There’s a particular kind of energy that follows Matt and Jeff Hardy into any room, or in this case…any Zoom call.
For over three decades, the Hardys have been the glitch in pro wrestling’s system, the weird kids from North Carolina who grew up on trampolines, DIY rings and alternative culture, and somehow dragged all of that into the mainstream to become legends. They were the ones in fishnets and baggy cargos while everyone else was in trunks, the outcasts who became icons.
Now, in 2026, they’re talking about the same things that have always defined them –art, risk, survival, and what it means to be “other”– but from a new vantage point: legends, self‑proclaimedGOATs, still chasing reinvention.
At the centre of this chapter is their feud withThe RighteousinTNA, the chaos waiting atSlammiversary, and the next evolution of the mythology that rewired modern wrestling storytelling: theBroken Universe.
“Wrestling Is Entertainment. We’re Telling A Story.”
There’s a pretty constant argument in wrestling and/or sports entertainment: should it feel like a real sport, or should it lean into being pure theatre? The Hardys have never pretended to sit in the middle. They live on the theatrical end, then set it ablaze in a WONDERFUL way.
In 2026, with critics side‑eyeing anything supernatural or “too gimmicky”, Matt is very clear where he stands. “I obviously disagree [that wrestling can’t have supernatural elements], because at the end of the day, wrestling is entertainment,” he says. “We are telling a story, we want to create compelling characters, that’s what we do, and it totally works for me.”
He’s not here for the idea that wrestling has to mimic a football match to matter. “We are not out here having a legitimate contest in a football game, or soccer, or basketball, or baseball, whatever it may be. Pro wrestling is entertainment, and the pro wrestlers who are the most successful have created characters that people actually care about, they’re emotionally invested in.”
That’s the key for Matt: emotional investment. You don’t get that by playing it safe. You get it by jumping off ladders, yes, but also by disappearing into characters that feel bigger than life, distorted mirrors for the people watching at home. “Us becoming Broken Matt and Brother Nero totally rejuvenated our career,” he explains. “It strengthened our run as we went forward and gave us other characters that we could play with and go back to.”
The Broken Universe wasn’t just a quirky left turn, it was an essential lifeline. It turned the Hardys from an (iconic) nostalgia act into cult auteurs, building a whole world out of wrestling, horror cinema, internet weirdness and alt‑culture references.
And now, it’s colliding with another twisted little universe, the one created by The Righteous.
The Wicked Garden
When Matt talks about The Righteous, there’s genuine admiration there, but also recognition. These aren’t just opponents; they’re collaborators in something nastier, stranger, and more experimental. “We love [them], I think [they] are very talented, great performers as well,” Matt says. “They fit well with the Broken Hardys, because if you’re watching them, they almost seem like guys you know that you’re on an acid trip. They’re very cultish. They have these qualities that seem magical or supernatural to a degree.”
It makes sense. The Righteous walk out like cult leaders, speak like sermon‑givers, and carry themselves like they’re already halfway between this world and somewhere else. For the Hardys, that’s the perfect energy to clash with.
TheirWicked Garden match was a turning point – a brutal, barbed wire baptism into The Righteous’ world. “We certainly learned what a Wicked Garden match was from The Righteous, no doubt about that,” Matt laughs. “We had faced them in a tag team tables match, which is one of our specialties. But being able to step into their universe, of the Wicked Garden… we have never been heavily involved in a barbed wire match before, so that was a first for us. All four guys were bloody messes when it was all said and done.”
For a team that’s taken part in some of the most violent ladder matches ever, that’s saying something. But rather than sounding jaded, Matt sounds energised – like this feud is forcing them to stretch again. “After you go through a battle like that, you learn to respect your opposition,” he says. “I love the way they approach wrestling in their characters, in their personas, in their mindsets, the way they talk to their fans as if they are cult leaders – not just one, but two.”
Then comes the promise: “When that cinematic match goes down with the Broken Hardys and The Righteous, it is going to blow everyone’s mind,” Matt says, dead certain. “I’m super confident that it is going to go down as the greatest cinematic match of all time.”
Slammiversary:
Before we get back to the Compound, there’s the small matter ofSlammiversary. OnJune 28, live onTNA+, the Hardys step into their most iconic environment: aladder matchfor theTNA Tag Team Titles, against bothThe RighteousandThe System.
