Matt and Jeff Hardy’s return to the WWE was the buzz of WrestleMania weekend. When the former Attitude Era stars captured the Raw Tag Team Championships on their first night back, long time fans were thrilled to see the homecoming of one of the most legendary teams in WWE history.
While many fans felt a nostalgic warmth consume them when the Hardys music hit, most were excited to see the #Broken Hardys that had taken the internet wrestling community by storm with their hilariously ridiculous Total Deletion series. Despite fans in Orlando chanting Delete, Delete, Delete, and Matt Hardy still looking like the character who attacked his own brother with drones, WWE has not been fully able to cash in on the gimmick.
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Unfortunately for all parties involved, what has inarguably been the greatest part of the Hardys gimmick over the past ten years is something that is still owned by their former employer, TNA Impact Wrestling.
Impact Wrestling’s stance is that they want royalties in return for any revenue that is generated from use of the “Broken” gimmick, considering the gimmick was created under the TNA banner. The Hardys, however, believe they should be able to take the gimmick with them to Ring of Honor and WWE due to the fact that they were the ones who created the gimmick.
In the two weeks that The Hardys have been on Raw since winning the championships, they have yet to give a single interview. It appears as if WWE has been trying to ride the line between nostalgia and copyright infringement by leaving the Hardys gimmick as a bit of a mystery.
The problem is that this strategy can only last for so long. Fans will eventually grow tired of seeing the much older Hardys try to simply recapture their Team Extreme glory. Just as with the Dudley Boyz recent return, the nostalgia act will quickly wear itself thin. Knowing how entertaining the Broken Hardys can be and not being able to actually see it will grow frustrating to the WWE Universe.
Monday night, WWE creative may have found a work around to this problem during the Superstar Shake-Up when they moved Bray Wyatt from Smackdown to Raw.
Wyatt’s entire gimmick is based upon him being a supernatural cult leader. Without Luke Harper or Erick Rowan by his side, Wyatt will be truly alone for the first time in his career (Braun Strowman is clearly pre-occupied tossing around ambulances).
If The Hardys are unable to use the TNA version of the Broken gimmick, they could easily assimilate into a new version of the Wyatt Family. Broken Matt Hardy could become Wyatt Matt Hardy or Twisted Matt Wyatt or something much more clever. Whatever, we’ll leave those details to Reby Sky.
After WWE dropped the ball with Bray and Randy’s amazingly ridiculous storyline, Bray’s Sister Abigail powers have basically become a punchline. If we’re not going to take him serious as a supernatural demigod (yes, I understand how ridiculous this sentence is) let’s make him a self-aware cult classic like The Hardys.
The pairing of The Hardys and The Wyatts would be a huge benefit to both parties. More importantly, if the WWE doesn’t cash in on everything that made The Broken Hardys such an attractive act to bring back in the first place they could lose the momentum in a hurry.
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