The execution of Matt Hardy’s All Elite Wrestling debut wasn’t quite what fans had expected, with Chris Jericho claiming Tony Khan wishes the moment never happened.
When Matt Hardy left WWE in March 2020, there was never any doubt that he’d be signing with All Elite Wrestling. He debuted with the promotion the same month, doing so on AEW’s first show held behind closed doors at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although fan reaction to Hardy’s AEW debut was largely positive, there was one gripe that resulted in many viewers’ annoyance with the segment. An idea originated by Chris Jericho saw Hardy first appear in the nosebleed seats of an empty Daily’s Place, before he began teleporting randomly around the seating arrangements.
Chris Jericho, who was Hardy’s main rival during this period, has now revealed this as the one AEW moment Tony Khan wished he said no to on the latest Talk Is Jericho. ‘The Demo God’ was joined by both Matt and Jeff Hardy for the episode:
“Tony was so mad at me. That was the one thing that we were able to squeak through the goalposts of the supernatural wrestling. Afterwards, he was like, ‘I never should have allowed that’.”
Tony Khan has previously discussed regretting the idea of a teleporting Matt Hardy, but he ultimately gave into the idea that had originally been construed by Chris Jericho (h/t Fightful):
“That’s the perfect example of things. I didn’t do very many of them this year. We had many mistakes this year, but I tried to cut down on them. That’s a perfect example of where I wish we hadn’t done it but it was my fault. If I really believed it that strong, I should have stood up and said it.
Your idea was good, but the way we executed it on short notice, it didn’t really look right. It was tough. We were short-handed in the pandemic and we were trying to do cool stuff. I think everybody was happy to have wrestling stuff and we don’t really do stuff like that on the show.”
Matt Hardy surpassed the two-year anniversary of his AEW debut a couple of months ago with the arrival of his brother Jeff into All Elite Wrestling following his own WWE departure last December.
Chris Jericho and The Hardys are just some of the ex-WWE Superstars that have been snapped up by AEW in the wake of them leaving WWE for pastures new; the likes of Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Ruby Soho, and the new AEW World Champion CM Punk join them.