On the latest edition of the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the Broken One revisited one of the most unique tag team contests in history, Team Extreme (Hardyz) vs. The Two Man Power Trip (Stone Cold & Triple H) back in 2002. Hardy not only discussed the bout, but what Paul Heyman’s reaction was at the time. Highlights from the episode can be found below.
Has high praise for Paul Heyman:
“Paul Heyman is the ultimate motivator. That is how I describe him. And you can see why he got his guys to do what they did, you know? And he was really good at highlighting people’s strengths. To get an act like 911 over as much as he got 911 over… to get Sandman over like he got Sandman over, where obviously he wasn’t the greatest athlete or the greatest worker in the world. But he understood how to make his entrance work and milk it for all it was worth. And he was able to get acts over.”
Talks Team Extreme and the Two-Man Power Trip matchup:
“One of my most fond memories of Paul Heyman, was whenever we had the match — when Jeff beat Triple H for the Intercontinental Title and ended up doing a short little feud with the Two-Man Power Trip. There was the deal where it was Triple H, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Stephanie McMahon vs. Team Extreme. And the whole point of this match was to get them over as heels. Because they just had the deal where Steve had turned on The Rock and beat him up. And he didn’t get booed the way they wanted him to get booed, and they were trying to turn him heel. So like, ‘Well, who are the ultimate white meat babyfaces we can get to beat him up?’ So they went, ‘Let’s go with Team Extreme. So we had the match, we defeat them in the match actually. And at the end, they destroy us with chairs, and beat us down. And whenever the camera stopped rolling… there was a point where the crowd started throwing cups and trash into the ring. And it was very reminiscent being there, it felt like the nWo moment when Hulk turned. Wasn’t that extreme, but it was a very cool moment. And people knew like, ‘Oh man, this was a big deal.’ Like, it was legit heat, really good heat.”
What Heyman’s reaction was to the match:
“I’ll never forget that we came back and Paul Heyman, said, ‘Sir! I have to tell you. What happened tonight, that was one of the biggest things that happened in wrestling since the nWo! It was massive, it was incredible!’ And I was like, ‘Come on, dude! Don’t work me, just say it was great!’ But I can see how he was such a motivator, because he would tell people things like that, that they wanted to hear. That they needed to hear to continue to drive forward and keep doing what they were doing.”
(H/T and transcribed by 411 Mania)