Matt Hardy Explains What AEW Got Wrong With Elite Deletion Wrestling News Source – Latest WWE, AEW, Pro Wrestling News, AEW All In: London 2026 Results

Matt Hardy believes AEW may have gone a little too big when bringing the Elite Deletion to the Hardy Compound, admitting the sheer size of the production crew took away some of the raw atmosphere that made his earlier cinematic matches work.

Hardy faced Sammy Guevara in the Elite Deletion at AEW Full Gear in November 2020, bringing his famous Hardy Compound concept into AEW for the first time. However, looking back on the match, Hardy feels the company arrived with more people, equipment and lighting than the production really needed.

Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, he explained that simply moving such a large crew around the property became a challenge.

“I just feel like they brought all these lights and guys to hold lights and manage lights, but then we have to move so much, because the Hardy Compound is pretty vast, and a lot of these distances that seem like it’s not going far, it’s pretty far.”

Hardy compared AEW’s approach with an earlier production at the Compound that was handled by just four people. In his view, keeping things small made everything much easier.

“We did so much bouncing back and forth from my house to Jeff’s house, which was tricky, and we just had four people here working on it, and that was perfect. That’s exactly what we needed. You have a couple of people to shoot, someone to do sound, someone to do lights, but they had two solid crews. It was almost too many people. It was too populated in some ways.”

The issue wasn’t simply having extra hands available. Hardy believes the larger production resulted in the Elite Deletion looking considerably more polished than the cinematic style called for.

“The one with Sammy, which we called the Elite Deletion, was a little overproduced. It was a little too slick. I feel like these things look better when they’re a little edgy, and they almost look a little grimy. I think they’re better when they look a little grimy, look a little real, a little edgy, and it was almost too polished and too slick.”

Hardy also singled out the lighting as something that worked against the desired presentation.

“They were trying to light it up too much, and you could see too much, and it looked too much like a television production in some ways, although that sounds a little crazy.”

For Hardy, part of the charm of the Compound matches comes from them feeling unusual and unpredictable rather than resembling something shot on a traditional wrestling television set.

He believes AEW found a better balance when the Compound was later used for the Firm Deletion, with a smaller group allowing filming to move more freely around the property.

“Whenever we did the Firm Deletion, it was done better. It was a much smaller crew, and we were able just to keep everybody moving. There wasn’t a ton of equipment to work around.”

Hardy also credited several members of that production team for understanding exactly what the concept required.

“It was John Carlo and the guys down there that are great at that stuff. Eric Tompkins was here, Kevin Martin was here, there was Robert who shoots and edits stuff, and all three of those guys are just masters of their craft.”

Tony Khan was also present at the Hardy Compound for the Elite Deletion shoot, although Hardy recalled the AEW President initially becoming distracted by one of the arcade games on the property.

“I remember TK was playing the game. He said, ‘ Oh my God, I love this game; it’s so great. I have one that myself and Jeff were on, and he was down in the arcade playing. It’s like, hey, we should probably get started, this is going to take all night. He’s like, oh, okay, okay, okay.”

Once production began, Khan watched proceedings from the full production truck AEW had brought to the Compound.

“He sat out because they brought a full-fledged truck here, and he sat in the truck watching what we were shooting. It was almost a little overproduced, but I appreciate the effort that he was willing to put into it.”

The Hardy Compound became synonymous with cinematic wrestling in 2016 when Matt and Jeff Hardy produced the Final Deletion for TNA in Cameron, North Carolina. Created with a comparatively tiny crew and little advance hype, the unusual presentation quickly became a major talking point and led to several follow-up matches and segments.

The success of the concept eventually followed Hardy elsewhere. WWE produced its own version after Hardy returned to the company, while AEW revisited the idea following his arrival in 2020.

Hardy has also revealed that WWE’s take on the concept went through some unusual last-minute changes, claiming Vince McMahon was making alterations at around 2 a.m. and wanted wrestling removed in favour of making the finished product considerably more over-the-top.

Hardy’s AEW run lasted from 2020 until 2023. He has since returned to TNA alongside Jeff Hardy and has also taken on responsibilities behind the scenes. The brothers are currently TNA World Tag Team Champions and are scheduled to defend the titles at Lockdown in Chicago on Sunday.

What did you think of the Elite Deletion? Was AEW’s version too polished, or did the bigger production make the match better? Let us know your thoughts in the new WNS comment section!