"The Hardy Boyz are back in business!"
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Raw Magazine: What was it like being off TV for the first time in your WWE Careers?
Matt Hardy: It was strange, because that becomes your lifestyle. We always go to work Friday and Saturday, and we're home Wednesday morning. TV days are real long and strenuous. Whenever you come home, you catch up on everything else you have to do. You hate to be away from the product, especially when you love it so much, but in a way it's nice because it gave our bodies a chance to recuperate and recover. We really have done a lot of damage and beat ourselves up a lot in the last three years.
Also, it's nice to have a chance to sit back and actually live life. You never have a chance to stop and catch your breath. So it's nice to actually do things you enjoy, not just the things you have to do when you only have a day and a half at home. It was like an extended vacation. I really enjoyed it, and my body really enjoyed it. But at the same time I hated being away from TV, and hated being away from the federation because I love the WWE.
Jeff Hardy: I wanted some extra time off, because I really felt burt out up to that point. I was watching Smackdown! at home and it had been two weeks [since we were off the road], and I kind of got that desire again. It did me a world of good.
RAW: What exactly led to your absence?
Matt: I think it was mainly due to the fact that Matt and Jeff Hardy fighting eachother was something our fans in particular didn't want to see. So after we had our situation with Undertaker, we were set for some time off. But we extended that time a little bit, so we could let people forget about "the bad times" of the Hardy Boyz. So that whenever we would come back, we would be fresh. It would be like the Hardy Boyz would be back in buisness again.
RAW: How did you keep busy while you were away from TV?
Jeff: I have a lot of other intrests and a lot of other things going on at home. I'm something of an artist, and I had a lot of time to get stuff done. That meant the world to me. It was awesome not to feel like you blink your eyes and have to go [on the road] again.
Matt: I got to buy a nice home computer, set it up and put a whole bunch of things on it that I'd wanted to for a long time. I actually got to catch up on so many thing I've been meaning to catch up on.
I'm building a house now. I cleared the land and did all the chores that come with the building, as far as talking to contractors and getting the plans together. The timing was real convenient for me.
Jeff: I started digging a pond, so I'm real excited about that. And I'm building a 22 1/2 foot tall "aluminummy", one of my first sculptures. It's awesome! The first one I made was six feet, and it was shown in the Hardy Boyz magazine [eXtreme]. I'm not finished completely, but his name is Neroammmmy. My middle name is Nero, and that was the first thing that came into my mind when I was looking at his face.
RAW: So are you happier now that you're back together, as opposed to when you were opposing eachother?
Jeff: Yeah, totally. We were gonna go our singles routes at the time, but it's just too early. That's how I feel. We've got a lot more to do as a tag team. There's really no reason for us to do singles now. Our eXtreme team is really cool, and I think it's really hip for the younger fans. There might be time for [singles] later, but not anytime soon.
Matt: Everyone who gets into this buisness and takes it seriously wants to be in singles at some point. I don't think now is the time for us to be successful as singles at some point. I don't think now is the wrestlers; there are so many singles stars here as it is right now. With [the recent brand extension], they need strong tag teams, and right now there aren't a lot of tag teams. I would love [for us] to be a pioneering tag team in one of those divisions.
RAW: Would either of you have any intrest going singles in a Cruiserweight Division?
Matt: I have no intrest in being a cruiserweight. It just seems to me like once you get into that catergory, you become labeled and get stuck with it. If I'm going to be a singles wrestler, I'm never going to be the World Heavyweight Champion if I go that route.
Jeff: I wouldn't hesitate being involved in a Cruiserweight Division, especially with the talent they have in Cincinnati [HWA] and Louisville [OVW]. There are a lot of good cruiserweights, and I'd love to get in the ring with them. My good friend Shannon Moore is one. I'd like to do that. I'm open to it.
RAW: As young as you are, how does it feel to currently be the longest-running tag team in the WWE?
Matt: I think we've really done a lot to contribute to the success of tag team wrestling in the WWE. The whole tag team resurgence began when we and Edge & Christian had the first Ladder Match [No Mercy '99]. Then a couple of months later we added the Dudley Boyz into the mix and, for two years, tag team wrestling was the hottest thing going.
Obviously, it would be nice if that continue forever, but it can't. Once you have a match with someone so many times, it gets old, as anything would.
We've got some new people, like Billy & Chuck; I think we could have some great matches with them. There are a lot of great teams we can work with somewhere down the road. I'm definitely willing to work with those other tag teams and recreate some of the tag team magic that we had with Edge & Christian and the Dudley Boyz.
Jeff: The things that we've done have been very unique and original. We've been in the mix with singles stars. And I think it's really cool to come back and reunite as a team, us and Lita. I don't see why that can't last our whole careers.
RAW: Does it hurt you not to have Edge & Christian as a team to compete against anymore?
Jeff: I don't think so. But it is kind of sad because the matches we has with those guys were so special. There's a lot of good memories involved with our rivalry. But that's passed, and they're doing their own thing now. I think that was right.
Matt: It's nice to reflect back, and think about all the great memories and great matches we had, but [today] that would just be in the category of "been there, done that." I think in a lot of ways we've passed that. You have to move on, you have to change. I don't necessarily think that moving on means that a tag team needs to break up and fight eachother. I hate that. It's generic.
Jeff: A lot of people are going to miss the stuff that happened between us [[and Edge & Christian], just like I miss the [early '90s WCW] feud between Jushin "Thunder" Liger and "Flyin" Brian Pillman from when I was young. It just becomes history, it becomes legendary, and I think that's what's happened with us and Edge & Christian.
RAW: How is being a team in the WWE now as compared to before you broke up last year?
Matt: It's not diffrent as far as the atmosphere and the environment. I think that the main difference is just that in the last few months so many people have been added to the roster. The Hardy Boyz just don't play as a big role in the big picture as they did -- Which I hate --- and I hope that's something that can come back around. I'm hoping with the [brand extension], that we'll be given a bigger role. There are so many avenues to explore as our eXtreme team with Lita, or the relationship between Matt and Lita.