Former WWE superstar reveals how he “dreaded” facing the late Chris Benoit during house events.
Although things didn’t end well for Chris Benoit, his wrestling skills could not be impugned by anybody. Benoit’s athleticism in pro wrestling was second to none. The Rabid Wolverine was one of the most tenacious and technical wrestlers to ever step foot in the ring.
AEW superstar Matt Hardy recently revealed on his podcast that he “dreaded” facing Benoit in the ring. Hardy and Benoit were no strangers to each other. They have worked multiple matches together and Hardy has always found himself at the receiving end of the hardest chops to the chest every time he faced Benoit.
On The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt Hardy stated that while he enjoyed working with Benoit on TV, he hated facing him at house events. Unlike Chris, Matt’s body took time to recover from fatigue after traveling to house shows. On the other hand, Chris was always in good physical condition. Fans from the old era would remember how physical and fast-paced Benoit’s matches used to be.
“I’ll tell you what, Chris Benoit, you know, obviously everyone hates how everything ended with him, understandably and correctly so. But I was going to say, whenever I wrestled him, I loved wrestling him on TV because I knew I would be ready for it, and I would go because I was prepared for TV, and I always knew it was going to be a phenomenal match,” Matt Hardy explained. “But whenever we were on a house show, especially when I was run down and beat up, I was like, ‘F***!’ I always dreaded wrestling Benoit because I knew you couldn’t slow down.”
When wrestlers are on the road, they prefer having matches that don’t require them to put maximum effort. However, Benoit was on another level when it came to the ring. House show or not, the former World Heavyweight Champion always brought a hundred percent to the table.
Matt Hardy looks back on when he wrestled Chris Benoit with a hangover on a house show
After a night’s session of indulging in alcohol, the last thing anybody would want the next day is to step into the ring to face the “toothless aggressor”. Benoit could beat the alcohol out of the system of his opponents in the squared circle. Unfortunately for Hardy, he found himself in an ordeal when he learned that his match with MVP was canceled and replaced with Hardy Vs Benoit in the main event.
“We (he and MVP) were both hungover and exhausted, and I looked at the card, and the main event is Matt Hardy vs. Chris Benoit. And I’m like, ‘Holy s***; I’m going to f***ing die. He is going to beat the shit out of me.’ You knew when you’re wrestling Chris Benoit, I mean, he was only one gear, and that was like, fifth gear. That’s as fast as you could possibly go. So, that was quite the shock, like, ‘Oh, geez, I’m regretting not sleeping last night.” Said Hardy.
According to Hardy, facing Benoit was an onerous task sober and even worse with a hangover. Chris Benoit was as tough as nails. However, a female Impact Wrestler thinks otherwise. Read more on that here.
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