W-O reader Liam Johnson attended last night’s show at the Comedy Store in Manchester, England which featured a Q&A show with TNA’s Broken Matt Hardy. Below is his report.

Inside the Ropes’ Kenny McIntosh opened the show and asked if anyone had heard of What Culture Pro Wrestling.

This lead to Kenny spoofing their drawings by showing a photo on the big screen of him which then became a drawing (if you’ve seen What Culture promo material, you’ll know what I mean).

Reby Hardy was then introduced by Kenny who proceeded to play Matt Hardy’s theme tune on an electronic keyboard (with a piano sound effect). As displayed on Impact Wrestling, Reby is great on piano.

Senor Benjamin then appeared on the big screen (to a great ovation from the crowd) followed by a video compilation with excerpts from Matt’s recent movies that have appeared during Impact Wrestling.

A scene with Matt fighting “Smokin” Joe Frazier the Kangaroo got a particularly strong reaction (as you can imagine). This was actually a really good introduction video and showed footage of the Drone Vanguard 1 targeting an absolute mule (in a field) and Vince McMahon (in Titan Towers) for deletion. This then proceeded to an overheard view of Manchester and then then arriving at the Comedy Store with the message “Target Acquired” on the screen.

Matt then got onto the stage and said the screen behind was obsolete. Matt then asked everyone to sing along with him the words, “you’ll fade away and classify and declare yourself as obsolete” as the screen rolled up.
Matt then mentioned a man in the audience called Joe who was in a wheelchair. Matt mentioned an incident during the meet and greet earlier where Joe got out of his wheelchair and Matt sat in there instead for photos. I saw it happen and it was pretty funny and got a good reaction.

Matt mentioned how Vince McMahon (or as he pronounced it, “Meekman”) “deserved deletion”. Matt put over another one of his short films that will air on Impact Wrestling. This one will end on 15th December and is called Apocolypto. Matt said he’d become the sole promoter of TNA and that the TNA name would be no more. The name would be Total Non-stop Deletion instead.

Kenny asked Matt about “Smokin’” Joe Frazier (the boxing kangaroo). Matt said that a dream match would be between Frazier and Grado. Matt said Frazier would hit Grado so hard, Matt would then be able to understand his Scottish accent.

Matt mentioned how he was talking to George Washington the Giraffe and how when he did a podcast with Jericho (who he referred to as “Brother Keith”), he said that Jericho’s list was George the Giraffe’s idea. As you can guess, Matt was kayfabing parts of this.

Kenny asked about the video segments that have aired on Impact Wrestling over recent months. Matt said that pro wrestling is meant to be fun. Matt out over the Apocalypto match that will be shown in mid-December. Matt said there’d be cameos and that it would change the perception of professional wrestling.

Matt mentioned his jobber days in WWE and said that Jeff and himself were there to be team players. Matt said they were told that the WWF wanted to do something with them in 1997 but they knew they’d arrived after the tag ladder match in 1999.

Kenny asked about Michael Hayes’ involvement with the Hardys. Matt said he learned more from Hayes than anyone else in the wrestling business. The first two weeks with Hayes were fine but they were ready to kill him by week three. Hayes always wanted to eat at places that had a bar. Kenny asked about the tag ladder match and how the old schoolers backstage perceived it. Matt said Steve Austin in particular liked it. Matt didn’t really mention who disliked it.

Matt said that sinking his teeth into “Meekman” would make him ejaculate with joy. Matt then summoned Vanguard 1 (the drone) to get the coordinates of Vince at once. Some crazy random stuff happened in this show!

Matt made the point that professional wrestling has leaned too far to the right of athleticism. Matt said once you’re a spot money, that’s it for you in his opinion.

Matt kept grinning when Kenny tried to ask him a question about Vince’s purchase of WCW. Kenny eventually asked whether everyone in the WWF at the time was interested or excited about the purchase. Matt said it was a dark day in wrestling and that he never thought McMahon ever wanted to run WCW as a separate entity. Matt also said that if you weren’t a WWF creation, you likely wouldn’t have much of a run there.

Kenny asked if there was an “us vs them” mentality. Matt never thought it was that bad. Matt said the moment he knew things would be different was when an arena in Vancouver was half empty. Matt said that with WCW going out of business and 9/11 harming the economy, both hurt wrestling at the time.

Matt was asked whose idea it was to split up. It sounded like it was Vince’s idea. Matt said that Jeff came off well against the Undertaker in a great ladder match and was drafted to Raw. Matt was drafted to Smackdown.

