Matt Hardy Reflects On Impact Of No Mercy 1999 Ladder Match

On the latest episode of Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy, the TNA star talked about the Hardy Boyz’ breakout tag team ladder match against Edge & Christian at No Mercy 1999. Hardy credited it with changing how wrestling was viewed and shared a behind-the-scenes story about a follow-up house show. You can check out his comments below:

On the WrestleMania 10 Ladder Match:

“Without the Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon ladder match, we’d never have been pushing to have the ladder match at No Mercy — that’s the match that inspired it. That match was groundbreaking; it was huge, it blazed the trail, and we took it and raised it up multiple levels when we had our first tag team ladder match.”

On Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels:

“They did something new. They had a concept and made it into something really cool that inspired a ton of people to do ladder matches, two of those people being us. We started doing those all over North Carolina — on the indies, whenever we had the opportunity.

“But the tag team ladder match at No Mercy ’99, I really don’t care what anybody says. That match is what made the ladder match a thing and influential. It changed the way wrestling was viewed, and it changed the way stories could be told using inanimate objects — whenever you had the Hardys with ladders, the Dudleys with tables, Edge and Christian with chairs. We changed the game completely there.”

On Not Thinking the Match Would Be Special

“I remember I called Bruce Prichard before one of those [house shows] going, ‘I don’t know, is this right? We just had this epic ladder match.’ And he said, ‘It’s not a big deal, nobody’s going to see it, don’t worry about it, they just need the rub. They need you guys to try to sell some more tickets.’

“That’s when you hear, ‘Take care of yourself,’ so I made a call on that one. Jeff probably didn’t think twice — he’s like, ‘Okay whatever, I’m going to do something spectacular.’ We came to the ring to some real crazy music too, some Limp Bizkit that night, because they didn’t have our music, so we ended up coming out to Limp Bizkit. I saw that clip probably a year ago.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.