Wardlow made an appearance on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy to discuss a wide range of topics. Here are the highlights:
Being a fan of The Hardys while growing up as a kid:
“He and his brother are probably two of the biggest reasons I’m sitting here today. I was so inspired by Matt and Jeff Hardy. I mean, obsessed. I have books, still, of every magazine that they were in. I would cut pictures of you guys out and I made a collage when I was a kid. I have art pictures painted and drawn of them. I mean, I was obsessed with the Hardy Boys. They were the reason I woke up happy. They were the reason I went to school because during breaks, I could go on the computer and look up pictures and videos. They were the reason I was excited to get home so I could get on my trampoline or my neighbor’s trampoline, because I couldn’t afford one. Thank God my neighbor let me and my friends jump on their trampoline so I can practice doing swanton bombs. I would go home and play with my action figures then play video games. I mean, the Hardy Boys were such a big part of my life. I’ve always said professional wrestlers have taught me the two most important lessons in life. ‘Don’t trust anybody’, Stone Cold, and Matt Hardy, ‘To achieve you have to believe.’”
His past drug and alcohol issues:
“That still is mind blowing to me. I mean, how much wrestling I watched growing up and how much I obsessed with it, and how far off track I got after high school, and for a while seemingly ruined my life and my dreams. I mean, I went down a really bad path for a while with drugs and alcohol and depression and sort of finally make it into finally being in this company, not AEW company, but the company of the likes of Matt and Jeff. It is a beautiful thing. It’s overwhelming. It’s overwhelming on a daily basis, how much damage I did to my life and to be able to get it all back and fight for it back and be here and be sitting next to this man.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription