Matt Hardy has recalled he and his brother Jeff having to prove themselves to a Hall of Fame tag team.
During an ‘Ask Matt Anything’ edition of his ‘Extreme Life of Matt Hardy’ podcast, the AEW star was asked about the “worst receipts” he had given and taken, referring to the old system of pro wrestlers having to prove themselves to their peers.
While Hardy hasn’t given any receipts, he recalled a time early in his WWE career when they had a series of matches against Farooq and Bradshaw – aka JBL – of the APA. According to Hardy, the duo “beat the s**t” out of him and Jeff regularly until he realised he needed to fight back.
“I’ve never actually given anyone a receipt. There have been times where I’ve realized that I need to fight back.
“There was a time when we were working with The Acolytes, and they were beating the s**t out of us.
“They dropped the titles to us, we were the tag team champions, and we worked a couple of times after that, and I’m like, ‘Holy s**t, they can have these titles back. We’re in the record books — I’m good.'”
“I remember beating him as hard as I could in the face” – Matt Hardy on standing up to Bradshaw
Hardy says when he realised things were “abusive”, he fought back hard. this was seemingly enough to earn Bradshaw’s respect, as the next strike he gave was noticeably softer.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know how much longer I can take this. This is like abusive!’
“Then when were in there, Bradshaw beat me down in the corner. I remember beating him as hard as I could in the face, and the next thing I had was just a very soft [jab to the face].”
Hardy finished by saying it was just the way things were back then.
“So, it’s one of those things where the old-timers — where guys would beat you up and take advantage of you … until you didn’t let them. Until, like, you stood up for yourself. I think that was kind of a case of that.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the above transcription.