This isn’t just comfortable territory, this is the place where the Hardys built their legend. Jeff knows exactly what that means. “First and foremost, they’re going to bring everything,” he says of their opponents. “Naturally, they want to defeat the Hardys in the Hardys’ specialty comfort zone, that’s known as the ladder match.”
For him, ladders are more than just hardware, they’re a way of writing new images into people’s memories. He still thinks in visuals, in spots, in moments that feel impossible until they actually happen. “After last year’s Slammiversary, the ending to that match, when the Fear Factor cable ladder came down, that was pretty bizarre, and had never been done before,” he recalls. “I’d been thinking about that since TLC II. I’ve been wanting to do that. We brought that into reality, thanks to Tommy Dreamer, and TNA.”
That’s the thing about Jeff: he’s not replaying greatest hits, he’s trying to top his own history, and creative vision. Even now. Especially now. “We are prepared to face whatever they have.”
Slammiversary, then, is more than a title shot. It’s a test, of sorts: can the Hardys still own their own mythology in a ring full of younger challengers, and use that match as a bridge into something new?
The Next Mutation
Matt isn’t shy about how muchBroken Matt changed things for him. You can hear the affection when he talks about the character. “Broken Matt really breathed new life into my career,” he says. “There are times where I’m away, and I’m doing OG Hardy Boys or Retro Hardy Boys, and sometimes I bereave the character of Broken Matt. So it’s always fun to go back and do it again… It’s the character I’ve had the most fun with throughout my entire career. It’s my favourite persona that I’ve ever taken on.”
But this time, he doesn’t just want to resurrect Broken Matt. He wants to splice him. “Towards the end of this rivalry with The Righteous, my goal is to reinvent myself,” Matt reveals. “I want to kind of merge Broken Matt and the OG Matt Hardy into one character, and then reinvent myself again.”
There’s a confidence to what he says next that feels earned rather than egotistical. “We’re going to lean into actually being the GOATs – the greatest of all time – and stand all ten toes on it, and I think it’s going to lead to a very interesting run of the Hardys.”
He knows exactly how people see them – the legendary risk‑takers whose fingerprints are all over modern tag wrestling. Now he wants to turn that perception into part of the character. “We are a legacy act in many, many ways,” he admits. “But we can still go and perform at a very high level, and if you put us in a position to succeed where you highlight our strengths, we’re money. That’s no doubt about it.”
InTNA, he feels like they’ve found the right environment to do that.
TNA: A Home For The Weird
For years,TNAhas quietly been the place where some of wrestling’s strangest, boldest ideas have actually been allowed to happen. The originalBroken Universelived there. So didRosemary’s Undead Realm. It’s a company that, when it’s at its best, leans into the cinematic, the occult, the experimental.
Matt feels that, and he’s grateful for it. “One of the things that’s been the most exciting in TNA is those guys have put us in positions to succeed,” he says. “The whole thing with The Righteous has been so great, and it has helped also revitalise us, and I think it is also going to help reinvent us when it’s all said and done at the end.”
He outlines their story with The Righteous like he’s reading from a twisted graphic novel. The Righteous arrive, determined to take out the Hardys, the self‑proclaimed greatest of all time. They lose, but claim that was never the point; they just wanted to feel what it was like to be in the Hardys’ orbit. A strange friendship forms – they team together, pick up wins, and seem like kindred spirits. Then the betrayal lands hard: The Righteous cost the Hardys the tag team titles. The turn reveals the real goal, to force the Broken Universe to reawaken; to drag Broken Matt, Brother Nero and Willow back into reality. The Hardys are pulled into The Righteous’ world, the Wicked Garden, where The Righteous finally secure a win over the GOATs.
Now, it all funnels into Slammiversary… and then to the Hardy Compound. “We are going to end this thing with a very, very strong Hardy Compound match,” Matt says. “The twists and turns that happen during the cinematic match and in this program are going to blow your mind. You’re going to love it.”
For fans of Broken Universe chaos, that sounds like a promise and a threat rolled into one.
