Matt Hardy Gives Thoughts On Jeff Hardy’s Bray Wyatt Tribute
Matt Hardy has praised his brother Jeff for a recent tribute to the late Bray Wyatt.
The legendary tag team joined forces with Masha Slamovich to battle The System & Tasha Steelz on the 19th September edition of TNA Impact, ultimately picking up the victory over Jeff Hardy pinned Bryan Myers after a Swanton Bomb.
It was the younger Hardy’s choice of face paint that captured the headlines, however, with the 47 year-old choosing to pay tribute to the late WWE Champion Bray Wyatt with a design similar to the mask worn by ‘The Fiend’.
Tragedy struck the wrestling world on 24th August 2023 when it was announced that Bray Wyatt had sadly passed away. He was just 36 years old. The third-generation Superstar, who was a previous tag team partner of Matt Hardy, had been preparing for a return before his untimely passing due to a heart attack.
Speaking on his podcast ‘The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy‘, the former ECW Champion confirmed that it was indeed a respectful nod to Wyatt whilst also praising his brother for the tribute:
“It was 100 percent inspired from the Fiend mask. Jeff said, ‘Hey, do you think this would be cool if did it as a tribute? I said, ‘Yeah man, it would be awesome and I think it would be very cool for your facepaint.
It was identical. The image that he used to do his facepaint – and he paints it all himself – it was absolutely identical, it was unbelievably great.”
Matt Hardy Reveals Bray Wyatt Regret
Despite Matt Hardy lifting the Raw Tag Team Championship with Bray Wyatt, long-time partner Jeff Hardy was never able to compete with the pair after a lengthy spell on the sideline with injury.
Matt Hardy revealed that not working with Wyatt whilst potraying his ‘Willow’ character will always remain a deep regret for brother Jeff:
“That’s one of his biggest regrets. The whole time that I was working together with Bray until he actually turned and we were a half-assed tag team, Jeff was out. That’s kind of what started it, Jeff was injured.
Jeff really does wish he would’ve gotten a chance to interact (with that). He really would have loved to have done Broken Matt, Bray Wyatt/Fiend whatever, and Willow.”
H/T: F4WOnline for the above transcription.