During the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, the Hardy’s (Matt and Jeff) talk on injuries, TNA on AMC, retirement, some of their wildest moments and Team 3-D.
On where they are at in their careers:
Matt: “I gotta tell you, Chris. So Jeff’s had this neck issue, and we had our big pay-per-view match at Genesis against The Righteous. I tried to do the majority of the match, I was in there, I was taking the heat and the bigger bumps, we’re trying to protect him as much as possible. The meet and greet was massive at the end of that. We signed for like five and a half hours, we got back to the hotel, slept 90 minutes, two hours at the most, and got in the plane, flew back home. I remember getting out, and I was like, Oh my God. I felt like I was crippled at the end, it’s wild. These meet and greets are great, but sometimes they are tough, especially if we don’t have the ample time to sleep afterwards.”
Jeff on how his neck is doing:
Jeff: “It’s better. This past Monday and Tuesday, it felt really good. Then we flew out here, and I fell asleep a little funky on the plane. I remember jerking my head up one time, and it hurt. So it was hurting a little more than it did Monday and Tuesday. But overall, man, it’s feeling good. It’s definitely better. So this has been a little over three months now. I’ve been dealing with two bulging discs on the left side of my neck, and this happened when we dropped the titles at the NXT Halloween Havoc show. It was one of those things, you couldn’t even tell, it looked completely fine. I landed flat, but I was on the big guy’s shoulders. The one guy jumped off the ladder, clotheslined me off. The idea was for me to go through the table, but I kind of overshot the table, and he just broke the table, and my head just hit the mat, and it was a little whiplash like that. It felt terrible. I mean, it definitely felt like a concussion, and I was close to being knocked out, but that’s when it happened. Two bulging discs on the left side of my neck, but I’m feeling much better.”
On a scale like one to 10, how much pain do each of them think they are in right now:
Jeff: “Right now, I would say maybe a five. It’s not bad at all.”
Matt: “But his 5 is massively different from a normal person’s five. We’ve also just been very cognizant of, you know, it’s been protect Jeff at all costs. So done what we’ve had to do to try and work smart and not make things worse in this issue. So far so good.”
On the the Swanton always being Jeff’s finisher and the high risk that comes with it:
Jeff: “Yeah, and back to AMC. This is such a big deal for TNA, but we did a commercial where we had to go through a table, and Matt was gonna do something.”
Matt: “I don’t know if you saw that. We were the first people that found out that it was 100% definitely AMC [as TNA’s new home]. We had to go do the shoot with the AMC people, and it was the closer of the commercials. I did a leg drop through a table, and he did a swanton, and it was his first time doing anything since he knew he had this neck issue.”
Jeff: “The whole building up to that [I was going] I don’t know if I should, this might be one of those times I just say, I got to stand my ground and say, I can’t do that. My necks hurt, I can’t do that. But I knew it was something big. I didn’t know it was AMC, so I said it’s kind of like riding a bike. I’ve done it so many times, I can do it, and I think I’ll be all right. So, I mean, it hurt a little bit doing it, but man, a few days later, when we found out officially it was AMC, I was like, that was totally worth it. But that was a scary morning for me, not knowing and I hadn’t had my MRI done yet. I think the week after we filmed that was when I got the MRI, and that’s when I found out it was two bulging discs. I got the call and they said, Oh, here we are. You got two bulging discs, and the options are to speak to [a doctor], or a pain management plan. I was like, Oh, I don’t know. I think I’ll just deal with the medical team at TNA, and maybe they can help guide me through the healing process. Luckily, I’m feeling much better. But that was scary. On that phone, I was going, oh my god, this might be the end of my career, the beginning of the end, because I haven’t been hurt in four or five years, I’ve been super good since I’ve been doing the ice baths. It’s the first major injury I’ve had since doing cold plunges. I remember telling the DarkState guys after that match, oh, it ain’t nothing a little cold water won’t fix. I got home the next day and I got in the cold water, and when I got out, it’s like it made it worse. It’s like it hurt more. I did it on the second day, and I was going, Oh, my God, maybe I don’t need to do the cold water. So my mind was just freaking myself out. So I laid off the ice baths for a while, and it seemed to feel better, but, yeah, now I think I’m back to the points where I can rebuild. I’ve kind of rebuilt my armor, and now that I’m healed enough to get back in the cold water and to hopefully avoid injury from here on out.”
