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Jeff Hardy Details Inspiration Behind Bray Wyatt Face Paint On TNA Show (Exclusive)

Jeff Hardy gives a peek behind the curtain of a story that had the wrestling world talking.

Steven Muelhausen

Matt and Jeff Hardy came out during the Sept. 19 episode of TNA Wrestling.
Matt and Jeff Hardy came out during the Sept. 19 episode of TNA Wrestling. / TNAWrestling.com

For Jeff Hardy, the face paint he dons when he comes out for a match always has meaning. However, when Hardy came out with his brother Matt for a six-person tag team match with Masha Slamovich against The System and Tasha Steelz on the Sept. 19 edition of TNA Wrestling, wrestling fans around the world were buzzing.

Why would people be excited about face paint? Because it paid tribute to the late Bray Wyatt's last character, The Fiend. To Hardy, the inspiration came quite naturally.

"All these years of painting my face, I've never tried to even with skulls, I've never tried to actually do the teeth and make them look like teeth on my lips." Hardy admits to The Takedown ahead of their appearance for TNA on Sunday and Monday for TV tapings in Spartanburg, SC. "I tried it one night (before a match), and I left it. I was like, ‘Oh, that could work’."

"Then that night, when I got to my hotel room before I washed all my paint off, I just tried painting teeth on my lips to make it look like a big smile, a big wicked-looking, Jokerish-type smile. But that night is when I said, ‘Whoa, I think I could, I could do a pretty cool looking tribute to The Fiend mask on here and Bray Wyatt’." 

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But the former three-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion didn't just start designing his face. He had trepidation. Naturally, like the persona he has had for the last 25 years, Hardy just went for it, and the results were priceless for everyone.

"I was scared to go for it, but that's the beauty of art forms and enigmas.," Hardy reveals. "You just go for stuff, and the payoff is like being proud of yourself when it's done, especially someone like Bray Wyatt and The Fiend. The memories he's left us with as pro wrestling fans, to honor him in that way it felt so good after it was done. I was totally glad I just went for it. I'm going to continue from time to time to do the teeth on my face and see where that goes."

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In their time in WWE, Matt feuded and teamed with Wyatt for about a year beginning in 2018, including a stint as Raw Tag Team champions. Seeing his brother pay homage to someone he got to know really well on a personal and professional level was gratifying to see.

"It really was epic," Matt also told The Takedown. "It was one of those things, like me and Bray becoming obviously real tight whenever we worked together, and then we teamed up. We worked together almost nonstop for a year. So it was a really sweet tribute. It was just epic. It was really amazing."

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Steven Muelhausen

STEVEN MUELHAUSEN

: Steven Muehlhausen is a veteran combat sports writer for various outlets including Sporting News and Yahoo Sports. He can be reached at stevemuehlhausen@yahoo.com and followed on Twitter @SMuehlhausenJr.

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