WWE Live goes to the mat with powerful card

Richard Carter
For the Times Record News

What: WWE Live

When: 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan 13.

Where: Kay Yeager Coliseum, 1000 5th Street

Admission: $15 to $95 (Additional fees may apply)

Information: (940) 716-5555 or WFMPEC.com

After a four-year absence, WWE Live is returning to Wichita Falls with a card that is likely to turn some heads.

Woken Matt Hardy will wrestle Bray Wyatt when WWE Live rolls into town from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday Jan 13 at the Kay Yeager Coliseum.

There’s the Intercontinental Championship Triple Threat Match pitting Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. The Miz with the Miztourage, as well as a RAW Tag Team Championship Match with Sheamus and Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan.

And, if that weren’t enough, Matt Hardy is asking his Woken Warriors to stand side by side with him as he hopes to render Bray Wyatt obsolete and delete him.

These matches and more will be on tap when the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Live is from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the Kay Yeager Coliseum.

“WWE is by far and away the biggest and the best global wrestling company there’s ever been in history,” said Hardy. “It transcends pro wrestling in so many ways as entertainment, because not only are you seeing a great wrestling match and great characters, you’re also hearing amazing music, you’re seeing lights, it’s such a dramatic show. It really rolls every aspect of entertainment into one, and WWE does that better than anyone else.”

Woken Matt Hardy will wrestle Bray Wyatt when WWE Live rolls into town from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday Jan 13 at the Kay Yeager Coliseum.

Hardy has wrestled now for some three decades, and much of that has been in the WWE, he said. As kids, he and brother Jeff, were “bit by the wrestling bug. The characters we saw on TV,” he said, “not only were they major athletes but they were living and breathing superheroes.

“The first guy I was a fan of was the ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage. He motivated me to have a bigger persona, to project on a lot larger level. He did such great character work, but he was also phenomenal in the ring as an athlete.

“My brother and I’s initial goal was to succeed and make it to the WWE and to become the WWE Tag team champions, and obviously we exceeded that in quite a healthy fashion.

The Hardy Boyz have won the WWE Tag Team championship 8 times. But, both Hardy brothers have also been very successful wrestling solo, Matt starting in 2002.

“The things that allow us to have success on our own is that we both have confidence, we are both individual characters and we both know how to portray ourselves as individual characters,” he said.  

Woken Matt Hardy will wrestle Bray Wyatt when WWE Live rolls into town from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday Jan 13 at the Kay Yeager Coliseum.

Most recently in spring 2017, the two brothers reunited for Wrestlemania 33 and won the world tag team title in a 4-way ladder match. Matt is currently wrestling single, while Jeff recovers from a rotator cuff injury.

 Looking to Saturday night, Hardy said that his current wrestling incarnation, Woken Matt Hardy, has a history with his opponent Saturday opponent, Bray Wyatt.

“Woken Matt Hardy has something inside of me that I realize has existed for thousands of years, and there’s an entity that lies inside Bray Wyatt--Sister Abigail, who is like a demon that goes almost a thousand years back.”

Wyatt is a sort of yin to his yang, Hardy said. “Myself and what possesses Bray Wyatt have a long history, and it makes for quite an interesting tale.

“Quite larger than life,” he said.

Hardy’s current incarnation, Woken Matt Hardy, began two years ago, after he and Wyatt had contact. “Now, not only am I Matt Hardy, but I am also Woken Matt Hardy because I realize my condition and also all of my abilities and powers.”

Hardy’s Saturday night bout with Bray Wyatt should be one for the ages.  

Hardy is also looking forward to the headlining match. “It’s going to be fantastic,” he said. “You have three amazingly different and unique personalities.

“Roman Reigns is probably the most polarizing guy in the history of the WWE. Fans either love him or hate him. Samoa Joe is typically a bad guy but has a loyal cult following, because he is such a legit bad@ss. The Miz is the reality wrestling star who followed his dream and got to the WWE and became a top level superstar. He is so arrogant and so conceited, but he’s so good.

“This will be a great match!”