Huge Update On Who Actually Owns Matt Hardy’s ‘Broken’ Gimmick And If It Will Ever Show Up In WWE

Matt and Jeff Hardy have been back in WWE for two-and-a-half months, and they’ve already become a huge part of the Monday Night Raw roster, but they still aren’t “broken.” Fans keep wondering if they will ever transform into the gimmicks that made them so successful during their last run in TNA Impact Wrestling. Now, there has been an update on who actually has ownership of the “Broken” gimmick and if they would even be successful bringing it to WWE.

The legal battle over the characters of Broken Matt Hardy and Brother Nero (Jeff) is between the Hardy Boyz and TNA Impact Wrestling, and it doesn’t include WWE. Jeff Jarrett is in the middle of it as well as he’s back in power with TNA, and he spoke at length with Wrestle: List regarding who actually owns those gimmicks.

He wants to set the record straight and let the world know that Reby Hardy, Matt’s wife, may go the route of insults on social media, but he won’t go that way.

“I always take the high road because there is legal squabbles or potential legal squabbles but I have said this to a couple of outlets, and I say this with very broad strokes – I am from Nashville so I am around music which is intellectual property and I have been in the business 30 years. Intellectual property laws are very simple, there are two sides to it; there are publishers and the writers, then there are the performers as well.”

Obviously, Jarrett is finding out everything possible regarding intellectual property and bringing it into this legal battle. When it comes down to it, though, he still believes that the Hardy Boyz will be left out in the cold.

Jeff Jarrett doesn’t want anyone to think that he has anything personal against the Hardy Boyz, but he’s not going to just let this whole thing go.

“Jeff Hardy has been one of my best friends for 20 years, you can look on my social media and their social media, and we take family vacations together but business is business. So when it relates to IP it’s real simple, there is a publisher who owns the property, there is a writer who gets credit and can monetize it, then there is the performers. There is no question that Broken Matt and Brother Nero’s performances were off the charts good. But when it comes to ownership to me it’s almost a silly squabble, it’s never been in question. Impact are the owners.”

If TNA Impact Wrestling ends up winning this whole legal battle over the “Broken” gimmick, they will likely never do anything with it again. The Hardy Boyz are back in WWE, and if Jeff Jarrett attempted to make any other wrestlers into the Broken Universe, the fans would probably turn on them in a heartbeat.

Now, if the Hardys were to win the legal battle and take rightful ownership of their creations, it would be interesting to see if Vince McMahon even lets them bring it into WWE.

Bully Ray recently spoke with USA Today about a number of topics, and he even brought up the success the Hardy Boyz had with their Broken gimmick in TNA. Matt keeps teasing it at live events and on Raw, but would it work in WWE?

Bully Ray thinks it would work, but it won’t happen in WWE.

“I think that they will get the best of both worlds. They can milk this Hardy run for every dime it’s worth and then they can evolve into a version of the Broken Universe that the WWE sees fits. WWE is not going to allow creations that got over someplace else to come in and rule their world. It’s not going to happen. It didn’t happen with the Bullet Club and it’s not going to happen with Matt Hardy’s Broken Universe. They are going to have to put their stamp of approval on it and have their creative input.”

The Hardy Boyz have been very successful since returning to WWE even though they’ve now lost their Raw Tag Team Titles and are likely moving into another program soon. If they were to ever officially take legal ownership of the Broken Universe from TNA Impact Wrestling, Matt and Jeff may change some, but not entirely. As Bully Ray pointed out, Vince McMahon is not huge on letting gimmicks that were made famous elsewhere get over huge in his company.

[Featured Image by WWE]