During the latest episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the topic of The Acclaimed winning the AEW World Tag Team Championships came up, which Matt Hardy gave his thoughts on.

“I thought it was great. I thought it was a great time for The Acclaimed to win. And I have to , I mean, I’ll say first and foremost. Me, I’m all big about acknowledging hard work, and especially when someone busted their ass right from the jump, and you see someone get over organically. Because that’s what myself and my brother had to do. You know, we kind of were behind the eight ball, we’d been job guys. And all the vets on the local Carolina scene , one guy particularly would go, ‘Hey, you guys gotta stop [jobbing].”

On The Acclaimed getting over as a team:

“Tony put them together as a tag team to see if they would work. So they were kind of like, you know, not a tag team before, and then they started working together and they were really in unison. And I loved Max Caster’s raps. I’m a big fan of his creative rap style, I’m a big rap fan in general. I love to freestyle. Hell, I almost got like a gimmick like that, because of myself and John Cena rapping on the bus on European tours doing freestyle.

“But you know, Max Caster doing that deal, and Anthony Bowens is such a unique, inspiring story as well. Him coming out and revealing his sexuality and really leaning into it. Like being someone who’s a role model for young men like him. I’ve dug all that. So once they got over and they hit so big organically, it makes me proud. Because you can tell they put in the effort and they bust their ass, and they’re very passionate about what they do. So I will always, always, acknowledge hard work, and those guys worked hard to get to the spot they’re in.”