On if they are nearing the end of their careers:
Jeff: “I try not to think about it, especially with seeing the Cena retirement tour, naturally, because we’re the same age. He’s a little older than me, but I’m 48 and I’m like, oh man. AJ, same age, he’s talking about maybe retiring soon. I mean, I think about it, but the way my career has went over the years, the ups and the downs, I just hope I can do it for as long as I can. I think that’s the way I’m going to do it, because after this neck injury, I feel like my performances are naturally going to get 1,000% better, because I’m so excited about this whole AMC deal and being in TNA and continuing to evolve. But yeah, I try not to let the thought of the end enter my consciousness.”
Matt: “Wrestling Twitter has been trying to retire us for years now, and they still do. They’re trying to book our retirement matches nonstop. But we feel good. As long as we feel good, we’re gonna keep going.”
On if it would be the ultimate dream to retire as the Hardys:
Matt: “I think so. I just feel like as we’re a little older, it’s nice when we kind of get to share the workload, as opposed to doing a singles run. [But] who knows? I mean, with TNA, maybe if that’s something they need. And it’s funny, you were talking about the whole AMC deal earlier, like we both take a lot of pride in that, because we were a major factor in this AMC deal happening. We’re both so proud of TNA for getting to this point and being on this major platform and we really want to lead it into the future. I want TNA to be a place that is a stable wrestling company where people can come and make a living and it is in the conversation with all the other top companies.”
The craziest moves each of them have ever done:
Jeff: “Craziest move that Matt’s ever done? I would have to say it’s got to be a leg drop off the top of the cage.”
Matt on the craziest move Jeff has ever done: “I still think it’s that Swanton that he did in the impact zone, because it is so crazy. Was that the first Bound for Glory? He did a Swanton, it wasn’t just off the stage, it was to Abyss. He went up on whatever the structure was behind that and jumped over the stage. I mean, he just had so many hurdles it felt like he had to get over. And if he missed, it would have murdered him if he had been off in any capacity, and he pulled it off to perfection. It was wild. He calls it the sketchiest Swanton he’s ever done, and it really was. It’s still crazy. Jesus Christ, I mean, you make one little mistake on that, like you’re done.”
On the the final match between the Hardys and Team 3-D at Bound For Glory 2025:
Matt: “It was definitely emotional. So I’ll tell you this, I’ll be fully transparent. D-Von, we just wanted to get him through this last match, we knew he was retiring, this was it. We want him to go out on this great match with career rivals. We had no idea they were going to both take their boots off, and we definitely didn’t know they were going to give them to us. Jeff had just asked at the end, ‘Hey, is that a thing?’ I said it wasn’t, but I think it is now. He said what we’re going to do at the end to show you the respect and say you guys have won this battle. Whoever wins this is the greatest of all time. We have something we’re going to do, but we don’t want to tell you, is that fine? I said, that’s great. Let’s just do in the ring. Let’s get a very authentic, genuine reaction, and that’s what that was. More than anything, we just wanted D-Von to be okay in that match. We tried to protect him as much as we could. He’d had some serious health issues over the years, and we were going to bust our ass to work as hard as we could, because those guys haven’t been working a lot. Bully has been working here and there, doing some stuff. But we wanted to bust our ass and we really wanted to tap into the emotion behind the match. What was great, even in the beginning, we had to start the match so the crowd would stop chanting. So the crowd was so involved in it, and they were so emotionally invested, and that’s what made it feel so special.”
All quotes are courtesy of Insight with Chris Van Vliet.
The Hardys also talk on if AMC wants cinematic matches, their WWF debuts on May 23, 1994, Jeff’s screwdriver spot with Randy Orton, Matt’s ladder spot with Ric Flair at WrestleMania 22 and more!
You can watch the full interview below: