Since WrestleMania , one of the major news stories has been the return of The Hardys. The brothers, who won the Raw Tag Team Championship at the “Showcase of the immortals,” renewed their popularity in 2016 with their Broken Hardys gimmick in TNA (now Impact Wrestling ) and on the independent scene when their TNA contracts expired.
Since coming into the WWE, the Hardys has not been able to use their “Broken” gimmick due to Impact Wrestling’s claim to the rights of the characters and likenesses. You see Matt Hardy doing some of the Broken Matt hand signals but nothing more than that. Recent reports have the WWE in negotiations with Anthem (the company that owns Impact Wrestling) for the rights to the Broken gimmick that would see the WWE either pay a lump sum or a percentage of the merchandise sold for the Broken Hardy name.
In the weeks since WrestleMania, the hype around the Hardys has remained high. The fans are interested as to whether the WWE will continue the Broken Hardy story or scrap it in favor of the former Hardy characters the WWE created. Fans want to see the Broken Hardys with a company that has the production values and writers that comes with the WWE. The problem? The WWE may try to tinker with the characters, which could make the Broken Hardys story line worse. Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken…. unless they are broken?
There is one major problem that could derail everything for the Hardys. According to IWNerd, the WWE have plans in place to let Broken Matt Hardy exist while splitting Jeff Hardy off for a main event singles run down the line. This from Comicbook.com.
“Monday's advertised ‘dream match’ between Hardy and Cesaro was likely a test run in this direction to see how audiences reacted to Jeff on his own. Matches like Jeff Hardy vs Finn Balor and Jeff Hardy vs Brock Lesnar have been discussed as possibilities.”
This rumor (and it is just a rumor) is disheartening to fans as the thrill of the Hardys are to see them together and not apart. Jeff did some great things as champion when he was last in the WWE and had a decent run in TNA, if you discount the match where he was in no condition to wrestle against Sting. Jeff on his own means that Matt is on his own too. In the past, that meant the focus of the creative team was on Jeff and Matt was left as the red-headed stepchild.
The return of the Hardys is a great thing for both the brothers and the WWE. For the Hardys, it gives them an opportunity to finish their careers on the biggest stage of all. For the WWE, they bring back one of the best tag teams and characters in wrestling today and arguably in history. Breaking them up would be a mistake and kill their momentum, but all in all, it is good to see them back where they belong.
