The Hardys Get Candid on Jeff’s Injury, Retirement Talk, and Emotional Career Moments – Chris Van Vliet sat down with Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy on Insight, and the conversation covered Jeff’s neck injury, thoughts on retirement, their emotional final match with The Dudleys, and a memorable WrestleMania moment involving Ric Flair.
Jeff Hardy gave an update on how his neck is feeling after suffering the injury.
Jeff: “It’s better. This past Monday and Tuesday, it felt really good. Then we flew out here, and I fell asleep a little funky on the plane. I remember jerking my head up one time, and it hurt. So it was hurting a little more than it did Monday and Tuesday. But overall, man, it’s feeling good. It’s definitely better. So this has been a little over three months now. I’ve been dealing with two bulging discs on the left side of my neck, and this happened when we dropped the titles at the NXT Halloween Havoc show. It was one of those things, you couldn’t even tell, it looked completely fine. I landed flat, but I was on the big guy’s shoulders. The one guy jumped off the ladder, clotheslined me off. The idea was for me to go through the table, but I kind of overshot the table, and he just broke the table, and my head just hit the mat, and it was a little whiplash like that. It felt terrible. I mean, it definitely felt like a concussion, and I was close to being knocked out, but that’s when it happened. Two bulging discs on the left side of my neck, but I’m feeling much better.”
When asked about whether injuries like this make them think about the end of their careers, Jeff admitted it crosses his mind but isn’t something he focuses on.
Jeff: “I try not to think about it, especially with seeing the Cena retirement tour, naturally, because we’re the same age. He’s a little older than me, but I’m 48 and I’m like, oh man. AJ, same age, he’s talking about maybe retiring soon. I mean, I think about it, but the way my career has went over the years, the ups and the downs, I just hope I can do it for as long as I can. I think that’s the way I’m going to do it, because after this neck injury, I feel like my performances are naturally going to get 1,000% better, because I’m so excited about this whole AMC deal and being in TNA and continuing to evolve. But yeah, I try not to let the thought of the end enter my consciousness.”
Matt Hardy added that fans have been trying to retire them for years.
Matt: “Wrestling Twitter has been trying to retire us for years now, and they still do. They’re trying to book our retirement matches nonstop. But we feel good. As long as we feel good, we’re gonna keep going.”
The discussion then shifted to their final match with The Dudleys and how emotional the moment was.
Jeff: “I think we were.”
Matt: “It was definitely emotional. So I’ll tell you this, I’ll be fully transparent. D-Von, we just wanted to get him through this last match, we knew he was retiring, this was it. We want him to go out on this great match with career rivals. We had no idea they were going to both take their boots off, and we definitely didn’t know they were going to give them to us. Jeff had just asked at the end, ‘Hey, is that a thing?’ I said it wasn’t, but I think it is now. He [D-Von] said ‘What we’re going to do at the end to show you the respect and say you guys have won this battle. Whoever wins this is the greatest of all time. We have something we’re going to do, but we don’t want to tell you, is that fine?’ I said, that’s great. Let’s just do it in the ring. Let’s get a very authentic, genuine reaction, and that’s what that was.”
Matt also explained how focused they were on protecting D-Von during the match.
Matt: “More than anything, we just wanted D-Von to be okay in that match. We tried to protect him as much as we could. He’d had some serious health issues over the years, and we were going to bust our ass to work as hard as we could… We really wanted to tap into the emotion behind the match… the crowd was so emotionally invested, and that’s what made it feel so special.”
Finally, Matt reflected on the famous ladder match spot at WrestleMania 22 involving Ric Flair.
Matt: “Yeah, so they needed a spot… Ric was going to say he was hurt and be carried out of the match and he was going to come back in the end, and he said, ‘I have an idea. Matt, I trust you… Will you suplex me off?’ He said, ‘You’re the only person I trust doing this match.’”
Matt recalled Flair insisting on going higher and later thanking him.
Matt: “I said, ‘All right, you ready?’ He said, ‘No, higher, higher, higher.’… Afterwards, he said, ‘It was easy. Thank you… You took care of me, made sure I got over. I didn’t land on my head, and that’s all I wanted.’”
The interview highlighted where the Hardys are physically and mentally today, while also revisiting some of the most emotional and dangerous moments of their legendary careers.
The Hardys Get Candid on Jeff’s Injury, Retirement Talk, and Emotional Career Moments
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