Matt Hardy did an interview with ET Canada and he spoke about Darby Allin and how he is proving to be a ratings guy. He also discussed other topics in the interview.

On his match against Darby

It was super exciting. It was our first week unopposed, so I was very happy to be in that slot. And Darby is starting to prove to be a ratings guy because people really like him. And he gets it so much. He reminds me of my brother in so many ways as to how he sells from underneath. He gets sympathy and he’s just he’s cool. The kids like him. He’s super cool. And me at this stage of the game, being an older competitor, especially with the younger AEW audience, I am the perfect bad guy, I think, for a Darby Allin or someone like that. So I was expecting them to be big. I hoped we would break a million and do a good number. But when we heard 1.2, I was blown away and super happy, super excited. And I really think it was a good payoff because people didn’t know when they tuned in if Darby Allin was going to lose the TNT title or retain the title. And I think that was part of the charm of it.”

On AEW working with other companies

“I think it’s great. I’ve always thought it was great for business. A lot of people don’t know about this. It’s not a well-known fact. But I had been negotiating and working with the Young Bucks. And right before my brother and I left Impact to return to WWE, we were actually going to do a Ring of Honor-Impact crossover angle with the Hardys and the Young Bucks for three or four months. And we had that set. But then some things changed in their management and then ended up we’d return to would return to WWE once we ended up leaving.

So I’m all down for it. I’ve always been down from it from the beginning. And I think especially considering WWE is such a massive global promotion, I think any other promotion that is up-and-coming when they work with other promotions, has it helps to add the element of unpredictability and unpredictability is what makes wrestling successful in 2021.

I think more than anything else, because information’s out there, so many people see spoilers, so many people have a clue of what’s going on because the Internet is very wide and people know. So I think the more you can surprise people, you have someone show up on this promotion or someone show up on AEW or someone shows up in New Japan, I think it really adds that unpredictability to pro wrestling.”