In a recent episode of his podcast, “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy”, TNA wrestler Matt Hardy shed light on the profound influence of Shawn Michaels on The Hardy Boyz and WWE NXT.
Below are some noteworthy highlights from their discussion:
Regarding Shawn Michaels’ impact on The Hardy Boyz, Hardy gushed, “Absolutely, yes. Shawn was our idol. We respected Bret [Hart], of course, and I personally felt I shared more similarities with Bret, especially as we gained more experience. I was the more steady performer compared to my brother Jeff. But we were both greatly influenced by Shawn. He served as a massive inspiration for both of us as the Hardy Boys. We admired everything the rockers did, and it was that which sparked our initial desire to form a tag team and embrace a similar style of wrestling. So, indeed, Shawn played a tremendous part in both mine and Jeff’s career.”
Speaking about his first experience of watching Shawn paired with Marty Janetty as The Rockers, Hardy said “That’s correct, that’s the first time [we saw him]. Seeing him in WWE, doing all that high-flying stuff with the Rockers appealed to us greatly. Their vibrant, trendy look, their popularity with the ladies, their amazing tag team with Marty — we found them incredibly cool.”
On the subject of Shawn Michaels’ substantial influence on NXT, Hardy added, “He is a mastermind, John. He is creating magic, just like the youngsters say. Joking aside, he genuinely possesses an unparalleled understanding of professional wrestling. How it all works – weaving a narrative with a string of moves and actions to make the matches so engrossing. It’s wonderful to see that he’s successfully transitioned from enhancing his own matches to enhancing an entire roster of talent. He’s incredibly adept at assessing all the components of a wrestling show, much like analyzing a chessboard and thinking about the most strategic moves. That’s precisely what he does with NXT on a weekly basis.”
“And I think he’s very strategic. He likely considers it a challenge to not simply work with well-known, established talent, but rather to take those with raw talent under his wing, and build them up to into successful performers. What Shawn excels at, in my opinion, is his innate ability to understand the requirements of a good performance — blending character development with wrestling moves and timing, and hot spots, among other things. He’s leveraged this understanding to propel other talents forward on NXT. Much like Arn Anderson, who has worked tirelessly to grasp every different facet of a character. No matter the nature of the character — be it very serious, vengeful, or comedic — Shawn is exceptionally skilled at comprehending all of this and integrating it into the NXT program in a way that plays to the performer’s strengths and paves the way for their success.”
The talk ended with a clip from Matt Hardy’s podcast featuring Shawn Michaels.