Matt Hardy Explains Jeff’s Fall At Double Or Nothing As A Setup For HOOK

On a recent episode of his podcast The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the host took some time to dispel rumors surrounding Jeff Hardy’s slip during his Whisper in the Wind maneuver at AEW Double or Nothing (per Fightful). Matt explained the rationale behind having Jeff botch the move in order to set up their ally HOOK to take the finish for the match. You can find some highlights from Matt’s explanation and listen to the full episode below.

On the preparation phase before the show: “Jeff was very nervous. All throughout the day, he said, ‘I just can’t wait. I can’t wait until we get this shit over with.’ He was ready to get through that match. He just wanted to get it done. It’s so funny because Jeff said I know people are going to have low expectations for me, they think I’m not going to be good, they think I’m not going to be crisp. He was in great shape, cardio-wise, everything else, he was in great ring shape as far as that goes. So it was Jeff’s decision, we programmed once specific spot where it looked like he made an error, which he didn’t make an error, and it was specifically just to stop him after he made this big, beautiful comeback. The amount of people that it’s still so easy to get in pro wrestling, it never ceases to amaze me, especially when something is done intentionally. Sometimes there’s things done intentionally for the help of telling a certain story.”

On their strategy for Jeff’s fall: “The original thought [at] the beginning of the night was that I would beat Ethan, and I don’t think I needed to beat Ethan. I did in the Firm Deletion. To me, that was my moment, and doing it in a cinematic match here at the Hardy Compound, that’s as good as it gets, for me getting my comeuppance on Ethan. Then it could have been Jeff or HOOK, and both Jeff and I decided that HOOK should ultimately take the finish. So we were gonna highlight Jeff, let him be a big star, let him go on a kickass comeback, do all his stuff, and to transition to segue to getting HOOK in there for doing the finish, that is why we implemented that Jeff Hardy slips on the Whisper in the Wind spot, to get HOOK get in there and let HOOK ultimately take the finish and get the win and get the rub by winning the match that includes Matt and Jeff Hardy.”

On the execution of the staged error: “Yeah, he was fine. Full transparency, he wanted to go up and just slip the one leg off, but he got his one leg caught over the top rope a little bit, which is something he didn’t want to do, but the slip is obviously something that had been thought ahead of time. It was okay though. It was hard, and it looked nasty, and everybody thought, ‘Oh my god, that looked so crazy. Was he alright?’ Yeah, he was fine.”