14 astounding things Matt Hardy revealed on Chris Jericho's podcast - Main issue with WWE, cancelled cross-promotional angle

After several weeks of speculation, Matt Hardy finally made his debut on last night's edition of AEW Dynamite. AEW threw a curveball here with Brodie Lee being revealed as The Exalted One, after teasing for weeks that it would be Hardy. The WWE veteran instead made his debut at the end of the show, soon after Chris Jericho's cohorts had defeated Cody's team.

Jericho announced soon after via his official Twitter handle that an interview with Hardy would be up on Friday, on his "Talk Is Jericho" podcast. Now that the interview is up and free for everyone to listen, we urge you to go and check it out immediately. Hardy touches on a lot of interesting points in this interview, and it's worth listening to if you are a fan.

For the ones who need a quick summary of what happened on the latest edition of Jericho's podcast, check out the points below:

#1 Has nothing but praise for The Dark Order

Over the past few weeks, The Dark Order had been teasing the arrival of The Exalted One, with several tweets suggesting that the mystery man would be Matt Hardy. In the end, The Exalted One turned out to be Brodie Lee.

Hardy praised The Dark Order for keeping the "smart fans" guessing and speculating that he would be revealed as The Exalted One. Matt knew that fans were expecting him to land in AEW, but he was hell-bent on wanting them to guess as to what role he would end up playing in the promotion.

#2 Shares his thoughts on debuting in an empty arena

Matt dubbed his All Elite Wrestling debut as a "home run", even though there wasn't a live crowd to react to the same. Hardy stated that based on the reaction of the TV audience, his debut was a hit.

Fans might be aware of the fact that the Coronavirus pandemic has forced wrestling promotions to hold their shows behind closed doors, without an audience.

#3 He called an audible during the Vanguard-1 spot

Matt Hardy made his AEW debut in style, and seemingly brought along the Broken Matt persona with him. He stated that the original plan for his appearance was to have Vanguard-1 fly back to him, but he called an audible at the last moment when things didn't go according to the plan.

Chris Jericho responded and said that he didn't have any idea about the original plan, and added that improvising spots like these is what the essence of pro wrestling really is. Matt fully agreed with Jericho's statement.

#4 Compared AEW's backstage environment to that of WWE

Hardy has spent the better part of his in-ring career in WWE. He drew comparisons between the backstage atmosphere of AEW and WWE, and said that he felt very "laid back" in AEW.

He added that most of the people he saw backstage in AEW were the ones he had worked with over the course of the past several years, in WWE, Impact Wrestling, and other small promotions.

#5 He shot a bunch of promos and vignettes following his debut

Soon after he made his AEW debut, Matt Hardy went backstage and taped some promos and vignettes. Fans might remember that current AEW Champion Jon Moxley cut a backstage promo as well, moments after he made his shocking debut at Double Or Nothing in May 2019.

Hardy said that he talked with backstage personnel and pithed ideas for promos, to which they responded positively, instead of 'Well, we've got to ask so-and-so, and then we have to ask so-and-so, and then he has to ask Vince.' Hardy said that it felt refreshing to not have any constraints on him.

#6 He described the framework of AEW

Hardy stated that there's an outline that is followed in AEW: where do we want to go, what we would like to do to get there, and how do you suggest we get there. The rest of the work is done by the talent themselves. Hardy dubbed this as 'magic', and "the beauty of this business".

#7 His main issue with WWE

According to Matt Hardy, his main issue with WWE was that the promotion was 'stockpiling' talent, and he was afraid that if he stayed back, his role would be minimized.

Hardy also said that WWE offered him good money to stay, but utilizing his creativity is more important than money for Hardy at this point. He added that WWE takes the fun out of things a lot of the times, and you end up simply being a cog in the wheel

#8 How much time he has left as a performer

Hardy said that he has around 3 or 4 years left in the tank, and he wants to make the best of it. He added that he wants to be creative and have fun with the time he has left in the business as an active performer.

#9 Matt Hardy on which AEW star stood out to him

Hardy seems to be a big fan of Orange Cassidy, and said that he was the first AEW wrestler that stood out to him. He said that Cassidy's character is an incredibly unique thing that could never exist in Vince McMahon's world.

#10 Reason why the "Broken Matt "character was created

Matt Hardy stated that the incredibly popular character of Broken Matt was created so that he would become more entertainment-driven. This was done because Matt knew that he wasn't getting any younger and wrestling for a long time had taken a toll on his body and well-being.

Matt added that he has worked incredibly hard over the past 5 years to get himself in better shape, but at this point in time and at this age, he needs to work smarter and not harder.

Hardy also revealed that the "Broken Matt" character was inspired by "True Blood", a horror series featuring vampires.

#11 Building a character is more important than focusing a lot on moves

Hardy opened up on a much-debated topic, and stated that building a character and connecting with the fans is really important for a wrestler. He stated that this is something a wrestler learns when they're at the end of their careers.

He went on to say wrestlers don't focus on this element until they're forced to, due to injuries that they suffer while doing crazy high-flying spots.

#12 Looks back on his WWE return

When Chris Jericho asked Matt Hardy whether he tried to come back to WWE as Broken Matt in 2017, he said that Triple H was cool with him doing something related to the character in WWE. The 'delete' chants never stopped and thus Hardy got the chance to do something similar to Broken Matt.

He added that Vince didn't understand the concept of the character, and it turned out to be a watered-down version of Broken Matt.

#13 Reveals plans of a cross-promotion storyline with The Young Bucks

Hardy made a huge revelation during his talk with Jericho, and stated that there were plans for Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor to work together for a storyline involving The Hardys and The Young Bucks, that would have spanned 3-4 months.

The reason the angle never came to fruition was that Jeff Jarrett didn't agree to it.

#14 Matt Hardy on what if Triple H was in power during his last WWE run

Hardy had nothing but praise for WWE EVP Triple H and said that if The Game had been the central authority during his WWE stint, things would have been a lot different, and he would have let him do the stuff that he wanted to, creatively.