November 6’s “WWE NXT” from the 2300 Arena was chock full of extreme nostalgia, blending elements of ECW with “NXT”‘s current crop of young talent. Blood was noticeably absent, but the show delivered plenty of throwbacks to satisfy fans of the original: Kelani Jordan and Rob Van Dam shot the breeze over splits, Rhyno delivered an old school Gore, and Ethan Page crashed through a table courtesy of Trick Williams and Bubba Ray Dudley. On “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy,” the former tag team foe of Bubba shared his impressions of the show, noting Bubba likely had a hand in producing the segment he was in.
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“I was just with Bubba and D-Von the weekend before,” Hardy recalled. “I sat down and had a full-fledged conversation with Bubba and D-Von and we kinda talked about things. And it was so cool, because Bubba … kinda laid out a vision of how he saw it, and it went very similar to the picture he was painting for me.” Although the Dudleys and Hardys never clashed in the ECW Arena, the types of matches they had in WWE would’ve fit right in. The Dudleys and Hardys, along with Edge and Christian, are forever linked by their participation in the very first TLC match in 2000. There have been many TLC matches since, with the latest occurring at Halloween Havoc on October 29, where Tony D’Angelo retained his NXT North American Championship against Obi Femi.
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Hardy, a former ECW World Champion under the WWE reboot, also praised the show’s opening. Along with bringing back the original theme song, it mixed clips from both the original ECW and modern-day “NXT.” “It was such a cool opening,” Hardy said. “I thought it was a great show overall.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
