AEW star Matt Hardy has revealed that he had encountered several months of backstage heat with WWE Hall Of Famer The Undertaker during his WWE tenure.
The Undertaker was upset with Hardy for actions during major WWE angle
Speaking on his ‘Extreme Life’ podcast, Hardy opened up about attracting the displeasure of The Deadman after his actions at the end of the Survivor Series 2005 event.
Hardy noted that he was originally scheduled to be a part of the men’s Survivor Series match before plans changed and instead he was set to take on ‘Latino Heat’ Eddie Guerrero at the premium live event held at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. Sadly Guerrero passed away two weeks before the show which left Hardy without a spot on the card, something he admitted to showing great frustration at.
The former ECW Champion was later asked to be part of a show closing angle featuring the shock return of The Undertaker to continue a memorable feud with ‘The Viper’ Randy Orton.
“But it ends up there was a list of names of people that were going to be in the ring at the end, like celebrating. And then, you know, Taker comes to the ring, and then he was going to clear some of those guys. And my name was on it. I was going to Vince at that time because I had you know, I had Facetime with him.
I want to say was I meant to be on this list. Do you want me to be out there? He said well yeah, I think it’s fine. Because I need someone you know that people give a sh*t about out there. It’s very good to have some equity out in the ring whenever Taker comes. So it doesn’t just look like a bunch of extras who are just gonna get beat up and Taker chokeslams. [Matt asks Vince] So what do you want me to do? [Vince responds] Oh, don’t don’t, you know, don’t take a chokeslam, don’t get beat up, just powder out. You got to figure out how you want to really just powder out, I don’t want you to bump. So okay, cool. So once again, we went out there, we did that. And I was planning on powdering out.”
Hardy, who also spoke of his first terrifying encounter with The Demon Of Death Valley, would go on to reveal that his reactions during the return were not what the company had expected;
“But there was a part of me that was just so frustrated. And once again it is my fault, I will be accountable for it. And just when Taker came out, I was like laying on the ropes. And I didn’t react to him. Like I should have been looking back in hindsight like what a dumb move it was. And I was just mad because I didn’t get my spot, once again, which was very dumb. It was a great lesson for me to learn, like if you’re going to do anything, like go all in on it. And that was a great lesson that I learned at that time. I was upset because I wasn’t getting a match or a great spot on the pay-per-view that I was going to be getting. So that was like a little bit of a temper tantrum. So once again, I’m accountable for it.”
The North Carolina native confirmed that The Undertaker was furious with his actions and whilst he accepted Hardy’s apology, the next few months were spent on the losing end of his encounters as punishment for his indiscretions;
“And then for the next two or three months, there were points where I was just pretty much doing jobs. I was putting people over the majority of the time and that was my punishment. And I’m pretty sure that’s what pushed Viscera to do the deal, like people talk about that Royal Rumble clip where he jumped on me and he was like giving me his gimmick. Once again, it was just like, I was having to pay my penance. And I did it for like, three months, and I just rolled with it. And then at the very end, there was a point where I talked with Taker, and he said, Thank you for apologizing, we’re good. And then just everything stopped.”
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