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Matt Hardy Reveals “Someone” Changed Recent AEW Booking, Not Tony Khan

By John Canton • Published 23rd September 2023
matt hardy aew arms out

Matt Hardy has made some interesting remarks about a recent booking being changed, but not by his AEW boss Tony Khan.

It is Matt Hardy’s birthday today as the wrestling legend celebrates turning 49 years old while working in the pro wrestling business for over 30 years. Currently, Matt can be seen teaming up with brother Jeff Hardy for the most part along with some singles matches occasionally.

Prior to AEW firing CM Punk with cause three weeks ago, there were regular stories about how Punk prevented people from appearing at AEW Collision tapings since that was the only regular show Punk appeared on and he had a lot of control over it, including “veto power” in some cases.

When Punk had a lot of influence on AEW Collision, he was able to control what wrestlers were or were not booked for the show. Since Punk didn’t like The Elite (The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Adam Page), they never appeared on Collision in a live setting while Punk was there and friends of theirs were not used on Collision either.

Matt Hardy is close with The Young Bucks, so he wasn’t on Collision since it started in June. Hardy did appear on Collision recently, but that’s after Punk was fired.

An unfortunate twist of fate changed Matt Hardy’s Collision plans in the past

On his Extreme Life With Matt Hardy podcast, Matt went into detail about what happened when he was originally booked for the June 30th episode of Collision, and then things changed.

“I’m actually gonna go into that a little bit because people ask about what happened. So whenever we were in Hamilton, we were there on Wednesday live for Dynamite and Rampage taping for Friday, and then there was a Collision the next night. So I had been asked a few days before I would be willing and free to stay for Collision because Ethan Page was officially turning babyface on that Wednesday night on Rampage. We were gonna be together in solidarity. We were gonna be buddies and have each other’s back. He was gonna protect me in the match we had there.”

“Then that evening, about six p.m., it was clear. They said, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be good.’ From Tony, he says, ‘Oh, that’s great. Thank you so much for doing this, I appreciate it.’ MJF, ‘Thank you so much for doing this, it’s gonna be great. It’s gonna add so much to do it.’ Ethan Page, ‘Thank you so much for doing this. It’s gonna add so much to it.’ Then we do our bit on Rampage. We get out of there, we leave.”

“I drive back to my hotel in Toronto, and it’s almost midnight. Then I get a message from someone in the creative process, and they said, ‘Just so you know, you and Isiah aren’t needed tomorrow.’ I already changed my flight to Friday with the travel prior and everything else, and it was already confirmed by Tony Khan that I was gonna be there. Then we found out that night that I wasn’t gonna be there.”

As he continued, Matt Hardy revealed that somebody caused his booking to be changed, but it wasn’t Tony Khan.

“Then the next day, I couldn’t fly out until four p.m. that day, and then I got to Charlotte. Then my flight to Raleigh kept getting delayed, and eventually It was canceled, so then I had to get a car and rent it and drive home and go to Raleigh the next day and get my car. It ended up being a travel nightmare.”

“I was flying home that morning at 8:30 or 9 a.m to get home and spend the day with my family, but then it cost me a total day and then half the other day because I had to go back to Raleigh and get my car and whatever else. So someone changed that during the day, and it wasn’t Tony Khan.”

“So I don’t know. I can’t point the fingers at any names. But I’ll let people come to their own conclusion. You can make your own deductions out of this. That’s what ended up happening, and that’s why myself and Isiah, we weren’t needed at Collision when everyone had asked us to do it for days on end, and then I said I would, and Tony Khan approved it. Five to six hours later, it was not happening. Which was very strange. So you can make your own deductions on what happened.”

H/T Fightful