Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News!
I’m Oli Davis, and usually I reply to as many comments as I can in the first 15 minutes
of these episodes going live.
Not anymore!
Instead I’m going to be replying to each video’s Top 20 comments - so upvote away.
When Matt and Jeff Hardy left TNA Impact Wrestling late last month, the immediate questions on
everyone’s lips were ‘are they going to WWE!?’
‘What caused them to leave TNA!?’ and ‘Who really is Byron Saxton?’
But underneath all this fantasy booking and secret negotiations was a boring old legal
story.
Turns out - as usually is the case - that boring old legal story might be the most significant
part of the Broken Hardys’ expedition of contracts.
The day after Matt and Jeff announced they weren’t resigning with TNA, Pro Wrestling
Sheet reported that there was a dispute over who actually owned the rights to the Broken
Hardys gimmick - the character that completely reinvented Matt’s career and made him one
of the hottest acts in wrestling.
The Hardys argued they own the Broken gimmick, as they came up with it, but Impact Wrestling
owners Anthem Sports and Entertainment reportedly claim it’s theirs, because the Hardys debuted
the characters while under contract with TNA.
That’s outrageous!
How can a wrestling promotion lay claim to a character created by their wrestlers!?
Hold your horses there, stereotypical 1920s New Yorker - this is actually the industry
standard for major wrestling promotions.
That’s why Cody can’t use the ‘Rhodes’ name outside WWE - a surname he argues is
his birthright, being the son of Dusty Rhodes.
But because Cody first used the ‘Cody Rhodes’ name in WWE, his contract dictates Vince McMahon’s
company owns the name.
Morally right, probably not.
Legally right, yeah.
This backstage legal dispute took centre stage over the weekend, where The Broken Hardys
were set to defend their Tag Team Championships at Ring of Honor’s 15th Anniversary event
on Friday.
Shortly before the show, Reby Sky - Matt Hardy’s wife - went on one of her trademark Twitter
rants on Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm.
She’s scarier than most actual wrestlers.
And then a fakeass "wishing you well" tweet from @EdNordholm, mere HOURS before threatening
to sue us.
SUCH A FITTING END, MAN. Real cute how TNA can go radio silent for
WEEKS (with exception of nonsensical drunk texts from JJ) but we get a 2 hour deadline
to respond Good luck explaining to your talent that their
pay checks are late (again) because you're spending all your $$ suing the Hardys.
PWInsider have revealed what Reby is rather upset about - Impact Wrestling owners Anthem
reportedly sending a “3 page cease and desist letter” to Matt and Jeff Hardy, ROH and
all the companies that planned to air Friday’s 15th Anniversary pay-per-view claiming the
‘Broken Hardys’ gimmick is their intellectual property, and that “the Hardys are not to
use anything related to the "Broken" universe going forward.”
As a result, Ring of Honor officials decided not to use the ‘Broken’ act on the show,
with the word not being mentioned on commentary at all and Jeff Hardy wearing his normal ring
gear.
Matt, however, still wore his Broken outfit and acted in gimmick.
Dave Meltzer has pointed out on Wrestling Observer Radio that this is much more likely
Impact moving against WWE rather than ROH.
Ring of Honor weekly television airs on the Fight Network in Canada, which is also owned
by Impact’s parent company Anthem, and there’s even been hints recently that the two promotions
might work together.
ROH and Impact are kind of on the same side.
But the Hardys going to WWE in April is still a definite possibility, so Impact might want
to do all they can to block the Broken gimmick from being used by their biggest competitor.
Speaking of WWE, F4WOnline are reporting that Rusev is currently scheduled to take time
off due to injury, which might be why he hasn’t been involved in any big storylines recently,
why his Jinder Mahal partnership ended suddenly at WWE Fastlane, and why Big Show effectively
squashed him that same night.
It was previously rumoured that all this is because Rusev has heat on him backstage, but
the Big Show has reportedly revealed at a Q+A why he beat the Bulgarian Brute so decisively
at Fastlane: “he's having shoulder surgery and I put him over strong years ago.”
If it is shoulder surgery, Rusev could be out for a substantial amount of time.
What would happen if the Broken Hardys did return to WWE?
I act out just that with stupid voices in the latest WrestleSketch episode, and find
out the full story of when the Hardys left TNA in the longest WrestleTalk News episode
ever by click the videos to the left and subscribe.
I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.