Team 3D and The Hardys had one final match at Bound For Glory.
The unforgettable match at the company’s biggest pay-per-view of the year saw the end of an era that featured some of the best tag teams of any generation. But what exactly prompted Team 3D to step into the ring for the final time against Matt & Jeff?
Apparently this was Bully Ray’s plan all along.
The TNA Hall of Famer revealed this information on Busted Open Radio, where he pitched the idea of one final match between the legendary teams and it took off the way it was supposed to
“To quote Hannibal from The A-Team, ‘I love it when a plan comes together.’ This was a plan. A plan the wrestling Gods gave to me months ago. A plan that I worked on and cultivated and I presented to TNA. I say that without ego. It’s just fact and it’s important that wrestling fans know how things happen.
Everything seemed to come into motion for Bully. He had been watching the Hardys and knew how great they were doing in TNA. He knew it was the 25th anniversary of their first tables match at Royal Rumble. He also understood that D-Von didn’t have much longer to compete. It was too hard to convince TNA officials, who ultimately loved the idea.
“It came to me a while ago and I knew that the Hardys were doing such a great job in TNA. I knew it was the 25-year anniversary of the tables match in MSG. I knew the clock was ticking on D-Von. That had a major part of this and was a factor in this. D-Von, despite the fact that he is feeling considerably better than he ever has, and did an incredible job at Bound For Glory. Bravo to D-Von for getting in there and doing considerably better than he did at TNA 1000. He wasn’t happy with that last appearance and he wanted to get rid of that bad memory.
Great job, D-Von. Proud of you, brother. All of these factors and things were lining up. I got in touch with TNA and said, ‘Listen, it’s right here. It’s right here in front of us. We have an opportunity to do something special. We have an opportunity to do something special for tag team wrestling and give something back to wrestling fans that they will never see again.’ Every way you looked at it was a positive. There were no negatives to this idea."
Bully also discussed the contract signing and he tossed out that idea the moment it was given to him. Contract signings are boring to the TNA Hall of Famer and he decided to change things up for the final segment leading into Bound For Glory.
"Whether it was the 25, starting it off at Slammiversary with the surprise appearance, showing up and doing something different than a contract signing. TNA said to me, ‘We want you guys in Minneapolis to do a contract signing.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to do a contract signing. Contract signings are done to death and are boring. I don’t want to get into a fight with the Hardys because that’s been done. I want to do something different.’ ‘What do you want to do?’ ‘I want to do a final negotiation.’ ‘We love that.’ Let’s negotiate the terms of the match and why the match is going to go down this way.”