On the latest edition of the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast the legendary Hardy brother spoke about former two-time Universal champion Bray Wyatt, and how he was shocked to learn that WWE decided to release him back in 2021. That and more can be found in the highlights below.
How shocking he thought it was that WWE released Bray Wyatt:
“It was shocking. I mean, because he was one of the biggest merch movers they had. That’s usually a pretty important, pretty important part of performance longevity around there. If you’re selling a lot of merch, usually that means you’re making money. You know, so it was very shocking, very disappointing. I don’t even know if it was because he’d re-signed a contract it was too much, and they were just like, it’s one of those things, it’s very much a business now more than ever.If they have a guy that they think is making too much money, no one is index spendable, and they’ve built the brand around WWE. Vince McMahon doesn’t need anyone’s Superstar at any certain time. They’ve really built it all around WWE and that is what is the draw.”
Says WWE pitched an angle featuring Wyatt and the Hardys prior to Wyatt getting cut:
“There was a pitch to get me to try and re-sign my contract, or whenever I was doing that angle with with with Randy. They were also going to do something besides the angle with Randy Orton. They said a big match with Bray at WrestleMania and they said, ‘What if we did something now where Bray is doing something as The Fiend, and people are trying to stop them. Then all of a sudden, there’s an appearance of a very hardcore Matt Hardy that shows up and then like this Willow The Wisp or just a hardcore Jeff Hardy this shows up. Then they like squash these guys out and run them off whatever, like save The Fiend, but they’re very serious characters. But then we see the talk show where Bray is the Mr. Rogers character and he’s talking to all the kids and he’s having the show. Then you see Broken Matt, he shows up, and then Willow The Wisp shows up and they’re part of the show as well. So you guys are like him. But you work as a tag team, you have like a Fiend type of character versions of yourself. Then you have a Broken Matt and a Willow and then you’re also doing the deal,’ which sounded very cool and awesome, but I also knew at the time, that would probably last six or seven weeks, and then it would be done. So I was already mentally checked out and AEW-bound.”
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)