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Recently, former WWE Superstar Matt Hardy recapped the historic ladder match between The Undertaker and Jeff Hardy on RAW.
The Phenom's ladder match against Jeff Hardy in 2002 was the first ladder match of his career and the match that established Jeff as a future singles star.
Speaking about the bout on his The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt revealed that The Undertaker was really nervous going into the match.
"I remember the match pretty vividly because [although] Michael Hayes was the main producer, I helped with the match," Matt said. "I remember hearing from, maybe it was Michael or Vince, that [Under]Taker was a little nervous about being in this ladder match, but he did wanna do it with Jeff and he wanted to be great. He wanted this match to be built to his legacy, like, 'Taker had a ladder match. It was like bada**.' Taker was always very passionate about the things he would do." [36:30 - 37:07]
The AEW star also detailed that The Deadman was completely into the match and wanted it to be historic:
"He didn't want to go in and just have it be like, 'OK, the little guy takes bumps off the ladders and Taker didn't really do anything.' It was important to him. He wanted to make this match great on his end too. I know he was a little nervous about that, which was cool and I love the fact that he was so into to what Jeff was doing and how he was such a great underdog and fighting from underneath. He was all-in on this the whole day." [37:08 to 37:30]
The Undertaker broke character to raise Jeff Hardy's hand after the match
The bout between The Phenom and Jeff Hardy for the WWE Championship was historic in more than one way. Although The Charismatic Enigma was on the losing end of the match, it helped him earn The Deadman's respect and cemented him as a singles star.
The match between the two was built to perfection as Jeff Hardy challenged The Undertaker to prove that he belonged on the big stage. Hardy's never-give-up attitude was on full display as he refused to stay down despite being obliterated by the WWE Champion.
After his defeat, Hardy screamed at The Undertaker, stating that he was still standing, which was met with an unusual reaction from the heel as he raised the challenger’s hand as a sign of respect.
If you use any quotes from the article, please credit The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast with H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for transcription.
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