E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness Recap – WrestleMania Thoughts, TLC Matches, Jeff Wants to Swanton off HIAC, More!

Edge and Christian open today’s show by talking about WrestleMania.

Edge points out that he’s looking forward to both the Universal Title match and the WWE Title match. He’s excited for Nakamura and Styles because he thinks Nakamura might finally get to show what he’s all about. Christian agrees, pointing out that it’s always tough when you move from one promotion to another and sometimes it takes a while to settle in. Edge thinks Styles is the perfect performer to draw the best out of Nakamura.

Edge and Christian welcome Matt and Jeff Hardy to the show.

Edge mentions that fans have been begging them to have the Hardy Boys on for a long time, given the tremendous history between both tag teams. Christian points out that they had some very memorable matches together over the years, and people are still talking about them nearly 20 years later. He adds that those matches took them from being WWE wrestlers to WWE Superstars.

Edge recalls working as part of The Brood, and he was tagging with Gangrel against The Hardy Boyz one night. They’d always work pretty stiff with each other, and on this night Matt tagged Gangrel with a stiff punch. Edge says he’ll never forget the look on Matt’s face when he realized what he had done. He adds that the chemistry between him, Christian and the Hardys was always terrific.

Christian mentions that although him and Edge had totally different upbringings than The Hardys, they also had a lot in common. They were four young kids who would rather be on the road in a wrestling ring every night instead of sitting home. Matt notes that they were all huge fans of the business who were very passionate and driven to make something happen.

Edge believes all four of them started to hit their stride in WWE when they had a best of 7 series with each other. They would go on to work many other matches with each other, including Gauntlet Matches and of course, multiple TLC matches along with the Dudley Boyz. Matt points out that him and Jeff developed a tremendous friendship and chemistry with Edge and Christian, and ultimately that paved the way for Edge and Christian’s on-screen heel turn, adding another layer to their rivalry.

Matt informs that when they originally debuted in WWE alongside Michael Hayes, Hayes wanted their look to resemble that of The Fabulous Freebirds which would have included cowboy boots and tight jeans. Jeff asked about modernizing that look somewhat and Hayes was okay with that, so he went into Hot Topic and found an outfit he liked. When he came out Hayes looked at him and said, “I love it. You got one my size?”

When The Dudley Boyz came to WWE from ECW, one of their first matches was a Tables match against The Hardy Boyz. Looking back on that match now, Matt can notice a significant lack of selling from both teams, and that’s because they had 5 minutes cut from the match right before they went out. He points out that this was still a very cool moment because table matches were fairly new to the WWE Universe.

Jeff talks about the delivery of his Swanton Bomb. He points out that when he was younger he’d try to manipulate his body as best he could so he wouldn’t squat his opponent to death. Unfortunately, he started having problems with his lower back as a result of this, so he jokes that he’s decided to just start crushing people with it now. Matt points out that Karl Anderson has listed the Swanton Bomb as one of the most painful moves to take.

Jeff recalls his Swanton Bomb from the top of the ladder through Edge during one of the infamous TLC matches. Prior to the match Jeff asked if they could break a ladder and they got the go ahead, so towards the end of the match Jeff scaled the ladder and dove through Edge who was laying on a ladder. Edge says that was the worst pain he’s ever felt in his life. He wasn’t sure if he had broken bones and he questioned whether he’d ever breath again.

At this point in his career, Matt admits that he has more runway behind him than in front. Because of this, he’s trying to take more educated risks and is trying to be more of an entertainer at this point in his career. However, he doesn’t regret the chances they took early in their careers because they mightn’t have ever stood out if they didn’t take those risks. Edge agrees, but he looks back at those matches now and is shocked that they aren’t in worse shape physically than they are at this point in their lives.

Edge asks Matt and Jeff if they have anything left that they want to accomplish in WWE at this point. Jeff says he’d still love to work a Hell in A Cell match, and he wonders whether it’d be possible for him to hit a Swanton Bomb from the top of the Cell. He says he’d love to at least get up on the top of the Cell and size it up.

Matt says he’d just love to do more deletions at the Hardy compound, and he invites Edge and Christian to the compound for the next Ultimate Deletion.

That sums up today’s episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!