AEW star Matt Hardy has reinvented himself many times over the years, whether it's as the "Version One Matt" or even "Big Money Matt." However, perhaps his most popular creation - even more so than his time as a member of The Hardy Boyz in WWE's Attitude Era in many ways - is "Broken Matt Hardy."
Created while he and brother Jeff (sorry, Brother Nero) were working the independents and TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, the cult-like leader struck a chord with fans in a big way. Yes, it was a tad ridiculous at times, but that was part of the charm and when the duo returned to WWE, the hope was the gimmick might follow.
Eventually, it did, though in a way that largely disappointed. That can be blamed on Vince McMahon's input, of course, though we at least got an entertaining match with Matt and the late, great Bray Wyatt out of it!
Talking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt revealed that Triple H was open to showcasing the character in WWE. Vince, however, was not...until he felt he had no other choice.
"I remember talking to Triple H, and he said 'You know what? Maybe we could do a Hardy Boyz run, kind of a throwback to the original WWE Hardy Boyz, and then maybe we get into the Broken Matt Hardy a little bit?'"
"And then Vince is like 'They're back in WWE now, they're The Hardy Boyz," he said before reflecting on a later conversion with the WWE Chairman. "We sat down and we talked for 30 minutes about what the character was, he says 'They keep doing delete-delete-delete-delete, they won't stop that s—t! I guess we got to give it to 'em.'"
Back in 2020, Matt talked more about why certain people in WWE didn't understand his "Broken" persona.
"No, I don’t think they got the character all the way. I think the creative guys do. People say, 'Oh, creative should have done better,' but at the end of the day, it’s not up to them. I mean, you say it all the time. I mean, Vince is like the one. I mean, if he wants something done, it’s happening. If he doesn’t want something done, it isn’t happening. The Halloween special, I and JB and Dan Pucciarello from WWE Network did that all together. So literally I had creative control in that."
WWE dropped the ball here and had the chance to do something special with both Matt and Jeff, particularly when the pandemic rolled around and cinematic matches became fairly commonplace. Of course, by that point, Matt had signed with AEW!
Were you disappointed with WWE's "Woken" Matt Hardy?