Matt Hardy made his return on last week’s Monday Night Raw, dressed in black and putting over Buddy Murphy on the latter’s path to a confrontation with Aleister Black. Hardy’s been a presence off and on since he and brother Jeff made a huge surprise return at WrestleMania 33. Unfortunately WWE never quite made good on the promise of that return, which came after the Hardyz got Impact Wrestling more attention than they’d had in years with their “Broken” videos that went viral online, and then carried those characters through an indie wrestling run right up until Mania. Now it looks like Matt Hardy may be looking to leave WWE in just a couple of months.
According to PWInsider, Matt Hardy is thankful that he and Jeff were able to return with such fanfare and have a solid run spinning out of that, but at the same time WWE never capitalized on the Broken Matt Hardy character, the popularity of which created the wave of success that carried he and his brother to that big WWE return. In Impact, Matt had the freedom to explore this new version of his character and was pushed like a top star as he did so, whereas WWE wants him to dress like he did in the ’90s and put over younger stars.
Assuming Hardy doesn’t sign a new contract, he’ll be able to perform elsewhere and sign with any company he wants as soon as February 2020. Jeff Hardy won’t be free as soon, since injury and legal trouble have forced him to take more time off, giving WWE the ability to add time to his contract. It’s still possible that WWE might come to terms with Matt Hardy, but Matt’s already been publishing a series of “Free the Delete” YouTube videos that may serve to build up to his return to the indies, Impact, AEW, or anywhere else that will give him the creative freedom he craves.
