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When Matt Hardy took it upon himself to manage Private Party, it was supposed to take the team over the top in AEW.
One of the highlights of the first year of AEW television who turned heads on the second episode of Dynamite by beating the Young Bucks in the tournament to decide the first-ever AEW Tag Team Champions, the duo slowly settled into the midcard, with their chances of becoming crossover superstars rapidly coming to an end. While the team of Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy did challenge for the tag team belts on two occasions over the first year of AEW television, they slowly fell into a rut thanks to the addition of other, more prominent teams like FTR and struggled to find their footing.
Enter Hardy, who, after beginning his AEW run with his “Broken” persons before transitioning into a hybrid gimmick most notably used in the Stadium Stampede, fully embraced the prospects of being the promotion”Money Man” and brought on Quen and Kassidy as his first clients.
Matt Hardy knowledges his mistakes in AEW with Private Party.
At first, the pairing worked – Hardy got the team on Impact to challenge for the Impact World Tag Team Title and helped the team amass a solid win-loss record, but as the Hardy Family Office continued to grow, Private Party became less of a focal point for “Big Money Matt” and saw their push seriously diminished as a result.
After wrestling 14 matches on television plus two Pay-Per-Views in 2020, and 10 more on television plus two Pay-Per-Views in 2021, Private Party have been on AEW television just seven times in 2022 and haven't been on a single Pay-Per-View for even a buy-in bout. To make matters worse, not only have Private Party's overall match bookings gone down, but the quality of their contests has gone down too, amassing an 0-7 record on TV, including a loss to Matt and Jeff Hardy on St. Patrick's Day Slam.
What happened? How did Private Party go from one of the more entertaining babyface teams in AEW to a pair of miscast heels stuck in a mismatched faction? Two words: Matt Hardy.
Fortunately, since Jeff has been absent from the promotion due to his DUI, Matt has taken it upon himself to try to make amends for his selfish behavior, with his previously-varied segments of Being the Elite now transformed into a televised apology tour. The latest stop on the tour? Acknowledging his mistakes with Private Party and vowing to watch the team re-find their footing after he “derailed” their careers in Tony Khan's company. Read what Hardy had to say on the matter on BTE below via a subscription from Fightful.
“I feel obligated to. I want them to do well. As you know, I blame myself for detailing their career. You know the expression, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’? I think that will apply to them. I definitely think it applies to them. This journey that I’ve been going on recently, you know, everybody knows there’s something wrong with them. They just don’t know what it is. I was fortunate enough to determine what’s wrong with me. I’ve said in the past that I’m not a good guy, that deep down I’m a monster because I will do anything to serve me. I’ve used people, chased clout, anything it took to highlight Matt Hardy. Now that I understand that, and now that I accept that, I’m changing, and I’m learning to deny my programming. So from afar, I will keep a close eye on Private Party because I owe to them to make sure they are course corrected. With that said, they have.”
You have to give it to Hardy, after watching the future WWE Hall of Famer's perceived final meaningful run with his brother Jeff dashed by outside-of-the-ring infractions, he's certainly taken it upon himself to make 2022 a meaningful year for himself in AEW, even if he's only wrestled three matches in an AEW ring since the Hardy Brothers were put on ice.
Can a face Hardy work in 2022? Can he use his platform to elevate others over himself and give back to wrestling in the same way that old heads like Michael Hayes did for him early on in his career? Or will the devilish desire to put himself over once more and get the crowd to cheer “Delete” one more time prove just too enticing to pass up? Either way, Hardy's appearance on Being the Elite watching Private Party have a big-time bout on Rampage for the AEW Tag Team Championships is a good sign of things to come.
