sitting there and we’re talking… I threw a pretty good worked punch as far as that goes which means, you know, where I don’t really hit you. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I get all that’ and we were messing around, we’re doing that and I was sticking and jabbing and we were talking about how we would kind of do this dance so to say and then we got to a point where after 90 seconds of f*cking around with me, he said, ‘It’s all right. You can go ahead and try to swing.’ He said, ‘You won’t be able to hit me.’ He knew. I mean, he knew, which was so great. 90 seconds. We were like f*cking around, doing this sh*t. He said, ‘You can swing. Go ahead. You won’t be able to hit me.’ Amazing.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)
