Matt Hardy Recalls WWE Signing Off On Hardys Doing Supercard of Honor Before WrestleMania 33

The Hardys made their WWE returns at WrestleMania 33, but they did ROH Supercard of Honor the night before and Matt Hardy recalled the situation on his latest podcast. Matt talked about their 2017 returns to WWE at WrestleMania on the latest Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, and you can see some highlights below (per Fightful):

On WWE reaching out to them in 2017 when their Impact contracts expired: “Michael called me and said, ‘I never thought I’d be making this call. Vince really wants you guys to come home, especially with everything you guys have done, he’s been keeping up with you. He wonders why they keep chanting Delete at WWE events.’ ‘Why do they keep saying Delete? What the f**k?’ ‘It’s the thing the Hardys are doing.’ ‘Yeah, we’re totally down.’

“He said, ‘I’m going to have Paul [Triple H] call you.’ ‘Please do.’ I caught up with Michael, personal stuff, then Triple H reached out, spoke to him, we talked about terms and how long we wanted to go. We said we didn’t want to do this for five years, obviously, we don’t know how much longer we have left, we’re obviously getting a little older and we came to a comfortable arrangement and they gave us an incredible offer. We went back to WWE making the most money we ever made there for a guarantee.”

On if WWE signed off on their appearing at Supercard of Honor the night before WrestleMania 33: “100%, I talked to Vince, I talked to Hunter, and they were totally cool with it. Hunter was my main point of contact throughout this negotiating. This might be hard to believe, but I am the business guy of the Hardy Boys. I did all the talking, Jeff trusts me with that, and it’s best that way. I spoke with Hunter. I remember speaking with Michael Hayes. That was my first contact.

“I told Hunter, ‘I spoke with the Young Bucks, we had a thing worked out where we would do an inter-promotional angle between TNA and Ring of Honor, it’s still on the table, we can go to ROH, win the tag team titles, hold them throughout, and drop them the night before WrestleMania,’ which is where they had in mind we would make our debut. A month out, that’s when they knew they wanted us to start. We could fill that time and portray the image that we would be working with Ring of Honor as a red herring to keep people guessing. Hunter was down for it. He said, ‘Keep me clued in for every bit of it, keep me up to speed, stay in contact.’ I did, I stayed in close contact with Triple H.”

On WWE being worried about Jeff getting hurt at the ROH show: “Early in the day, right when we get in the venue, Michael Hayes calls me and is like, ‘Don’t let Brother Nero go out there and kill himself tonight. I know this is a ladder match, but f**k it, it’s not important. Tomorrow is WrestleMania. That’s the real ladder match. make sure he doesn’t kill himself tonight.’ ‘Okay, I will do as much as I can to make it controlled chaos. I will take care of him. He is unpredictable. he might go into business for himself out there.’ ‘Look, I’m telling you, Vince is worried one of you guys are going to get hurt and it’s going to be f**ked up. Make sure it doesn’t happen, okay?’ ‘Alright, thanks wrestling daddy.’

“About an hour later, we’re talking about the match, I’m looking at my phone, the man with three Hs [Triple H], ‘Hey man, I just want to make sure, you’re going over Jeff’s spots, right? You’re making sure he’s not doing anything stupid. Tomorrow is WrestleMania and we have big plans. You guys are having a smart, easy ladder match, right? Let the Young Bucks do all that, they’re young and healthy.’ ‘Of course, it’s going to be good, we’re going to take care of them. We’ll see you tomorrow.’

“We start going over more stuff, we’re just going over the spot with Nick [Nick jumps off one ladder to another, jumps off that ladder onto the ropes, does a swanton onto Jeff] and Jeff is like, ‘May I can go off the top, through the table.’ ‘Ah well, maybe you just get backdropped out instead. It’ll be easier.’ I see my phone again, [Triple H], ‘Hey, we’re finishing up (putting together) the match, we have a long line and are gonna start an autograph session.’ ‘Hey, Vince just wanted to buzz you. (Vince speaking); Look, f**k, make sure Jeff doesn’t do anything f**king stupid and cripple himself tonight. I know how he is. Reel him in. Tomorrow is WrestleMania damnit!’ ‘Yes sir, I got it.’ ‘Alright, see you tomorrow, be smart, f**k.’ They were adamantly trying to send a message to me, ‘Don’t let this motherf**ker kill himself.'”