The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy

[SomethingSavage]

I'm not sure if anybody has heard this podcast yet, but it's actually pretty good. Obviously you'll get more out of it depending on when and where you were as a Hardy fan, but the guy isn't shy about the details at all. If you're like me and burned out by hearing the same stories retold a thousand times, then at least this one offers new information and tellings of events.

They're doing an interesting thing where they're breaking down every chapter of Matt's gimmicks and reinventions. They're starting with the polarizing Broken stuff, which makes sense. But Matt pours alot into each topic and fully immerses himself into breaking down his influences and decisions for certain steps along the way. And it's really cool to hear how he would pivot or change directions according to angles, injuries, or whatever.

As a host, Jon Alba is world's better than your Conrads and your Bromwells. His gushing over the Hardy Boys can be a little over the top at times, but it doesn't detract from the flow or the interesting stories at all.

If you're not sure you're sold on the idea or just looking for a place to start, I highly recommend both the first episode (covering the No Mercy ladder match) as well as the Michael Hayes episode. Both are tremendous and easy to get through.

Your interest in Matt's TNA days may determine whether you're on board for the Woken and Big Money Matt stuff that he's covering right now, but I'm honestly loving it. Matt is incredibly self-aware here. Even when I find the execution of his ideas obnoxious or hokey, I have to say - I can appreciate the effort and the hustle this guy puts behind everything he does.

So yeah. Just thought I'd start a topic for this surprising gem of a podcast. It's new to the scene, but I only discovered it about a week ago and have already devoured every episode. Good stuff. Between this and Briscoe & Bradshaw, I've found wrestling podcasts that are worth listening to again. It's been really refreshing.

[SomethingSavage]

The Becoming Broken series was a ton of fun and extremely comprehensive. I hear this show isn't doing great numbers, but I have been thoroughly enjoying it.

Some of the Michael Hayes stories circa 99 are just tremendous, too. Beyond the Gadzooks shopping trip, there's a hilarious bathroom stop story, the tale of the Freebird trying to springboard off an air conditioning window unit, and of course the great Gangrel shoot fight in the Outback Steakhouse parking lot.

Matt singling out his most memorable, most obsessive female fan from that early run was quite something. She sounds stereotypical goth girl but takes the whole deal to ANOTHER LEVEL.

Also cracked me up to hear Matt refer to Broken Matt as a Transformer and Woken Matt as a GoBot. Good stuff.

[The Thread Killer]

I wish Conrad would use Jon Alba as the cohost on all of his other podcasts and get rid of Paul Bromwell. Although, I am pretty excited he is working with Sean Oliver now for the Kevin Nash podcast.