Matt Hardy: Time constraints & weather prevented interaction between Willow & Stokely Hathaway during AEW Firm Deletion

Photo Courtesy: TNA/IMPACT Wrestling

An appearance from Jeff Hardy’s ‘Willow’ persona was planned for The Firm Deletion. 

The May 5th episode of AEW Rampage featured The Firm Deletion match which was taped at The Hardy Compound in North Carolina. Matt and Jeff Hardy tagged with HOOK and Isiah Kassidy and they bested The Firm’s Big Bill, Ethan Page, Lee Moriarty and Stokely Hathaway.

The match was reviewed and reflected on by Matt Hardy and Isiah Kassidy on the latest Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast.

As the conversation rolled on, Matt shared that there was going to be an interaction between Jeff Hardy’s ‘Willow’ persona that he used in TNA/IMPACT Wrestling and Stokely Hathaway. Matt added that weather and time constraints prevented that from happening and he’s upset they did not get to showcase that. 

I’m gonna give you a spoiler but I’m not gonna give you a spoiler. There was going to be a Willow cameo in here (Firm Deletion) and it would’ve been hilarious because you (Isiah Kassidy) know what it was. But we didn’t get to do it because of time constraints and weather. So we’ll just save it for the next time. But yes, there was going to be a Willow cameo at one point. 

The Willow moment was gonna be with Stokely (Hathaway) and I promise you, people would have pissed their pants in this moment. So I was really upset we didn’t get that in. But you know, it is what it is. 

Matt added that he wishes the final 30 minutes of Rampage was dedicated to the match. He said there was a lot of footage that did not make the final cut. 

Yeah, it was (a great moment between Caprice Coleman & Stokely Hathaway that didn’t make the final cut of Firm Deletion). I do too. There’s a lot of stuff I wish would have been on the TV version. I wish they would have just given us the last 30 minutes of Rampage.

Jeff Hardy made his return to AEW on Dynamite in April. Weekly reviews of Dynamite here on the POST Wrestling site can be found at this link

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions. 

About Andrew Thompson 9829 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.