Matt Hardy recalls pitching a super-group idea to Vince McMahon.
At WWF No Mercy 1999, The Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian faced off in a ladder match to secure the managerial services of Terri Runnels. The match was an instant classic and paved the way for the TLC matches that would come in the future.
Speaking about the match on the debut episode of his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt gives credit to Vince McMahon for properly reading the room following No Mercy and understanding that both teams were going to be extremely respected by the audience. He notes that having the two teams shake hands the next night on Raw was the correct call.
"They were very smart, and I would imagine this was a Vince call. Vince read the room correctly following that match and it was a new era of wrestling where fans were starting to dictate what they enjoyed more and they were going to start dictating who gets over courtesy of their work rate. There were all these times where WWE would push someone and they would force or manufacture some sort of superstar on the fans and sometimes they would buy into it. We were getting to that period, to where enough people understand wrestling to where they couldn't manufacture a superstar. It has to happen organically. That's what happened that night. Vince knew that myself, my brother, Edge, and Christian were going to be extremely respected. People dug our work ethic and we did something, we did some groundbreaking stuff the night before. He did that call to shake hands and have a mutual respect for one another and we were a mutual admiration society. It was the correct call," Hardy said.
Continuing on, Matt shared that he pitched a group consisting of himself, Jeff, and Edge & Christian to go up against D-Generation X. Of course, that never happened as Edge and Christian turned heel and their legendary rivalry would continue to grow.
"Going forward, I actually pitched, initially, my idea was to have us together as a group and work against DX," Hardy began by saying. "I wanted our group to be Version 1 of the Hardyz and Edge & Christian. That's initially where I came up with the Version 1 concept. We were like the version one of the prototypes of wrestlers that you would see in the future. That didn't end up happening, what ended up happening obviously, Edge & Christian would turn heel and we would continue our feud and go onto TLCs and whatnot. As far as that night goes and having that mutual respect, it was the right call. There is a look on my face where you see my eyes come up and they are opening wide, I was overwhelmed that the crowd gave us that big of a standing ovation 24 hours after our match. I was emotional. That look you see wasn't working or manufactured. I couldn't believe the people were applauding us to that level and so appreciative of our hard work and us busting our ass for them the night before."
Matt and Christian are now both members of the AEW roster, with Matt managing his Hardy Family Office stable and Christian mentoring Jurassic Express. Edge remains with WWE and is currently featured in a program with The Miz. Jeff was recently released by WWE and is a free agent.
If you use the quote above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.