Willow and Recovery
If Broken Matt is Matt’s favourite persona, Willow is Jeff’s ultimate creative vision: an eerie, theatrical echo from deep in his creative psyche. “Naturally it feels great, man,” Jeff says of returning to that side of himself. “A lot of people have asked me about Willow over the years – if we’ll ever see Willow again in TNA. And recently, Willow showed up on TNA on AXS.”
For the upcoming cinematic clash with The Righteous, he’s plotting something special. “With our cinematic match with The Righteous, I’m planning for a big, huge, horrifying kind of Willow spot to take place throughout that match, and there’s actually a new Willow mask that hasn’t been seen yet, so that’s just going to make it even better.”
But beyond the masks, face paint and high spots, there’s another layer that runs through everything Jeff says: his sobriety and the people he’s inspired along the way. Both Hardys have always carried a strong link to alternative culture – to the goth kids, metalheads, misfits and weirdos who saw themselves in these neon‑haired, ladder‑climbing brothers. That connection hasn’t faded. If anything, it’s grown deeper. “We do these legendary post‑show meet and greets at TNA shows, where we sign for three hours, four hours,” Matt explains. “The longest we’ve ever done was six [hours]. We signed till 4:35am one morning after Bound For Glory when we retired the Dudleys.”
People don’t just show up for a signature, they show up with stories. “There’s people that come through those lines and they go, ‘Thank you so much. Because when I was younger, I saw you guys, and you reminded me of myself. You weren’t the normal status quo wrestlers. You were different, you were alternative, and you weren’t afraid to be yourself. And through you succeeding, it made me feel more confident about being myself.’”
Jeff hears a different, but related, version of that. “We still hear it every day,” he says. “It always goes, ‘You probably know this, you probably hear this all the time, but y’all were my childhood.’ We hear that so much. It still means so much – the connection we’ve developed over the years, and the people that still show up with love and support for us, and especially me, through my recovery journey.”
Then there are the people who quietly tell him how his fight to get clean has helped theirs. “It’s always cool to hear somebody say, ‘Two months sober, and you’ve got a lot to do with that,’” Jeff shares. “That feels so good, and it helps me every time I hear that. It keeps me stronger to go on and keep doing what I’ve been doing for the last almost four years.”
Matt sums up the Hardys’ ethos for the outsiders watching at home. “Yes, to those people out there – if you don’t feel like you fit in, you do fit in,” he says. “Everybody fits in somewhere. Just believe in yourself and do your own thing and feel good about it.”
He talks about fans from every background – Black, Hispanic, white, people from all over the world – united by the same story: breaking beds and couches trying to hit Swantons as kids, getting told off, and still smiling about it years later. “That is truly flattering,” he says. “We’ve been able to reach out and touch so many different people from all walks of life, and we find that so inspiring.”
Soundtracks For New Universes
Because this is Soundsphere, we have to talk music. The Hardys have always moved like people raised on alt‑metal, industrial, grunge and weird art‑rock, and their playlists absolutely back that up.
Last time we spoke, Matt shouted out3TEETH, while Jeff name‑checkedBring Me The Horizon. Both still stand, but there are new sonic obsessions shaping the mood these days. “Yeah, I’m all about Bring Me The Horizon, man,” Jeff says. “Now I’m digging Stephen Wilson Jr. a lot. His covers have blown my mind – his cover of Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight, Tonight was incredible. The sound he has created is otherworldly.”
Matt’s soundtrack, meanwhile, has circled right back into the current storyline. “Something that just came onto my playlist again that I downloaded, and I’ve been listening on repeat, because we’re in the match, was ‘Wicked Garden’ by Stone Temple Pilots – which is quite the banger indeed.”
It tracks, of course. The Broken Universe has always felt like a cross between a longform music video and a horror short film; it’s only right that it’s fuelled by bands who exist slightly left of centre.
Dare To Dream (Again)
As we wrap, there’s this strange sense that, despite everything they’ve already done, the Hardys are still in full creative motion. There’s no comfort zone here, not really. Just more ladders, more stories, more worlds to build and destroy.
Slammiversary isn’t just another chapter in the Hardys’ storied history. It’s a collision point: The Righteous, The System, the GOATs, ladders, titles, and the shadow of the Hardy Compound match looming over it all. As Matt signs off, he doesn’t bother to undersell it: “Slammiversary 2026 is going to blow your mind. It’s going to be absolutely wonderful.”
Watch and listen to the chat below: