Matt Hardy Recalls Odd Vince McMahon Meeting Ahead Of WWE SummerSlam 2005

Former WWE star Matt Hardy has recalled the strange meeting he had with Vince McMahon and Edge, prior to his match with the Rated-R Superstar at SummerSlam 2005.

Tensions were high heading into the grudge match with plenty of real-life animosity between the performers due to Hardy's girlfriend Lita having a real-life affair with Edge, and speaking on a recent edition of the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, the former ECW Champion detailed the bizarre speech McMahon gave the pair before they went to the ring:

"[McMahon] was worried there was going to be tension between myself and Edge, so he called us into his office and he was going to sit us down and talk to us and also let us know how he wanted the finish of the match to go. The first thing Vince says, he says, '[Edge], Matt, you know the WWE is my company, right?'. We go, 'Yeah'.

"I'm going to tell you this right now, if either one of you go out there tonight and try to take liberties with each other, if you try to intentionally hurt one another, I am the most powerful man in this industry, I promise neither one of you will ever work a day in this industry again, do you understand?'.We go, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. We understand'," started Hardy.

After that, however, things took an odd turn:

"He said, 'Have you ever seen two animals... in the wild kingdom where they're ever going to fight one another? Have you ever seen one animal wound another animal and when it wounds that animal and the animal starts bleeding and it smells the blood, it gets bigger, it swells up, it growls and it just wants to kill the other animal...These are your primal instincts'.

"We had got so freaked out from Vince's monologue that we were sitting besides each other almost like cuddling together like, 'What the f*ck?'. We think he brought us in there, and he tried to like, freak us out to bond us, to give us something to talk about," continued Hardy.

Though they had their issues, Matt and Edge were both professional and the match passed without incident.

"Everything about that match was super professional but, Vince, Vince went crazy. He told us, 'Have you ever seen a crippled person or a person in a wheelchair and you want to eat them?'. That's the quote. He said that is basic instincts, that is human psychology."

H/T Wrestling Inc.