Matt Hardy Explains Why Vince McMahon Didn't Like His Broken Persona

Now that Matt Hardy is gone from WWE, the former tag team champion has decided to open up about his latest run with the company. In an interview with Busted Open Radio this week, Hardy discussed how Vince McMahon reacted to his "Broken" persona, which he originally developed in Impact Wrestling and eventually brought over to WWE as "Woken Matt Hardy." Because of copyright issues Hardy wasn't able to use the gimmick when he initially came back to the company, but that finally changed in late 2017 when he started feuding with Bray Wyatt and battled in "The Ultimate Deletion" just before WrestleMania 34.

"Vince initiated it because people wouldn't stop chanting 'Delete.' He'd ask about it, we talked about it, and I wanted to do it," Hardy said [h/t Fightful] before adding that he believed part of the reason McMahon didn't understand it was because he didn't create it. "But it's also a different concept. I don't think he fully understood it. He gave us an opportunity, but also giving us an opportunity, it allows him to say, 'I gave him an opportunity, but it didn't work huge' It had to be done different.

"When we did the first vignette and we laughed at the very end, we ended up laughing every single week and there are times where there's stuff that has to be serious and it can't be humorous," he added. "There's time where it can be dramatic or scary. You have to have all those elements to make some kind of odd-meta hack like this work. It ended up getting moved to too much of a 'laugh at each other' to really be brought in correctly by the WWE universe."

Elsewhere in the same interview, Hardy explained why he felt it was finally time to leave the company.

"I am very grateful, as I've said in my videos, 'Thoughts from the Throne,' that I announced my contract had expired," Hardy said. "If it wasn't for Vince McMahon giving me an opportunity 20-plus years ago, I wouldn't have had this life that I have. So I will always be grateful for that. Even if there's things later on that we didn't see eye-to-eye on, it is what it is, that's business.

"When it comes to Vince and the WWE in some feels, I've kind of aged out. And I think my brand of entertainment and the way I feel like I have to be utilized isn't one of their priorities. And that's fine and I get that. I understand that, and that's no issue," he continued, adding that he was happy he was given the opportunity to come back.