Matt Hardy Says Darby Allin “Is Starting To Prove To Be A Ratings Guy”

Matt Hardy Says Darby Allin “Is Starting To Prove To Be A Ratings Guy”

In an interview with ET Canada, AEW star Matt Hardy talked about headlining the first unopposed AEW Dynamite three weeks ago against Darby Allin. The show drew the second highest rating in the history of Dynamite and Hardy was thrilled to be in the main event segment.

“It was super exciting,” Hardy revealed. “It was our first week unopposed, so I was very happy to be in that slot. And Darby is starting to prove to be a ratings guy because people really like him. And he gets it so much.

“He reminds me of my brother in so many ways as to how he sells from underneath. He gets sympathy and he’s just he’s cool. The kids like him. He’s super cool. And me at this stage of the game, being an older competitor, especially with the younger AEW audience, I am the perfect bad guy, I think, for a Darby Allin or someone like that.

“So I was expecting them to be big. I hoped we would break a million and do a good number. But when we heard 1.2, I was blown away and super happy, super excited. And I really think it was a good payoff because people didn’t know when they tuned in if Darby Allin was going to lose the TNT title or retain the title. And I think that was part of the charm of it.”

With AEW now working together with companies such as Impact, New Japan and NWA, Hardy discussed how healthy cross promotion is for wrestling. In particular he pointed to the Hardy’s feud with The Young Bucks a few years ago as an example of it working.

“I think it’s great,” Hardy said of cross promoting. “I’ve always thought it was great for business. A lot of people don’t know about this. It’s not a well-known fact. But I had been negotiating and working with the Young Bucks.

“And right before my brother and I left Impact to return to WWE, we were actually going to do a Ring of Honor-Impact crossover angle with the Hardys and the Young Bucks for three or four months. And we had that set. But then some things changed in their management and then ended up we’d return to would return to WWE once we ended up leaving.

“So I’m all down for it. I’ve always been down from it from the beginning. And I think especially considering WWE is such a massive global promotion, I think any other promotion that is up-and-coming when they work with other promotions, has it helps to add the element of unpredictability and unpredictability is what makes wrestling successful in 2021.

“I think more than anything else, because information’s out there, so many people see spoilers, so many people have a clue of what’s going on because the Internet is very wide and people know. So I think the more you can surprise people, you have someone show up on this promotion or someone show up on AEW or someone shows up in New Japan, I think it really adds that unpredictability to pro wrestling.”

Hardy was also asked about his brother, WWE star Jeff Hardy. Despite being in two separate companies, the brothers remain as close as ever.

“We always text each other before the shows,” Hardy revealed. “”We go, ‘hey, man, are you on tonight or when you are or what are you doing?’ We just kind of keep up with it.

“I don’t think there’s any competition any longer. I think we’re just both supportive of one another. So it’s cool. We’ve almost done it enough where there was a point where I was in WWE and he was in TNA. Or he was in TNA and I was in ROH. I mean, we’ve kind of done this before.

“So it’s kind of an old hat in some ways. But we’re now more than ever just supportive of one another.”

You can watch the interview below.

5.0 / 5
Thanks for voting!

Since 2001, WrestlingAttitude is your number one source for WWE wrestling news, rumors and results. Make sure to follow us on social media to get the latest news in real time! We are facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram at the following links:

WA on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wrestlingattitude/
WA on Facebook (Women's Wrestling) - https://www.facebook.com/WrestlingDivas/
WA on Twitter - https://twitter.com/wa_wrestling
WA on Instagram (Women's Wrestling) - https://www.instagram.com/wa_wrestlingattitude/
WA on Google News - https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMJf3owsw2oG8Aw


Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.