The harshest critics of WWE often claim that Vince McMahon is out of touch with what modern wrestling fans want to see. However, according to former superstar Matt Hardy , the WWE chairman actually admitted to it following a match.
As quoted by Sportskeeda , Hardy appeared on Talk Is Jericho and recalled how McMahon told members of WWE’s production team that he would be “out of touch” if the fans enjoyed Hardy’s Ultimate Deletion match against Bray Wyatt on a 2018 episode of Monday Night Raw .
Hardy also explained that McMahon didn’t have the opportunity to watch the unique match until close to the show, which is why it was probably shown as it was intended to be. Upon seeing the footage, the chairman assumed that fans would tune out of the show when the match aired that night.
“He watched it in the production meeting and a few people in there had watched it already. After it was over, it ended and everybody clapped and stood up, and he was kind of looking around and he told a couple of people, ‘I don’t get it, I just… I don’t get it. If it does good, if it does a number, then I’m truly out of touch.’ I think he said that.”
The entire #WOKEN family has been assembled at the #HardyCompound … @MATTHARDYBRAND is ready to sentence @WWEBrayWyatt to his ULTIMATE DELETION! #RAW pic.twitter.com/CbxP6pxNNK
— WWE (@WWE) March 13, 2018
The match — which saw Hardy and Wyatt battling on the grounds of Hardy’s estate, surrounded by drones and supernatural lakes, among other things — ended up drawing an estimated 3 million viewers and trended on social media for hours afterwards.
Given the strange and rather wacky nature of the match, it’s understandable why the boss was hesitant about it being a success. WWE had never put on a match quite like it in the past, so it was a bold experiment for the company.
However, the Ultimate Deletion is one of the reasons why Hardy’s “Broken” gimmick became a pop culture sensation prior to him returning to WWE in 2017. The match already had proven success elsewhere before WWE gave it a chance, but according to Hardy, McMahon just didn’t understand the concept.
This isn’t the first time Hardy has been open up about how McMahon responded to his ideas, though. As The Inquisitr previously reported, he explained how the boss didn’t understand his “Broken” character and was never fully behind it. Even though he let Hardy adopt the gimmick in WWE for a short time, it was a much more micromanaged and diluted version of the character.