Rising to popularity in the same era, Matt Hardy and Rob Van Dam’s careers have often intertwined, leading to multiple interactions together in both WWE and IMPACT Wrestling. They last wrestled each other on IMPACT’s March 31st, 2011 broadcast, as Hardy, Bully Ray, and Sting defeated RVD, Mr Anderson, and Sting in a Steel Cage match.
Despite their chemistry in the ring, Matt Hardy seemingly didn’t always enjoy working ‘The Whole F’N Show’. Talking on his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, the current AEW star admitted that wrestling the 2021 WWE Hall of Fame inductee was often akin to a “potato fest”, referencing RVD’s stiffness:
“I’ll be honest, a lot of times when me and RVD worked, it ended up being like a potato fest. It seemed like that it was very, you know, if he gets aggressive, it just makes me more aggressive too, we’ve had quite a few. Nowadays as I’m a little older, I like working solid, I don’t like working super stiff though.
RVD, especially when he first came in, people were like, ‘Oh my God, RVD is gonna get the sh*t out of you’, he would lay them in. But I love Rob and I love working with him and would work with him every day of the week.”
Matt Hardy Celebrated His Three-Decade Wrestling Anniversary
Having debuted in October 1992, Matt Hardy recently celebrated the three-decade anniversary of his in-ring debut, which saw a plethora of wrestling legends paying tribute to the one-time ECW Champion. Throughout his career, the older Hardy brother has wrestled for just about every notable promotion, holding championship gold everywhere he went.
Despite the success he had alongside brother Jeff throughout the Attitude Era, arguably the biggest talking point of Matt’s career was his seminal 2016-2017 run in IMPACT Wrestling as ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy. This saw him earn the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Best Gimmick award, reigniting a fire that drew fans back into the Anthem-helmed promotion.
Now residing in All Elite Wrestling, Matt Hardy last wrestled on 21 September for a match aired 23 September, entering the Grand Slam Golden Ticket Battle Royal.
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