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Former WWE Superstar Matt Hardy had to check up on a wrestler after he was annihilated by Mark Henry in a match. The person in question is Erik of The War Raiders, who faced the wrestling legend in a squash match.
Before signing his current WWE contract and winning the Tag Team Titles with Ivar, Erik wrestled The World's Strongest Man on an episode of SmackDown in 2006. He got hit with a vicious clothesline during the match, and it looked brutal.
Erik spoke to Chris Van Vliet in a recent interview and reflected on the match. He revealed that Matt Hardy checked on him afterward but stated that the clothesline from Mark Henry didn't cause him any harm.
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"Yeah, Matt Hardy actually grabbed me after that enhancement match and made to check on me and make sure I was okay. He was genuinely worried that Mark had killed me... So I don't know if this is too much behind-the-curtain stuff. [I was] totally fine. Totally fine. Mark, uh, super professional, awesome, awesome guy. I've known Mark for a lot of years, obviously since 2006. He didn't touch me in the head at all. That was all body on body. I hit his chest, and he's got a big chest right, had a bigger chest back then, too. He was probably, you know, considerably had more weight on him at that point. I hit his chest as hard as I humanly could," said Erik. [58:47-59:46]
Erik says he was hoping to get a WWE contract at that time
The War Raiders member told Chris Van Vliet that he wanted to impress the WWE higher-ups with his selling. He believed they might offer him a contract.
"2006 I'm still living in Cleveland I still have dreams of being a wrestler, you know, being in WWE like thinking that hey, maybe this is my shot right if I do something crazy and they see this maybe they'll maybe they'll you know they'll give me a shot right 'cause I had friends that went in for extra stuff and got signed right there like on that day like Cory Graves." [59:46-1:0:06]
Erik and Ivar lost the World Tag Team Championship to The New Day at WrestleMania 41. Their reign lasted for 124 days.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.
