Matt Hardy recently reflected on The Hardy Boyz’ loss at NXT Halloween Havoc, where he and Jeff dropped the NXT Tag Team Titles to DarkState in a chaotic “Broken Rules” match. Speaking on his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, the TNA star offered insight into the experience, sharing his thoughts on both the bout and DarkState’s performance.

Hardy began by praising the show overall, describing the Halloween Havoc event as one of the stronger NXT specials in recent memory. “It was a good experience. I thought Halloween Havoc was a very solid show, I thought they did a good job from top to bottom with the matches,” he said. “I feel like the things they wanted to get accomplished in all the matches, they made those things happen. So I ended up being happy with it.”

He admitted that matches with the “Broken Rules” stipulation tend to feel overwhelming in the moment due to the sheer chaos involved. “Those matches are so chaotic. They’re just so full of chaos. Sometimes when you have those matches, and if you’re down selling or there’s a lot of other action going on that you’re not aware of, you almost aren’t sure how it is,” he explained. “I actually got to watch the match back yesterday when I was doing cardio, and I was happy with it. It looked better than it felt initially.”

Hardy also shared his perspective on working with DarkState and producing the match alongside them. He expressed confidence in their potential, commending their attitude and creativity. “I think they’re all, if given a fair chance, are going to do well. They have good attitudes. They absorb stuff, they’re attentive, they’re open-minded. I think they’ll do well as far as that goes,” Hardy said. “And you know, I like kind of what they’re doing, this whole renegade deal. Where they’re all different, and they all look so different, and it’s a real unique thing to have here. And it’ll be interesting to see if it can turn into something special.”

Hardy humorously suggested that he and Jeff may have underestimated the numbers game during the match. “At the end of the day, that was our role. We weren’t wanting to go out there and say like, ‘Hey, we signed up for this match. We’re Broken Matt and we’re Brother Nero,’ but obviously we’re crazy too. I don’t think anyone’s gonna say Broken Matt is not a crazy man at the end of the day when it’s all said and done. And with Jeff Hardy, that goes without saying; he is just insane,” Hardy laughed.

He continued, “We went out there, it was Broken Rules, or anything goes. And it was four against two and we probably knew that. I guess maybe we should have had The Dudleys. We should have bought The Dudleys some tickets out there just to sit in the crowd to watch our back, maybe after our big match. Or maybe we should have asked Je’von and Leon to come out and have our backs, whatever. But you know, we just went at it, me and Jeff. And that was the kind of story, trying to overcome the entire State of Dark. And then when it was all said and done, we fell to the numbers game.”