Matt Hardy spoke with Sports Illustrated for a new interview. You can see highlights below:
On Bray Wyatt: “I actually find fondness and appreciation for the Bray Wyatt. I see that he is driven by a higher power, much like I am driven and motivated and inspired and given strength by the Seven Deities. I respect how he doesn’t walk the normal path, he carves his own. I would love, one day down that road, to show up in WWE and have a match with the Bray Wyatt. I would love to bring him to my battlefield and delete him–that would be my honor. If The New Day and the Wyatt Family would have been there with me, I would have not only deleted them, I may have even eaten them. My brokenness has made me become more primal, more instinctual.”
On the comparisons between The Final Deletion and The Compound: “Those guys having this thing in their compound was a very tough position for them. The ‘Final Deletion’ was something that was so amazing–it was my brilliant masterpiece I performed in front of the world. Then, only a week later, for these guys to go out there and have this compound fight, especially in such a serious environment when the ‘Final Deletion’ was such an entertaining piece of art–it was a hard act to follow, and the fans let them know that. It’s wondrous to see your masterpiece be emulated as such. It’s truly delightful.”
On how he became “Broken” and how it changed him: “There was an incident at the end of the ‘I Quit’ match between myself and my brother, and he descended from the heavens from the top of the Impact Zone, and put me through a table. My brother had no remorse for my young son, King Maxel, or my beautiful wife, Rebecca–he didn’t worry about leaving them without a husband or father. He was trying to end me. This incident was so traumatic that I woke up in the hospital with this shark streak in my hair. All of a sudden, I spoke differently. I thought differently. I moved differently. Considering this incident broke me, it also opened up parts of my mind that I did not have access to before–it unlocked potent areas of my mind, and now I have premonitions. I am often able to hear what people are thinking. In essence, it’s made me magic.”
On his “destiny” and if it can be fulfilled: “In order to be whole again, the first thing that comes to mind is the title of the world. I don’t know if that will even work since I have been broken so severely. My condition may be a permanent issue, so if that does not work, there must be a message the Seven Deities will send me, or a journey–because I have such a greater purpose in life than just being a normal, mortal person. I am more, I am magic. When the Seven Deities let me know what I must do to be complete again–even though I will be stronger and more than just a regular mortal man–I will fulfill that mission and become whole once more.”