In the mid-90s, WWF had a tough locker room culture where veterans often hazed younger wrestlers to “test” them. Matt Hardy, speaking on his podcast, reflected on this environment when he and his brother Jeff Hardy joined the World Wrestling Federation.
Matt shared a specific memory of an incident where they were late for a show, highlighting the challenges they faced during that time. Here’s the story:
“Yeah, especially in those days, it was kind of the Wild West days, and thankfully, for wrestlers that followed us, that has changed some. ‘Well, hell.’ JBL was absolutely the master of hazing, and he would make sure the people belonged there.
There was, once we started on the road, it was our second or third loop, maybe. We would do 10 days, we would go, they would do a live TV, they would do a taped TV the next day, and then you would work through the whole week. You do 10 days on, 4 days off.
It’s our third week on the road, and we’re actually flying from the TV to San Antonio, Texas, where our live event is that evening. One of our flights in the connection had totally been canceled, and it just wasn’t happening. They knew we were going to be at the show late, and the opening match of the show was The Hardyz vs. Too Cool.
We get to the venue that day, and these guys obviously all know about it. I remember we walked in the building, me and Jeff, we’re as nervous as you can possibly be. We said, ‘We’re so sorry guys, our flight was canceled, we’re so sorry. We got here as fast as we could.’
I remember JBL said, ‘Well hell, The Hardyz have been on the road for three weeks. Two weeks and a little change, and now they think they’re main-event big-time television stars. They think they’re the champs, that they’re more important than The Undertaker, then the Stone Colds, than all the other top stars here because they just show up whenever the hell they want to.’
We said we let Jack Lanza know, we just got here as fast as we could. We’re gonna try and change real quick because we’ve got to be out there and wrestle in 8 minutes.
[JBL] said, ‘Alright, well, since you’re such a big-timer, I know you don’t want to shake my hand because I’m just a piece of trash, the locker room’s right over there. That’s the locker room you need.’ I was like, ‘Oh, thank you,’ and we scurry, we run over there with our bags. We’re nervous as sh*t, right. We’re new and just starting and rookies, and the last thing we wanted to do was pi$$ off these guys.
We take our bags, and we roll into the room, and whenever the door opens and we take our bags inside, The Undertaker is in the room by himself, back in the corner, naked, wrapping his knees. We go, ‘Oh my god, we’re so sorry.’
JBL said, ‘Oh no, you deserve to be in the dressing room with the main events since you’re a big star, you only stay here at the beginning.’ ‘Taker said, ‘Yeah, go ahead. Have a seat.’ We said, ‘Oh no, we’ll leave.’ ‘No, no, we insist’.
A couple other guys, they made a wall where we couldn’t walk out of this room. We go, ‘Okay.’ Now Taker is just looking at us, naked, just staring us down. We’re changing, getting dressed. ‘Okay, sorry, we’re gonna leave now, we’re going to the ring.’
We go to the ring, we do our match, all good. We come to the back, and we go in that room. Taker’s bag is still there where he dressed. He isn’t there, but our bags, where they were, they weren’t there. They were nowhere to be found.
I remember we came out, I said, ‘Excuse me guys,’ maybe it was Bob Holly, ‘Did you happen to see anyone leave with our bags? They got our clothes and all our money and everything is in those bags.’
He said, ‘Well, no, I don’t know where your bags are. If you came and you dressed in the wrestling locker room and you got here on time, we would have looked after them. Well, you’re in here like a big star, somebody probably walked in and stole them. Maybe you’ll get here earlier next time’.”
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