Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy created one of the most unique gimmicks in professional wrestling history with the Broken Matt saga while competing in Impact Wrestling. However, things went sour between the Hardy brothers and Impact Wrestling, and they left. The WWE rumors kicked in that they were offered contracts to return but in an interview with CBS Sports , Jeff Hardy said neither he nor his brother Matt Hardy received contract offers to return to the WWE.
The WWE rumors kicked in after the brothers left Impact Wrestling and started talking about beating other tag teams across the universe, mentioning the “Days of the New,” the Broken Matt Hardy equivalent of The New Day, who were at the time the WWE tag team champions. The Hardys also made challenges towards the Wyatt Family, which is no longer a unit.
The rumors really went wild when word was leaked that the WWE had contracts ready for the Hardy brothers if they wanted to join the company. The WWE Network used a Broken Matt quote, and then Matt Hardy responded on Twitter. However, Jeff Hardy has shot all those rumors down as WrestleMania 33 weekend kicks off.
“No, because you have to go through so much testing and all of that. It’s a long process. But, no. We know some people there and naturally after WrestleMania dies down, maybe a couple of months from now, we’ll see what’s possible. But there is no truth to that whatsoever.”
The Hardy Boys will be around this weekend during WrestleMania 33 , but that is because they are signed to Ring of Honor Wrestling. According to Jeff Hardy, the contracts are short-term deals that will last through the summer, another indication that they won’t be showing up in the WWE this weekend.
The Ring of Honor deal kicked off with an explosion when Jeff and Matt Hardy showed up and challenged The Young Bucks to a tag team title match. The Young Bucks accepted the challenge and lost the titles to the Hardy Boys. Bubba Ray Dudley also showed up at that show and signed a deal with Ring of Honor.
According to Jeff Hardy, there were a couple of things that made them choose to leave Impact Wrestling . For one, the contracts came really late, although he was ready to sign his. However, Matt Hardy had some problems, and they couldn’t come to an agreement . The one sticking point was working for other indie promotions.
“What’s cool about Ring of Honor is that we can still go out and work the indie dates. That’s another thing about the TNA deal was that they wanted to take our indy dates from us and I really enjoy working the independent circuit. You meet some crazy, cool, interesting people and the shows have been so great as of late.”
Of course, signing with the WWE would completely eliminate any chance of working the indie scene, so that is another reason that Jeff and Matt Hardy won’t be heading to the WWE anytime soon. There is also the legal problems with Impact Wrestling and the Broken Matt gimmick .
Matt Hardy claims that he owns the Broken Matt gimmick, but Impact Wrestling claims they own it. The company has offered the brothers a chance to use it if they pay Impact Wrestling everytime they wrestle with it, which was not something Matt Hardy would agree to.
Impact Wrestling even caused a huge deal by sending a cease and desist letter to Ring of Honor and PPV providers before the last major ROH event with the Hardys. It caused one PPV provider to drop the event, and the Hardys used a tamed down version of the Matt Hardy gimmick.
If the WWE wants to bring back Jeff and Matt Hardy, they might want to at least have access to the Broken Matt gimmick. Until the legal situation is cleared up, that won’t happen. Jeff Hardy said that they will test the waters at the end of the summer, and that is when fans find out whether a WWE return is coming.
[Featured Image by Impact Wrestling]