In a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, All Elite Wrestling superstar Matt Hardy discussed several topics, including the creation of Jeff Hardy’s “Brother Nero” character, noting that he wanted it, so that his brother could slow down inside the ring and prevent him from getting injured due to high-risk moves.
“Thinking back and looking back at the landscape of things, all these young guys that you know, 25-35, that are in super top shape and super athletic and super healthy in so many ways and don’t have their body covered in scar tissue like mine is. You know, when I was thinking about those characters, what if I could do a throwback to the days of Papa Shango, the days of The Undertaker, trying to create a character that’s like somewhat magical, somewhat over the top and that was the whole mindset.
I asked Jeff to do the whole Brother Nero thing and got him on board with that idea, because I was literally trying to get Jeff to like, slow down and conserve his body a little more, because he’s just like so passionate and he so much feels like every time he’s in the ring, no the fans want me to do a Swanton, they want to see a Whisper in the Wind, you know he feels so committed and so loyal to the audience that he wants to do that every time, but I’m like, you’re Jeff Hardy, at this point, you can kind of pick and choose, you don’t have to do everything, you don’t have to beat your body every single match.”
The interview is available in full at this link.