Former WWE Superstar Matt Hardy is now a free agent after allowing his contract to expire. Speaking with PWInsider, Hardy opened up about on whether WWE ever really truly understood his Broken/Woken Matt Hardy character.
According to Hardy, he felt that the creative within WWE understood what he was trying to achieve with the gimmick. Overall, however, “I don’t think they got the character all the way.”
“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.”
He continued, “The Halloween special, I and JB and Dan Pucciarello from WWE Network did that all together. So literally I had creative control in that. And those specials …what was sad in many ways. In January, I just got the word from them that they greenlit two more House Hardy specials because the first one did very well.”
Matt Hardy’s House Hardy Special
One of the more original concepts WWE eventually greenlit was the aforementioned House Hardy special. Despite its reception, WWE wasn’t quick to follow up with the idea. Hardy explained why the concept took so long to have more approved by WWE’s higher-ups, noting how it was difficult to get a “clear cut answer” from Vince McMahon.
“[…] there was just so much concern whenever I had left TV, whenever Bray and I had wrapped up [our storyline] and we were going to be off for a couple of months, they’ve been pitching to do specials, House Hardy, House Hardy, House Hardy. But then they said they couldn’t ever get a clear cut answer from Vince, or they couldn’t get a meeting with Vince. And then like they’re saying, “Well if you come back as a different character then it’s going to be our ass and we don’t want to do that.” So that’s why that never came to be. I was just like, I went in to [Vince McMahon] and he was okay with it, but then they can never get confirmation on their own. It is such a big company, so many moving parts and nobody wants to infuriate Vince.”
Matt Hardy has confirmed he is in talks with various promotions including AEW, NWA, ROH, and Impact Wrestling. He has yet to announce where he plans to join but has stated that it will be within the next 30 days.
