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-Welcome to 411’s Weekly Live Coverage of WWE Backstage. Tonight we have Jeff Hardy on the show which is interesting timing considering his brother is now a free agent after his WWE contract expired. We’ve also been promised that a new member of this year’s Hall of Fame class will be announced as well. Join me as we go live in about 10 minutes.

-Show opening!

-Renee Young welcomes us to WWE Backstage and she is joined by her co-host, Booker T, and this week on the panel we have Mark Henry and Paige. Renee wishes Booker T a belated Happy Birthday.

-Week in Review: Taker returns at SSD, Brock destroys Ricochet and Goldberg wins the Universal Title. On SmackDown Reigns vs Goldberg is set for Mania, Braun gets tricked into a 3 on 1 match and Fiend vs Cena is also on for Mania. On RAW we have new Tag Champs in the Street Profits, Drew gets the best of Brock, and Orton continues to rule all as he cut the promo of his career and gave Beth the RKO.

-They come back to discuss Goldberg winning the Universal Title and Booker says the internet was a buzz. They all laugh about the outrage from the internet fans. Booker is a fan of the move as he talks about Goldberg being a draw and star the likes of Austin, Hogan, etc. Marks talks about Cena returning and it was the best thing he has seen in a while in the WWE. He loved the reaction the crowd gave Cena and wants to see more of him. Paige calls him a genius and Booker puts him on the same level as Goldberg.

-Back to Super Showdown and now they talk about Taker’s return. Renee wants to know if they are with or against the outrage of the internet fans. They don’t really answer and just focus on AJ making a rookie mistake against Taker. Booker says AJ having a match with Taker will be the biggest moment of his career. Booker was a fan of AJ pinning Black like Taker does to his opponents.

-Now they discuss Beth Phoenix showing up on RAW and eating an RKO. We get a recap of Orton’s awesome promo as I will give credit as they gave a great explanation for Orton’s actions. Paige puts over the promo work and she wants to see this Edge/Orton match as the Main Event for Mania. Paige can relate to both sides with Edge trying to come back for injury and Orton talking about redeeming himself after making personal mistakes. Mark Henry also thinks this match should be the Main Event. He calls the angle masterful and Broadway. He says they rip on people for the scripted promo, but that wasn’t a scripted promo. Booker agrees as Randy was feeling that promo like nobody he has ever seen. Booker isn’t condoning putting his hands on a woman, but his mama told him if you are big enough to pass a lick, then you are big enough to take a lick.

-Commercials!

-Jeff Hardy is here as he makes his way in studio to join Renee for a sit down interview. Renee mentions Jeff has been out for 9 months and Jeff says he has been cleared. He was at SmackDown the last two weeks and now it is just waiting for something to do. He says he is still very rusty and he needs to get back his conditioning. He is ready to feel it again and his mind has been working on new things to do. He calls the knee surgery a blessing as his dad was in bad health and he was able to stay home with him. He talks about getting in trouble in Oct and he made the decision to go to in patient rehab for the first time. He has a clear mindset right now and he knows there is something left for him to do in the WWE. He talks about his daughters (9 years old and 4 years old) and says he was able to clear off and fix his moto-cross track.

-Renee brings up that Matt’s contract has expired and Jeff says he doesn’t talk to him about that. He knows they will be fine if they end up in different wrestling worlds. He talks about how Matt had all the injuries in the early years and he was fine, now it has been reversed the later parts of their careers. They talk about the crazy style they did with TLC matches and what not and Renee jokes that she has heard Jeff has rubber bones. Jeff talks about being a fan of Sting as a kid and that’s why he likes painting his face.

-Jeff is a fan of The Street Profits winning the tag titles and admits he marked out over the title switch. He just wants to be back in the mix again. Renee asks about the new stars that are doing crazy, high flying things and how they were influenced by Jeff. He calls it strange and he has learned to take things one day at a time. He admits he drifted away from the question. They show photos of a young Bayley dressing up in Hardy gear. Jeff admits that Matt is much better at giving advice while he is more one to tell people they had a good match. He doesn’t like telling people what to do. Renee asks if there is an opponent he wants to face and he says he thinks there is something for him and Roman to do together.

-Commercials!

-Hall of Fame is set for Thursday, April 2 and it’s time to announce the latest name. The newest member will be: JBL. I saw rumors it would be the APA, but JBL on his own seems a better fit as Ron is already in and the APA was fine for a mid card tag team. We get a video package of JBL’s career and he is called one of the greatest bad guys of all time. JBL is a Grand Slam Champion and he also had a long run as a WWE color commentator.