Matt went into the crowd asking for Matt facts. One of the crowd got one of the facts wrong. Matt asked what his punishment should be to which one of the crowd shouted “anal”. Matt said he’d delete the person who got the fact wrong later on.

Matt talked about his match at Mania 19 against Rey Mysterio. Kenny asked who wore more stylish clothes, Hardy or Rey. Matt came up with the fairly diplomatic answer of for more modern fashion, it’s Rey and for older fashion, it’s Matt.

Matt said he was able to get away with a lot more on Smackdown and that Raw was watched by Vince like a hawk.

Kenny asked whether the “Bucks of Youth” (the Young Bucks) would make a cameo in the Apocalypto movie. Matt asked if anyone had seen the “Bucks of Youth” recently in the UK (some people had). Matt said in reality, he liked the Young Bucks and thought they’d done well to make a name for themselves without being in WWE.

Kenny asked which crazy idea from Vince McMahon shouldn’t have been used. Matt answered with “ancient mule” Mae Young giving birth to a hand.

Matt talked about a flight during his WWE days where Vince kept trying to take down Kurt Angle in an amateur style wrestling match. Matt said Vince kept trying but Kurt kept winning. McMahon tried to get Matt to help him cheat but it still didn’t work. Kurt won again!

Matt was asked about working with Edge. Matt said he went out there and was professional at all times (Edge stole Matt’s then-girlfriend Lita aka Amy Dumas and it was a shoot). Matt mentioned how everyone gets put through good and bad experiences but what defines you is how you deal with them.

Kenny asked whether WWE missed the boat with not letting Matt be champion. Matt said that he’ll meet McMahon again and that he was invited to Apocalypto. Matt talked about maybe bring out a cook book just for the hell of it with recipes from his recent film on Impact Wrestling. Matt then had a “powerful premonition” of sitting at a dinner table and eating green beans. To which the audience laughed like crazy.

Matt was asked about Evander Holyfield and said he was more intimidated boxing “Smokin’” Joe Frazier. Matt said that JBL did commentary on Saturday Night’s Main Event. Bradshaw thought he was off the air but mentioned how Evander heard a line from JBL talking about how he wouldn’t trust Evander near his wife (having being married several times with several kids). Evander nearly walked off and no-showed the match.

Matt said it’s important to keep strong continuity and not to insult the fan’s intelligence in professional wrestling.

Matt talked about Roman Reigns and how he should turn heel (and then maybe make him a babyface once his heel run is up).

Matt said he was physically burnt out after leaving WWE in 2010 and should’ve taken a year off rather than join Impact Wrestling straight away.

Kenny talked about the “Fat Hardy” chants that Ring Of Honor fans made towards him and how Matt responded with videos of him bathing in his own money. Matt said that ROH’s (or “The Honorable Ring”) matches are usually good and the fans are so smart, the fans respect the wrestlers so much that they don’t boo either competitor. Matt changed that though at the time though.

Matt talked about having matches with Eddie Guerrero on the second match of the card every night at house shows after Steve Austin walked out. An announcement was made after the first match was made that Austin wouldn’t be there as advertised but if you wanted a refund, you’d have to get one at the end of the second match. To counteract this, Matt and Eddie put on some great matches. However, Matt said that Eddie’s time keeping was awful and the matches overran every time. Jack Lanza (who was an agent at the time) liked the matches but kept telling them off over how long they were going for. Matt said that Eddie was the most gifted crowd reader he’d ever been in the ring with.

Matt said that in TNA, if he’d kept the title longer as “Big Money Matt”, “Broken Matt” might not have happened. It’s funny how things turn out sometimes.

Matt was asked if he’d go back to WWE. Matt said that Apocalypto would bury anything more than the man with three Hs had buried. Matt then said his TNA contract is up in February. Matt said he’d delete McMahon, HHH and Bray Wyatt for trying to have a Wyatt compound (referring to the WWE rip-off of the Matt Hardy movies).

Matt talked about the TNA name and how the people in charge should change it. Matt said they need to change the branding for sponsors etc. as there are no longer strippers in cages like there were when the promotion first started. Matt said the UK should have a new television deal for TNA soon but didn’t elaborate on that (TNA recently lost their UK TV deal).

Matt talked about facing Bully Ray at What Culture Pro Wrestling. Matt said that Vince made Bully obsolete but that he’d delete him. Matt then cut a promo on Bully Ray and posted it on Facebook Live to close the show.

It was a good show. Matt did a good job of staying in character whilst still answering shoot-style questions. Glad I went!