Matt Hardy on His Dealings With ‘Italian Stallion’ Gary Sabaugh Early in His Career

– Speaking on his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt Hardy discussed his working relationship with local North Carolinian wrestling talent, “Italian Stallion” Gary Sabaugh. Early in Matt and Jeff Hardy’s wrestling careers, they were getting booked by Sabaugh, who also has taken credit for training the brothers. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Matt Hardy on how they rationalized working with Sabaugh: “I mean, we just rationalized it because we were on WWE Television. We were getting to work with guys we had watched growing up and then we also knew that if there were people there that were impressed with our athletic abilities, that can open up doors, so it was worth doing and even doing all Stallion’s PWF shows, which obviously was for free, but we were learning while on the job. It also gives the opportunity to be booked at these WWE TVs and we always felt if we continue to work that somebody would say like, ‘These guys are special, we can do something with them,’ and lo and behold we ended up being right.”

On an incident with Sabaugh: “So then there was one point where we went to Charlotte to meet Stallion and he left us. He left early and changed the time. Because like, once again, we weren’t paying him anything. That’s where we took it upon ourselves to drive down to Augusta, Georgia is where I think it was. We talked to Chief Jay Strongbow and I said, ‘Hey, Stallion, we’re supposed to come with him and I know you guys ask for us a lot, or some of the talents here does, you can just contact me and I can book our guys and I’ll lead the charge.”

On if he holds any resentment toward Gary Sabaugh: “No, zero resentment [toward Italian Stallion]. Without that opportunity, you know, even though he was taking advantage of us because we’re young kids at the time, I mean, we wouldn’t have gotten to the point where we were at. So I’m very appreciative that he took us there. I’m also very appreciative that we get to work his shows and learn so much.”

On if he experienced affected how he treats other wrestlers: “It really hasn’t changed how I treat other wrestlers. I mean, I treat other wrestlers like I treat other human beings, I try to be very good to everybody, and very fair to everybody. I feel like if you meet someone who has worked with me, they’re going to emphasize how fair and how good I am to people because that’s just how I try and live life. That’s how I treat other people like I would like to be treated. I’m really not down for trying to take advantage of anybody.”

Gary Sabaugh is also said to be the inspiration for Hardy’s Big Money Matt character.