Matt Hardy Says Wrestling Needs a New Star to Change the Business

[punk13]

Matt Hardy Talks About His Future, the State of Wrestling, Working for Tommy Dreamer, More

On the state of the wrestling business: “Nothing’s extremely red hot or extremely stable right now. WWE is set; it’s not going anywhere – it’s always going to be around. People will always complain, but they have so many corporate sponsors and nothing is going to happen with them. There is a lot of speculation about TNA right now, there are a lot of rumors going around; I don’t know anything personally. In my opinion, the better TNA does, the better it is for business. Wrestling is a little hokey nowadays compared to what it should be, but that’s because TV is so advanced. You can’t insult viewers intelligence; you can go online and find out anything.â€

On guys that can carry the torch: “John Cena is the modern day Hulk Hogan in many ways. He takes someone’s finish, he kicks out, and is almost indestructible. It’s always the right guy, in the right place, at the right time. Take Stone Cold Steve Austin: He was an (average guy) in WCW, and he went to the WWE and was the right guy in the right place at the right time to become Stone Cold Steve Austin. Wrestling is still waiting for that next guy to change the direction, to change the business, and make things white hot again.â€

On what will make wrestling boom again: “The content needs to be more sophisticated stories that don’t insult the viewers intelligence. The stories need to be more consistent. You can’t insult the fans intelligence. With the power of the Internet, people know everything. If you insult people’s intelligence, they’ll hit the off button on the remote and that will be it.â€

i have figured Hardy was a moron for years, but he makes a lot of great points. I feel the WWE insults my intelligence quite a bit.

suing Show? He's bankrupt, but you're suing him?

 

[Rated R Superstar]

If you follow Matt on twitter he's actually quite intelligent. I just don't see anybody coming up right now to change things up.

 

[Chris]

Yeah, Matt's not my favorite performer or anything but he's not an idiot when it comes to the business. Then again, these are really things that anyone in the business could tell he, he just said them in a way to make himself seem smarter than he is.

 

[Deezy]

Here's the thing, him acting like the internet is powerful just makes him wrong. Yes I agree the audience shouldn't have their intelligence insaulted, but don't act like this little group on the web is the audience. You act like the audience knows it all, you get 2000 ECW where everyone "shoots" and it waters down the product to the point noone cares.

Anywho, "we need to find a Steve Austin" GREAT FUCKING IDEA!!!! let's just find a once in a lifetime star, because you can find them in a Wal-mart aisle.

 

[John McHenry]

Problem with Matt Hardy much like his brother he acts fucking Blue at times, which turned a great many people off.

To what he said in a way I agree with Deezy you can't just find that guy at random he's gotta have some of his own stuff. You can build one, but often in trying to do that the smarks will hate him and they'll do their best to turn popular opinion against him. But even with that guy he's still has to be at a level which most of the current WWE roster isn't at.

Honestly my theory would be that WWE is just so different from the indy circut these days that when the talent gets to the show it's a whole new thing. Comparatively the local cop compared to a CIA agent. Sure you have the fundamentals but the two are not the same.

 

[The Cork]

Saying generic, vague shit to look correct.

Personally I think both companies have done a great job of making new stars. Who is still an active member of the roster who was around a decade ago? Orton is considered a vet and he's only mid 30's.

Of course there isn't any guys breaking into the mainstream but thats more of a case of there being a ton more shit to watch on TV these days. Wrestling is on a handful of channels out of hundreds.

For all his faults, Punk was very nearly "that guy" two years ago. WWE promoted him well for a month to the point my non wrestling fan friends knew who he was. Nice work for a vanilla midget.

 

[Keith]

Well like others I have been a Hardy critic in past, but a lot of what he had to say there makes sense. Doesn't matter where its written, theres a lot of logic to it.

The business right now is on the verge of going into a mid-90s style decline. WWE is getting a bit more interesting, lets see if they can build on it.

 

[John McHenry]

Saying generic, vague shit to look correct.

Personally I think both companies have done a great job of making new stars. Who is still an active member of the roster who was around a decade ago? Orton is considered a vet and he's only mid 30's.

Big Show, Mark Henry, Cena (you said decade), RVD, Jericho (he'll be back), Goldust, Christian (when he's not injured ), Rey Mysterio, Kane, Lesnar, Taker, HHH. Agreed the last three are kinda meh but of my list you have about 3-4 active at any given time. That's not naming guys that were hired in the same time frame as The Miz that are in that 8-9 year time frame. So there is room for improvement.

For all his faults, Punk was very nearly "that guy" two years ago. WWE promoted him well for a month to the point my non wrestling fan friends knew who he was. Nice work for a vanilla midget.

