Hardy Boyz success no mystery

By JIM VARSALLONE

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 30, 2001

Gilbert Hardy was skeptical when his Boyz discussed wrestling professionally.

"Our mom died when I was 9," said Jeff Hardy, one-half of WWF stars the Hardy Boyz. "Our dad was farming tobacco and working his a- off. We did, too. Our dad was set to believe there's no future in pro wrestling: 'Quit dreaming and go take the civil service test and get ready to be a postman or something.'

"He just thought there was no way we were going to be able to do that, and I can understand that growing up the way he did, just having to work his rear end off. But it's something we wanted to do, something we dreamed about doing. Now that we've made it in the WWF, and we're established, he loves it. He's out buying magazines and action figures and everything he can. He's getting a kick out of it."

When the Boyz were kids in 1987, they received a trampoline from their father for Christmas.

"Jeff and I built a little makeshift wrestling ring out of it in the back yard," Matt Hardy said. "We started emulating the moves we saw on TV -- almost like the craze now, backyard wrestling, but we didn't go out there and try to kill each other."

During those youthful days on the trampoline in Cameron, N.C., the Boyz imitated Rockers Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty. The Hardys were drawn to the exciting, high-impact aerial style.

"We were big fans," Matt Hardy said. "Macho Man Randy Savage was one of my favorite wrestlers. Michael P.S. Hayes, ironically enough who we ended up working with in the WWF, was also one of my favorites."

In 1990, the Hardy brothers met Kenneth Morgan, who was running wrestling shows at fairs.

"He really didn't know the wrestling business," Matt Hardy said. "We did a few fair shows with him locally."

Eventually, the Boyz met former NWA wrestler Italian Stallion. He ran a local territory, the PWF, in North Carolina. In 1993, the Hardy brothers made their official pro wrestling debut in the PWF.

"More or less, we were self-trained," Matt Hardy said. "When we were with Stallion, he kind of polished us and taught us about the business -- how it worked, the terminology, the psychology, why everything is how it is."

The Boyz received a shot at the big time, the WWF, through Italian Stallion's contacts. That was the good news.

"Stallion was taking a booking fee from us," Matt Hardy said. "We were getting paid $150 a night for each WWF appearance as extras on WWF television. Stallion took $100 a night for the booking fee. It was pretty steep."

Jeff Hardy said, "It was pretty horrible. We did about four or five shows through him. We would all cram in a van. He would take 13 or 14 of us. We would drive from North Carolina to New York, St. Louis, all over. We loved it being on TV."

But the Hardy brothers broke away from Stallion.

"The way we got around it," Jeff Hardy said, "we drove ourselves to Augusta, Ga., for WWF TV. We were supposed to go with Stallion, but something happened, and he didn't want us to go for some reason. When we got there, he was already there with a group of his guys. We just went in.

"Our faces were already recognized backstage. We told (WWF agent) Chief Jay Strongbow what was going on, and how Stallion was really . . . taking a lot of money from us. Naturally, that was all we had to say, and that was it for him. They couldn't believe that was hidden from them, and they didn't really know that was going on. After that, the WWF would just call our house to book us."

Jeff Hardy said, "Still, if it wasn't for Italian Stallion we wouldn't be here right now. But he didn't have to do that. We later ran into him somewhere, and we started talking to him. It was like nothing ever happened. He kind of forgot it, and we did, too."

The Hardy Boyz formed their own wrestling promotion, Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Alliance, in central North Carolina.

"OMEGA became really famous," Matt Hardy said. "A lot of guys in our promotion went on to be very successful in other places."

The list includes Shannon Moore, Shane Helms, the Dupps, Joey Mathews, Christian York, Joey Abs and Steve Corino.

"Running the shows was so much trouble and such a hassle," Matt Hardy said. "It's great just to be able to work somewhere you don't have to put the ring up. You don't have to worry about putting up posters. You don't have to worry about putting people in the seats. It's nice to just show up, entertain, wrestle and do your thing.

"We started OMEGA because at the time there wasn't a lot of places to wrestle, and we didn't know anyone," Matt Hardy said. "We did it while we were trying to get our break. We kind of made our own opportunity."

After the WWF inked a deal with the Hardy Boyz in April 1998, the creative team matched them with Lita, a skilled talent.

"After we started with the WWF, Lita became part of the OMEGA clique," Matt Hardy said. "Actually, all the guys who worked for OMEGA are still good friends. We call ourselves the OMEGA powers."

Jeff Hardy said, "Having Lita with us has been great. The girls have always been screaming for us, but the guys were booing and saying 'Who are these pretty boy sissies?' With Lita, now the guys are chanting 'Lita! Lita!' That's all good."

The Hardy Boyz made a huge impact when they battled Christian and Edge in a tag-team ladder match at the WWF No Mercy pay-per-view. Since then, they have shot commercial spots for Nintendo and Chef Boyardee.

"We went from being just WWF wrestlers to WWF superstars," Matt Hardy said.

- For more wrestling information and interviews, check out www.ringfury.com. Pro wrestling columnist Jim Varsallone can be reached at wrestling@tampabay.com.

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