Matt Hardy On AEW Pushing Vince McMahon To Embrace Forbidden Door Concept, AEW Forcing WWE To Change Its Ways

In a recent interview on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, Matt Hardy discussed his thoughts on AEW using the forbidden door for talent sharing, how AEW has pushed Vince McMahon to embrace the forbidden door concept, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Matt Hardy on his thoughts on AEW using the forbidden door for talent sharing: “It really shows how much AEW is changing and causing the business to evolve in many capacities. Vince McMahon is so protective of his IP and the WWE and because AEW has been as hot as it is, obviously whenever Dynamite started, he took NXT and literally said, ‘I’m not really worried. If we have to sacrifice NXT, it’s fine. Let’s put them head to head.’ With the Wednesday Night Wars, AEW won that, and Vince McMahon specifically put that NXT head-to-head against AEW to try and cut into the audience and try to slow us down from gaining any momentum on his Raw and SmackDown viewerships. That was his initial mindset behind it. Once we started, Tony [Khan] was working with other places with IMPACT – you had myself and Private Party show up on Impact, and we did the story there. You had guys coming from New Japan, from Impact, from NWA. It really made it so compelling and so interesting to watch. You wanted to tune in every single week. Besides the great action and great All Elite Wrestling talent, you never knew who could show up.”

On Mickie James being announced for the Royal Rumble and how AEW has pushed Vince McMahon to embrace the forbidden door concept: “This appearance of Mickie James in the Royal Rumble, I feel like Vince was pushed to do this because now he has to continue to keep up with AEW and how they are unpredictable and how you never know who is going to show up. I feel if there’s no AEW, if there’s no forbidden door, Vince doesn’t do that and doesn’t bring outside talent into the Royal Rumble. It’s great for the business, in general, because it has pushed Vince to change. I feel most people would agree with me on this. Vince and WWE really became stagnant over all those years where there was no competition and he wasn’t pushed. The best time in wrestling from a viewership perspective were the Monday Night Wars because WCW went head-to-head with Raw. They pushed Vince McMahon to come up with new and creative shit. That’s almost what AEW is doing right now to WWE. It also trickles down to the smaller companies and makes business better for them. It’s a great environment for all the fans because there are so many choices. It is unpredictable because AEW has forced WWE to change its ways.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit the Wrestling Perspective Podcast with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.