When The New Day came out at WrestleMania 33 and announced that there would be a fourth team added to the Monday Night Raw tag team title ladder match, some expected it to be New Day, but other fans started chanting “Delete.” Those fans were right on as The Hardy Boyz — Jeff and Matt Hardy — came out to the ring and made their big WWE return.
After the match ended, and the Hardy Boyz added the WWE tag team titles to their growing collection, the brothers spoke to WWE.com about making this surprise return. In the interview, Jeff Hardy said that the brothers had returned home — both to the WWE and to Florida, where they used to live.
Jeff and Matt Hardy also said that they were proud to be back in the WWE, calling it the best company in the world. Jeff Hardy went on to say that he was happy to show that, even at the age of 39, he could still throw his body off a ladder like he did in the match.
For fans who were worried, it seems that Matt Hardy was still speaking in his faux British accent of the Broken Matt Hardy gimmick when he was talking about the return. He even used many words that he did as that character in Impact Wrestling, despite that company making lawsuit threats against the Hardy Boyz if they used the gimmicks outside their company.
There was even the site of Matt Hardy leading a giant “Delete” chant after the Hardy Boyz won the tag team championship. It should also be noted that the WWE cut the cameras away from Matt Hardy when the chants started after the match, although the fans in attendance were happily playing along.
When the Hardy Boyz left Impact Wrestling following a contract dispute, they went to Ring of Honor. While Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling had worked a possible match between Impact Wrestling tag team champions Hardy Boyz and Ring of Honor champions The Young Bucks , things went sour when the Hardy’s left Impact Wrestling.
Impact Wrestling sent a cease and desist letter to both Ring of Honor and the PPV affiliates. This caused one PPV company to drop the Ring of Honor PPV. Jeff and Matt Hardy still showed up and wrestled, but they held back much of the mannerisms of the Broken Matt Hardy gimmick so Ring of Honor would not face legal troubles.
That is probably why Jeff Hardy said in an interview last week that they were not re-signing with the WWE and would not leave the indie scene until the end of the summer. That made the return of Jeff and Matt Hardy such a surprise when they came out at WrestleMania 33 and likely kept Impact Wrestling from trying to disrupt their debut.
Tonight, the Hardy Boyz will make their return on Monday Night Raw as the new tag team champions, and it will be interesting to see what they do on the show. It is unlikely that the WWE will want them to use the Broken Matt gimmick unless a deal has already been worked out to block out Impact Wrestling.
However, that gimmick is what made Matt Hardy relevant once again and made the Hardy Boyz one of the most exciting tag teams of 2016 . They can still go hard in the ring, and came off a Ring of Honor match the day before WrestleMania where they beat their bodies up fiercely against the Young Bucks.
Because of those two matches on back-to-back days, there is no question that Jeff and Matt Hardy are still able to put on great shows for wrestling fans and the WWE has nothing to worry about when it comes to in-ring action. Even without the Broken Matt Hardy gimmick, the Hardy Boyz seem happy to be back in the WWE and fans can watch their rise back to the top as they return tonight to Monday Night Raw .
[Featured Image by WWE]