8 Wrestlers That Visibly Hated Working For AEW

5. The Hardys

The Hardy Boyz Matt Jeff AEW
AEW

The Hardys have since revealed that they weren’t entirely happy in AEW. In an October 2025 interview with the I Love Wrestling podcast, Matt Hardy, not for the first time, bemoaned the lack of opportunities the brothers received - “especially towards the end.”

[Jeff’s issues with the law might have played a factor there.]

In the cursed era of AEW, where the real and compelling feuds played out not on Dynamite but on social media, Jeff Hardy had a go at CM Punk on Twitter when “hypin up” an upcoming match. This was when Tony Khan tried to make the Hardys interesting by turning them heel (it did not work; the Hardys were not interesting).

This was a weird blend of the work and the shoot. Jeff Hardy was never confused with Nick Bockwinkel, but this was dumb even for him. Hardy wrote with a mocking tone that “[Collision is] gonna be another Saturday night of amazing action like it always is. We, the Hardys, only work one show a week…because we’re the Hardys. We prefer #AEWDynamite. The dimension of #AEWCollision was designed for punks.”

So what was this about?

Was Hardy saying that he was going to half-ass it on the B-show? And how would that look any different to the bleak, 0.5x speed Hardys match he did all the time? Was he daydreaming of the day he could finally do a terrible cinema match against the Dudley Boyz?

The Hardys were playing the role of a tag team who were fed up with the disrespect, but why bury one of your promotion’s shows, and further drag out the toxic CM Punk discourse? The discourse that constantly undermined what AEW was attempting to achieve?

This arc felt like an excuse for the passive aggressive bullsh*t that has defined the Hardys for years.

The thing is, this wasn’t just an in-character tweet. Jeff buried a second AEW show in a July 2023 interview with MuscleManMalcolm, moaning that Rampage was “kind of the B show” and stating that he wanted to appear more on Dynamite. In an actual Rampage segment, Jeff buried the Dynamite ratings and said he’d give them a boost.

Frankly, Jeff should have thanked his lucky stars that he was brought back from suspension at all.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!