-JBL is here and he joins Renee, Booker, and Mark in the ring. He is obviously elated and they all joke that there is a lot of Texas on the set. JBL says he got the phone call from Vince McMahon and it is a private matter between the two of them. He says he has been a lucky person and the reality of his career has exceeded the dream. He says the JBL character is defined by Eddie Guerrero and he as a person is defined by Ron Simmons. Meeting Ron was the biggest break of his career and for the JBL character he owes everything to Eddie Guerrero. He admits the JBL character wasn’t working and he thought it was going to be one and done, but it was Eddie and Chavo that came up with the idea for him to attack Eddie’s mother. He talks about the heat he got and they were able to draw a big crowd at Staples Center. Eddie was feeding him all the lines to say and JBL told him he was going to get him killed. He says without Eddie, he would not be here today and would not be in the Hall of Fame.

-Mark talks about JBL being a great heel and if he missed out on not letting the fans in on the fun. He says no as he was old school and wanted everyone to hate him. He didn’t want merchandise, he didn’t want a section cheering him or didn’t want to be a cool heel. His job was to get booed and he didn’t want the fans to see it was an act. He tells a story about Curt Hennig hearing a fan cheer him and booing Hillbilly Jim, so Curt spit his gum out and swatted it so it hit the fan in the face. The fan then booed him. Nice!

-John Cena is here via prerecorded message to congratulate JBL. He thanks JBL for putting him over at Mania for the strap. He hopes they can get together over Mania weekend to relive some of the moments they made together. He says JBL has earned everything and thanks him again for helping him.

-JBL relates the story of Vader pulling him aside before his last PPV match and telling him he was going to get the old Vader so that a win would mean something. He felt honored by that and he took that as a lesson to make sure that someone beating him would mean something. JBL says he doesn’t take any credit for what John became and Booker and Mark say he should because they do. Awesome!

-They talk about the charity work that JBL has done. He works with inner city kids as he says we have done a horrible job helping them. He works with Memphis City Inner City Rugby as a way to get them scholarships and get into a better situation. He doesn’t put things of twitter to self promote what he doing, but does it so people can learn about it and use that platform to raise more awareness and more money. Renee congratulates JBL one more time for becoming the next member of the Hall of Fame.

-Commercials!

-Back with KO making his WWE in ring debut against Cena at Elimination Chamber. It started with him answering Cena’s US Open Challenge and dropping him with a pop-up powerbomb. KO calls the moment surreal as he was still just starting out with NXT and was the Champion. He was just ready for that night and wanted to show people he was ready to be in that spot long before he finally got there. They go out and have an outstanding match which goes down as one of the best by someone making their in ring main roster debut. KO gets the shocking win and says he loved seeing the looks of the faces of the kids in the crowd. He beat the franchise that night.

-Renee is with Paige and she talks about Paige having a similar shocking debut as she was called up from NXT and dethroned AJ Lee in her first match. Paige jokes that JBL is the one that stripped her of her NXT Woman’s Title. Paige calls it an incredible experience as NXT wasn’t as big back then. She is still salty that JBL took her NXT Title away from her.

-Plug for Elimination Chamber this Sunday.

-Booker T, JBL, Jeff and Mark discuss what it’s like to work in an Elimination Chamber match. Booker mentions he was in the first one and he felt like a crash test dummy. He is claustrophobic and hated being in that pod. Mark says he is still feeling the effects from taking a double suplex on that chain link floor. He was praying that pod wouldn’t open. JBL says he also didn’t want to be there. Booker says that structure is meant for someone like Jeff. He had crazy ideas and wanted to crawl up to the opening and do something from there, but it wasn’t possible. JBL jokes that if Jeff says it isn’t possible, then it’s not possible. Booker didn’t like being in that environment but knows people have made careers in that match. Mark says there is nothing like that match and you can’t compare it to a cage match or even WarGames. Everyone says they don’t want to do that match anymore after being in one of them and Mark thinks they should be for the guys who have never been in one. JBL was freaked out because Jeff was nervous for the match and that told him he didn’t belong in a structure like that.

-Commercials!

-WrestleMania Moment: Mania X-8: Hogan vs Rock. Still awesome and still the most fun I have ever had watching a match.

-That leads to a video package of Jeff Hardy doing crazy things at Mania that no sane person would do. The spear off the belts at Mania X-Seven is still jaw dropping. Doing crazy things 17 years later at Mania 33 shows the man is still crazy. Jeff loved the return at Mania 33 and the reaction they got. He loves the spear at Mania X-Seven though and Renee calls the moment immortal. Jeff talks about the return at Mania 33 and mentions they had a match the night before with a big tag team (Bucks of Youth) and was pretty beat up after that match. He says the moment was a good experience as they had to lie to everyone and did all they could to keep it a surprise. It was a great moment, but I assumed something was up when they changed the match into a ladder match a week before the show. Jeff mentions again he has 2 daughters and if they want to be in wrestling he would like to see them win the Women’s Tag Titles.

-Commercials!

-Social Media SmackDown: someone calls out JBL on twitter. He tells the fan that his mom was probably one of his ring rats and that he should turn off the wi-fi in his basement. He hopes he enjoys his two minutes of fame and says he will unblock him just to block him again. Mark asks if they still have rats and Renee loses it as does Paige and we are out on that note.

-Thanks for following along.