411’s WWE Table for 3 Report: Club Extreme (Balor and The Hardys)

411’s WWE Table for 3 Report: Club Extreme

-Table for 3 is back with what is hyped as their season premiere. This episode gives up the grouping of Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, and Finn Balor. Away we go!

-Finn starts by saying he had the pleasure of sitting in the crowd at Mania this year when Matt and Jeff made their return to the WWE. He mentions he has had fun teaming with them and is happy to have this chance to sit down with them both.

-They show footage of Balor doing backyard wrestling and imitating the Hardy Boys. They find it flattering and ask the name was of his wrestling promotion. Finn says it was called EWI (Extreme Wrestling Ireland). Matt says they had a simpler name as they were part of the TWF which started as Teen Wrestling Federation and went to Trampoline Wrestling Federation. Matt puts over Shawn Michaels as an influence for both of them and credits the Mania X ladder match with Razor. He tells a sweet story of learning things from that match and coming up with the code name of SRT (Shawn Razor Thing) when they wanted to do it in the ring.

-Finn talks about getting into the business and he first wanted to learn the basics and not all the crazy stuff he had done in his backyard days. Matt says the same happened with them as they came up in development with Edge, Christian, and Matt Bloom. They started in Dory Funk’s camp and it was old school and gave them a foundation. They tell a story of Dory stopping the class as they were getting stiff with each other so he demonstrated how to be safe by hitting Christian with an uppercut and not realizing he caught Christian flush causing his nose to splatter blood. Awesome!

-Matt brings up that they each have different alter egos as Jeff can wear the mask as Willow while Finn has his Demon and then mentions he is known to be a Broken man at times. Finn says that it is a transformation for him as The Demon lets him flow freely and become more aggressive. He thinks everyone has insecurity issues deep down and especially so in this business, and The Demon lets him be someone else. Jeff agrees and says it makes total sense to him as every time he does his face paint he is putting on his alien skin. It is a way to express himself artistically and is a way to show faith and confidence in yourself even if you are different. Finn talks about how the first time he wore the paint he started walking differently and wasn’t sure why he was and chalked it up to this different character.

-Matt talks about his Broken or Woken character depending what you want to call it as I suspects this was filmed prior to the legal fight with Anthem being settled. They do show Woken Matt’s first RAW vignette as it had to be cut in during post production. Matt says he is much more comfortable with that character as nothing is off limits so he can’t look bad or strange. With Matt Hardy he has to be a normal person and stay within certain parameters.

-Matt brings up the reaction they got at WrestleMania because it was such a surprise. He knows there were some in fans that thought they knew, but feels they did a good job of hiding it as can be done in this day and age. I kind of figured it was happening when they made it a ladder match the RAW before Mania and even predicted it in a Pick Em contest I do. They show the return at Mania and it was easily the high point of the show.

-Finn discusses his return the night after Mania and mentions his return has been discusses as early as the Rumble, but was happy coming back when he did as the Post Mania RAW is always one of the most talked about and hyped shows of the year. Al three agree that there is fear with a return after a long absence as you wonder if they fans will respond in a positive way.

-Finn asks them how they feel the company has changed since they left and returned. Matt says he is amazed how massive the company has become globally and how it is more professional and run like a public company. Finn talks about how some of his friends who were extras or lower mid card guys warned him about coming to the WWE and he has found everything to be the opposite of what they said. He puts over Big Show and Orton for being great guys to him and been amazed how welcoming the guys are.

-Jeff laughs as he says it was a bit different when they started in the WWE. Matt says some of the word of mouth that Finn may have heard has some truth to it in certain ways. They were late to one of their first shows due to flight issues and were the opening match. The boys got on them and showed them to a dressing room and it ends up being Undertaker’s dressing room. They go to leave, but Taker tells them they must be big stars as they get to dress with him and tells them to stay. They have their match and when they get back all their bags are missing and JBL says he isn’t sure what happened. Road Dogg ends up letting them know their bags are out by the dumpster. They laugh about it now and Matt says that is something they had to take in stride and it helped them in the long run with the boys.

-Jeff talks about things he still wants to do and he has two: 1) He wants to be in a Hell in a Cell match as either a tag team or singles 2) He wants to have a match on a ring that is rotating like the old WCW rings did at Universal when they filmed WCW Pro. That would be fantastic and is something probably everyone who watched Pro thought of back in the day. Finn hasn’t thought about any specific stipulation matches and just wants to evolve and have a career as long they have had one. He would like to possibly create another alter ego and mentions “Fatal Finn” as that is a character he and Matt have discussed. Intriguing! He thinks it is rare in this business to have something brand new and he puts over Matt and Jeff for both finding new things. Matt wants to be creative and innovative. He is past the point of wanting to win titles and just wants to entertain and create.

-Some small talk to wrap things up as they discuss not really being able to eat their meals since they talked too much. Jeff is looking forward to a match with The Demon and thinks seeing both of them painted up and facing each in the ring is inevitable. I’m all for that match. They all thank each other and that ends this edition.

-This was easily one of the better episodes we have had in quite some time. Finn came off well and the three of them just meshed perfectly. They had a wonderful mix of telling stories while also discussing life in the business and things they each want to accomplish. The run time was a bit longer than what we had been getting as well as this clocked in at nearly 21 minutes. Great stuff here and hopefully it continues with future episodes.