WWE News: Matt Hardy Teases That He Might Not Be Leaving Broken Matt Far Behind
Matt Hardy became possibly more popular than he had ever been when he created his Broken Matt persona in Impact Wrestling. When Matt returned to the WWE with his brother Jeff Hardy at WrestleMania 33, fans wondered if Broken Matt was far behind.
However, the WWE has only referred to Matt and Jeff Hardy them as the Hardy Boyz and there is little reference to the Broken Matt gimmick for good reason. Impact Wrestling claims that they own the rights to the gimmick and not Matt Hardy, who claims he invented it on his own.
However, in a fun recent Twitter post, it looks like Matt Hardy is not leaving all things from Broken Matt behind. Hardy, who is working as the Hardy Boyz again with Jeff changed his Twitter handle to Mattitude, which was a character he played after he broke up with Jeff in the WWE and turned bad.
Matt Hardy then posted a video of him boxing a kangaroo that holds the spirit of Smokin’ Joe Frazier – one of the humorous events from the Broken Matt saga in Impact Wrestling. He added “MATT FACT” to the video, yet another former gimmick of Matt Hardy v1.
The entire situation screams of Matt Hardy not knowing who he is, and while Impact Wrestling continues to claim ownership of his Broken Matt gimmick, they can’t keep him from creating something else based on his persona.
According to a previous tweet after Matt and Jeff Hardy made their WWE return at WrestleMania 33, Matt let his fans know that returning home to a “deafening ovation” cured him of his “condishtion” and that he is now able to contain it. He also talked about being able to feel unbroken when talking about his new status in the WWE.
However, while Anthem and Impact Wrestling lashed out in the past, it seems they have been quiet when it concerns the WWE. When Matt and Jeff Hardy chose not to resign with Impact Wrestling and went to Ring of Honor instead, Anthem sent a cease and desist letter to Ring of Honor and PPV providers to ensure that Broken Matt was never mentioned and the gimmick was not used.
Matt Hardy and Ring of Honor never flatly used the Broken Matt gimmick but their partnership was still extremely successful, with the Hardy Boyz winning the Ring of Honor tag team titles and Ring of Honor getting their biggest attendance in history on the show that saw the Young Bucks win the tag titles back from the Hardy Boyz.
That happened on the day before WrestleMania 33 and helped convince fans that Matt and Jeff Hardy were not coming back to the WWE. They then showed up one day later and won the WWE tag team titles in a ladder match.
The fact that the WWE did not use the term Broken Matt and Matt Hardy only partially used mannerisms from that gimmick shows that the two are not ready to challenge the order of Impact Wrestling yet. With the fans continuing to yell “DELETE” during his matches, it might just be a matter of time.
Matt Hardy even acknowledged the fans chanting “Delete” on yet another Twitter post. In that one, he said that the “tantalizing” chants from the WWE fans were “triggers.” He also said they made him feel “savage.”
There is a lot that the WWE can do here with Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, and a variation of the Broken Matt gimmick. If the boys had arrived at WrestleMania 33 using the gimmick, it would have been very popular but isn’t likely to have lasted long. By not using the gimmick from the start, it allows Matt Hardy to play around with expectations and that is keeping WWE fans waiting to see what happens next.
[Featured Image by WWE]
