Matt Hardy: Kazuchika Okada’s Heel Run Will Give Him Career Longevity

Matt Hardy thinks Kazuchika Okada’s heel run and pairing with the Young Bucks will be beneficial.

Matt Hardy thinks Kazuchika Okada’s heel run and pairing with the Young Bucks will be beneficial.

On the March 6 episode of AEW Dynamite, Kazuchika Okada made his long-awaited arrival in AEW. He turned heel and aligned with the Young Bucks (Matthew and Nicholas Jackson) in a move that surprised many fans.

Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the veteran was asked to share his thoughts on Okada debuting as a heel and joining forces with the Young Bucks.

“I’m intrigued, and it’s a good intrigue. I don’t know Okada a lot. The few times I’ve met him, I’ve liked him a lot, seems very nice. The Bucks speak very highly of him. He’s a big star, there’s no doubt about that. Extremely talented individual. So I’m very excited to see his impact on AEW, especially as the AEW audience and people outside of the international wrestling bubble really get to learn who Okada is and really get to see how talented he is and get to see him in action, learn what he’s about, what makes him tick. I think that’s gonna be very beneficial, and I think pairing him with the Bucks is a good deal. It’s something where everybody feels comfortable. It’ll make him feel comfortable. They should gel good because they’ve been friends for many, many years, and it’s gonna be an intriguing thing. I’m looking forward to watching it and following it,” Hardy said.

Hardy was then asked to describe what it was like to step outside of your comfort zone and into a role you’re not used to, as Okada had been a face for years. He responded by noting that it gives you career longevity, and he shared his belief that the same will be true for Okada.

“I think personally, it gives you career longevity. If you can go in a different direction, you can do something new, if you can establish and get it over. It can help you have career longevity. Because one thing that is so similar about actors and wrestlers is there are people who are playing a specific part, right, and the actors play a part in a show for…say you’re a TV series. A good run is five seasons, is what people that are actors have told me. If you have five seasons, it was a success. Not a lot of people get five seasons, but if you have five seasons, it was a success. But after those five seasons are over, then if you do another show, you play another character, and you’re kind of forced to. If you’re wrestling and you’re the same character through 20 seasons, through 25 seasons, it can get old pretty quick. So it’s very important to be able to re-invent yourself. It’s very important to be able to evolve and constantly change, and that allows you to go back to things in the past that was over when people actually miss because it’s been gone so long, when they bereave it and they want to see it again. So I think this is good for Okada. I think it’s gonna give him career longevity, and I also think, as an artist, as someone who’s creative, I think it’s very cathartic to be able to go out and do something that you don’t typically do,” Hardy said.

Fightful Select reported more information about the beginning of Kazuchika Okada’s run in AEW.

Okada is set to challenge Eddie Kingston for the AEW Continental Crown Championship on the March 20 episode of AEW Dynamite. Fightful will have coverage of the show as it airs.

Check out Matt Hardy’s comments about Mercedes Mone’s arrival in AEW here.

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