Wardlow is one AEW star who is clearly inspired by Jeff Hardy, based upon his growing move set over the years.
Speaking in an interview with The Wrestling Classic’s Casual Conversations, Wardlow spoke about being inspired by Jeff Hardy, and wanting to wrestle against him in a dream match in AEW.
However, he notes that his dream was always more to team with The Hardy Boys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy), standing side-by-side with his childhood heroes.
“Everybody assumes [Jeff Hardy] is a dream opponent of mine, and yes, that would be cool. I would love to wrestle Jeff Hardy, but more so than wrestle, I want to team with Jeff Hardy.
If I could do a six-man and just be Team Xtreme for one night, myself, Matt, and Jeff, I think that would be the ultimate dream more so than actually wrestling him.”
He also revealed how he taught himself to wrestle, learning to do flips and twists as a child, in anticipation of becoming a high-flyer like Jeff Hardy.
However, a growth spurt as a child put those dreams to rest, as he became a heavyweight wrestler, in the vein of Batista.
He started out strictly as a power wrestler in AEW, utilising the power bomb and F5 as moves used to end his matches.
However, as the years progressed, he started to bring some of Jeff Hardy’s moves into his move set, including the Whisper in the Wind and Swanton Bomb.
I anticipated being the next Jeff Hardy, that was my initial goal in wrestling. I spent years … doing Swantons and teaching my body to flip, and twist, and corkscrew, and I was like,
‘I’m going to sell my a** off and I’m going to do really cool stuff,’ and then I blow up my junior and senior year, and your body — you know, muscle memory — your body still remembers that stuff.”
Wardlow will have been please last week, when Jeff Hardy made his long awaited return to the WWE.
Wardlow and Jeff Hardy have never shared the ring so far in AEW, so the War Dog will be hoping he gets his dream match before Jeff Hardy retires.