Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy made every pro wrestling fan’s dreams come true on Sunday night, when they returned to WWE at WrestleMania 33, and captured the Raw Tag Team Championship. However, the tag team is currently embroiled in legal hot water with Impact Wrestling, which is claiming ownership of the Hardys’ “Broken” characters, which have made them one of the hottest and most beloved acts in wrestling over the past year.
Matt and Jeff were forced to downplay their “Broken” identities in Ring of Honor after ROH was hit with cease-and-desist letters, and there were loads of questions about whether they’d be able to retain any of those traits when they jumped to WWE. It turns out, the answer is … kinda?
The Hardys entered to their old Hardy Boyz entrance music at WrestleMania, and although Matt retained the signature “Broken” white stripe in his hair, his hairstyle was more sedate, and the two pretty much had on their “Team Xtreme” gear instead of the “Broken” getups. The crowd chanted “DELETE” and Matt and Jeff used the appropriate hand gesture a couple of times, but it was clear they were downplaying it.
Based on a few backstage videos, it looks like the Hardys (or Matt, at least) will be retaining elements of the Broken Universe, but won’t be leaning into it TOO hard … at least for the time being. In this video posted to WWE’s Snapchat, they appeared to be fully #BROKEN …
The Hardy's are very much still broken. #WrestleMania https://t.co/P8sLpSnCKB
— PWStream (@PWStream) April 3, 2017
But in the full backstage, post-win video on WWE’s YouTube channel, Matt’s antics were a lot more subtle.
And in another video where they talked about their return, they weren’t really in character at all:
So as with anything else when a wrestler returns, we will have to wait and see. But it should be an EXTRAORDINARY ride.