:bigeyes:

 

[Weez]

For all his faults, Punk was very nearly "that guy" two years ago. WWE promoted him well for a month to the point my non wrestling fan friends knew who he was. Nice work for a vanilla midget.

Don't you EVER fucking break kayfabe again, Cork. [MENTION=71]deezy[/MENTION] will eat your shit.

Literally. Canadians are weird.

That Said, Not a single thing Hardy said is wrong. I didn't take it as he was saying "HEY. WE GOTTA FIND THE NEXT SCSA." I took at exactly as he said it, Wrestling is waiting on that guy to rise. And he's 100% right.

I love CM Punk and I love Daniel Bryan. I have for a long time. They've done a VERY good job in my opinion of adapting to the WWE style and bringing in their own flair and have gotten themselves over with their ability both in and out of the ring. But neither of them is a Cena.

Shit, I'm about to take a ton of heat for this, but For Every Hogan, there is that next tier guy, there is the Macho Man Randy Savage. There is the Bret Hart. There is Triple H. Not bad company at all for those guys to be in, but That's where they are.

Wrestling NEEDS that next guy. Where the fuck is he?

 

[PHX]

To Cork's credit sometimes he will give credit where credit is due so was kind of surprising but kind of not, lol.

Anyways this was a pretty obvious thing to say. Easier said than done THE guy could already be on their roster as a midcard for all they know you just never know. Hardly would think Cena would be who he is today looking back at him in the early stages of his career. I do agree with Matt on the internet factor. No that doesn't mean to book your show to totally appeal to "smarks" but do have to keep it in mind more than ever than this isn't 1993.

 

[Dale]

Wrestling NEEDS that next guy. Where the fuck is he?

Wouldn't be surprised if he was in the MMA scene, their popularity has definitely hurt the pro-wrestling scene.

Anyway, while it's impossible to tell if he's already in the WWE because you never know when something might uncork out of nowhere and we get THE next guy, I kind of don't think he is there. While guys like Big E and Reigns could become main-eventers, I doubt whether they've got that one ingredient.

Is it possible we don't find him for a while and instead just have a group of them to carry that slack?

 

[Cwalker]

Wouldn't be surprised if he was in the MMA scene, their popularity has definitely hurt the pro-wrestling scene.

Anyway, while it's impossible to tell if he's already in the WWE because you never know when something might uncork out of nowhere and we get THE next guy, I kind of don't think he is there. While guys like Big E and Reigns could become main-eventers, I doubt whether they've got that one ingredient.

Is it possible we don't find him for a while and instead just have a group of them to carry that slack?

This is what I think it is. I'll use Triple H's terminology for a second. I don't see another "A+" player on the current roster. And by that I mean another guy who can lead the company into its next era. And because of that I think it'll be Cena, Orton and Bryan still as the guys for the next 10 years. And Orton and Bryan themselves aren't "A+" guys but they'll have to do.

There are tons of guys on the roster who can be main eventers but none of them seem like they can fill Cena's shoes. Hell, at this point none of them look like they can fill Batista's shoes.

 

[Deezy]

I think the problem with making stars is the creative teams conjuring up jokey characters, the biggest stars in the industry were never gimmicks (outside of Undertaker ofcourse) Every major name you could think of, were real people with their personalities amped up. Not a fucking Matador, not some intellectual saviour of the masses, funny ain't money, it brightens up the shows, but noone pays to see them....Watching NXT doesn't give me hope, alot of comedic characters there.

Bray Wyatt will breakthrough imo, just needs to not shit the bed in matches. The guy is different, hillbillies are the in thing right now.

 

[Luke Flywalker]

Hardy's right about finding THAT guy. It's no coincidence that we go from (lets start with Hogan at the peak) Hogan, Warrior, and Macho Man to ... Bret who is making his name. HBK works his way in right as Austin is making his name. Rocky comes in and he starts making his name just in time for Austin to start getting out. Rocky is leaving and Brock Lesnar is there. As Brock is heading out, Triple H is picking up some pieces and John Cena is climbing the ranks, along with Orton, Batista, and Edge. All of those guys are HUGE names at those times. They were there, but more importantly, they were pushed into awesome storylines and never really got dumped on. I think Punk still has a shot at becoming THAT GUY if the E were to give him his fair share instead of constantly plugging him at 10... the lowest point of Raw ratings since Raw started and NOBODY but Austin was ever able to save. Daniel Bryan on the up and up. You've got young guys who have a ton of potential and promise and if WWE has the same sense they had with the guys mentioned above, they'd let them run creatively AND never cop a squat over them and shit in their mouths.

 

[Deezy]

WWE can't find that next guyt, because they can't find a decent replacement for JR in talent relations. On JRs watch, he signed every star out there, and afte he stepped down, not one star was found.