During a recent edition of his “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, Matt Hardy expressed his opinion that AEW should emphasize creating stories that build to matches instead of prioritizing bouts that generate the stories.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On AEW’s booking: “You have to understand, the online stuff isn’t everything. That is the most die-hard of the die-hards, and it’s really hard to gauge your product on that. And sometimes Tony caters to those people too much, as opposed to casual fans. I think casual stuff is something like you said, the Costco guys, or things from pop culture that you could use. I loved it when Tyson came in that time, and there’s instances like that thing with Shaq. I thought all that stuff was super cool when AEW did it.
“I would say just be more focused. I would prefer AEW to really put a lot of time and thought into giving me a two or three-month story and then build the matches around that story, as opposed to coming up with all these matches and building the story around the matches. Because I feel like they prioritize matches before the moments and stories… I would like to see more focus on mentally — like, the most important thing is the arc of this character or these characters that are doing the story together. Let’s put that together first, and then we’ll build the matches. As opposed to building the matches first and then interweaving the story around that. That is something I think that would improve AEW.”
On AEW using the Costco Guys for AEW Full Gear: “I’m a fan. I don’t know these guys, but I’m a fan of their shtick, right? I love the deal. And I saw their deal with Private Party. The interaction was cute, it was good… I do think AEW should have been doing stuff like this more often. I mean, they are viral sensations, people know who they are. People like it. I think QT on his end, like people give QT a lot of s**t, but QT Marshall is great. He knows what he’s doing, he’s a great heel. He knows how to get people to dislike him. He knows what he’s talking about. He’s smart in the ring and like people hate him, but I mean once again, that’s his job at the end of the day. And this go away heat that people say that’s not a thing. Go away heat is not a thing. There might be people that are sickos that want to watch a match is going to be a banger. They might tune out because it’s not exciting or fast-paced enough for them, but that is not go away heat. Because those guys that are heels that truly get heat, who know what they’re doing, that is something that is necessary and essential for pro wrestling. And I think that’s something that AEW also needs as well.
“But the Costco Guys, as far as that goes, I saw some people like s**tting on that. Saying it was not good, that it was terrible, or whatever else. And one of the tricky spots I think Tony Khan is going to find himself in is, he is catered so much to the sicko audience, there’s going to be casual fans that are going to see things they like and then they might not necessarily — the sicko fans might turn on him. Just because it’s a casual act in something like the Costco Guys, or something like a Broken Matt Hardy, or something that is cinematic, or whatever it may be. You know, if they don’t like it, if it’s not up their alley, which is a niche alley, then they might turn on him. So that’s kind of kind of a weird situation he finds himself in, because I think it’s very important to walk the fine line of trying to appease to everyone.”