Impact Wrestling Releases Matt Hardy Contract On Internet, Former Superstars Blast Company
The entire behind-the-scenes feud between Matt Hardy and Impact Wrestling surrounding the Broken Matt gimmick has just hit a new low. While Matt Hardy and his wife Reby Sky have not strayed from making their case known via social media, Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm released what might have been confidential documents online to prove his case to the public.
Nordholm sent a number of professional wrestling dirt sheets a portion of the Matt Hardy contract with Impact Wrestling as well as a number of back-and-forth communication the two undertook when it comes to the Broken Matt gimmick. The big problem here comes with the release of the contract, which should have remained confidential outside of a possible dispute with attorneys and a court case.
Former ECW World Champion and former Impact Wrestling color commentator Taz spoke out about this on his radio show on Wednesday. According to Taz, he said that he knows that Nordholm wants to protect Impact Wrestling, but releasing a private contract to a wrestling website is damaging to the company as a whole.
“In my opinion, as a wrestler, [Impact Wrestling now runs] the risk of breaking trust with potential talent that could come work for you. I don’t know why you’d want to go wrestle for Impact Wrestling.”
A second person who has spoken out about the leaked Matt Hardy contract is former Impact Wrestling booker Eric Bischoff. He was talking on his own podcast about the leaks and said that Ed Nordholm was playing “small ball” with this leak.
“There are confidentiality agreements that go both ways in a contract. When you start making moves like that and posturing. It doesn’t make any sense. You start divulging portions of contracts to defend yourself in the peripheral wrestling media and you are basically hanging a big sign around your neck that says “Small Ball” and on the other side is says ‘Mark.'”
These leaked contracts also come after an interesting Twitter tirade by Reby Sky concerning her father. Last week, her dad, who portrayed the character of Senor Benjamin in the Broken Matt Hardy storyline, posted photos of himself with the WWE world tag team titles.
While it is unclear what happened after that, Reby Sky launched into a brutal tirade on Twitter about her dad and Impact Wrestling. After her posts, Matt Hardy backed her up by tweeting that Senor Benjamin was never under Impact Wrestling contract and was never paid a penny by the company for his performances. Hardy even said that Senor Benjamin never signed a release to air his footage.
After Impact Wrestling and Ed Nordholm publicly released part of the Matt Hardy contract and their communications, Matt went back to Twitter and said that he tells the truth and doesn’t need to “desperately overcompensate” to prove credibility. Matt Hardy indicated that a court date might come in the future.
Interestingly, in the email leaks, Ed Nordholm also said he contacted the WWE about the Broken Matt Hardy gimmick and a working relationship between the two, but the WWE was not interested.
Dave Meltzer touched on that in the most recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio where he confirmed that this phone call and communication with the WWE was true. However, Meltzer said the reason the WWE was not interested in working with Impact Wrestling to get the Broken Matt Hardy gimmick was that they did not want to set a precedent of “buying a gimmick” from someone else.
Matt Hardy has continued to use the Broken Matt mannerisms in the WWE and has yelled “Delete” on occasion, and Meltzer said that the WWE would have told him to stop if they really weren’t interested in the gimmick. However, it looks like the WWE is waiting to see if Matt Hardy can win out in this battle for the gimmick before using it.
[Featured Image by WWE]
