Matt Hardy On The Worst Receipts He's Given And Received In His Wrestling Career

It's no secret that pro wrestlers had to earn the respect of their peers in the bygone era, and unless their baptism by fire was complete, they had to endure the physical torment of those who came before them. 

AEW star Matt Hardy recently provided a fascinating insight into this "honor system" of the business, recalling the years when The Hardys had a series of matches in WWE against Farooq and Bradshaw of The APA. Hardy would recount the tale when asked about "the worst receipts" he's kept and handed out over the course of his career. 

"I've never actually given anyone a receipt," Hardy clarified on the "Extreme Life of Matt Hardy" podcast. "There have been times where I've realized that I need to fight back. There was a time when we were working with The Acolytes, and they were beating the s–t out of us. They dropped the titles to us, we were the tag team champions, and we worked a couple of times after that, and I'm like, 'Holy s–t, they can have these titles back. We're in the record books — I'm good.'"

Hardy then recalled a conversation with his brother, Jeff, about the extent to which Farooq and Bradshaw were getting physical in The Hardys vs. APA matches.

"I was like, 'I don't know how much longer I can take this. This is like abusive!'" Hardy recalled. "And then when were in there, Bradshaw beat me down in the corner. I remember beating him as hard as I could in the face, and the next thing I had was just a very soft [jab to the face]. 

"So, it's one of those things where the old-timers — where guys would beat you up and take advantage of you ... until you didn't let them. Until, like, you stood up for yourself. I think that was kind of a case of that."