Matt Hardy Defends WWE Over John Oliver's Segment, Calls Some Topics "Outdated"

Earlier this month, John Oliver called out WWE on his Last Week Tonight show on HBO. Oliver talked about how the WWE Superstars are treated by the company and their status as independent contractors.

FOX News caught up with Matt Hardy and asked his thoughts on Oliver's critical segment of WWE. Hardy said some of the things Oliver covered was "kind of outdated" and any surgery he's had while with WWE, the company paid for. He also noted things are much improved compared to 20 years ago when he first started in WWE.

"When I first started here [in 1997 and 1998] ... the locker room and everything was like the wild wild west then," Hardy said." The change that has happened in those 20-plus years has been unreal. I mean, now the drug testing is very stringent. ... You have to be here, and you have to be good and you have to be on top of your game. You have to be a professional. The physicals they do as far as cardiovascular and just checking you over and over — [there have] been several guys they caught that have had serious [health] issues that could have been life threatening if they didn't catch it here, and just the way they take care of you.

"Every surgery I ever had, WWE has paid for. They're very faithful and very good about that. It's just some of the stuff that the John talked about was kind of passé, kind of outdated because now they really do [take care of wrestlers' health]. They take care of everything especially stuff that happens in house. As far as the whole health insurance thing, that's kind of a different argument, because we do a different gig in many many ways. But WWE has never done anything but be great to me.

"They've taking care of me in every capacity, every front. And they've given me a great life. I mean one of the characters I play is 'Big Money' Matt, who's like this millionaire that's been around for a long time, and you know there's a lot of truth to it in some ways, and I wouldn't have that persona and I wouldn't have the great life that I have right now if it wasn't for WWE."