After three months of anticipation and hype, The Charismatic Enigma finally made his debut on last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite. Jeff came out and made the save for his brother. Matt Hardy was getting beaten down by Andrade El Idolo, Private Party and The Butcher & The Blade at the time.
While speaking on the latest edition of the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Jeff Hardy talked about the incident that led to his WWE departure.
Certain things happen for a reason. Subconsciously, that was maybe the smartest thing I’ve ever done, guided by something higher than me, I’ll say.
The best way I can describe my journey the last few months in WWE was like ‘glimmers of hope, maybe I still do have something.’
The last glimmer of hope was Survivor Series, which was really good. It came down to me and Seth Rollins, I was killing it, almost won and the crowd was so behind me. I felt like one of the most popular babyfaces in WWE because the crowd was so with me. Then there were other times where I felt like a ghost, roaming the halls like, ‘Why am I even here? I don’t feel important’. I kept doing my deal and would show up and do whatever they wanted me to do. I’ve never been a politicker so I don’t go out of my way to try and get a certain spot or achieve a certain status.
That night in Edinburg, Texas, I finished my heat, I took the heat, and I said, ‘I’m ready to go’. Went over the rail, disappeared into the crowd. Naturally, they think I took something like drugs or whatever, but I didn’t. If I was that bad, I should have never went out there, that’s the way I see it. I thought, ‘Just another unpredictable thing I can do and I’ll get away with it’. It was more serious than that.
Again, it was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done because everything worked out so perfectly, mainly because my first day in AEW, I felt valuable for the first time. The care and love I was shown, I got chills thinking about it. In WWE, it felt like they just wanted to keep me there to sell action figures. I put so much love and joy in painting my face, when I see it come out and immortalized in an action figure, I’m like, ‘That’s why it do this, it’s so cool’. That’s one thing I’m super excited about in AEW, my first action figure with the face paint.”