Fans of WWE have been awaiting for Matt and Jeff Hardy to bring over the “Broken Universe” to WWE ever since they returned to the company each year. After teasing the return of the gimmick on Raw recently, Jeff Jarrett claimed that he had ownership of the characters. This brought in Reby Hardy who claimed that they had a deal to award Matt the rights to the character along with a non-disparagement agreement that included $5,000 dollars each time Reby said something negative about Global Force Wrestling/Impact. It seems that the drama is not over yet if a new report put out by Sports Illustrated is anything to go by.
Sports Illustrated states that, among other topics, the chase for the rights to the “Broken” character came close to an end recently. The Hardys were going to reportedly pay somewhere around $10,000-$15,000 for the characters. The report also verified Reby’s claim of a non-disparagement agreement. This all came to a halt when Anthem demanded that they receive 50% of all the Hardy’s profits, including Jeff’s artwork and music. The Hardys refused, citing the offer as “a monumental heist and money-grab”. Anthem later released the following in relation to the Sports Ilustrated piece: “WWE has clearly stated via email that they do not want the ‘Broken Brilliance’ IP [intellectual property],” GFW said in a statement to SI. “GFW has been and always will be open to a licensing agreement for the IP to all parties, which is customary in the music and entertainment business, but revolutionary in the professional wrestling business.”
The article mentions a few other interesting tidbits in it, such as the fact that Impact never paid or funded for a single “Broken” shoot that took place at the Hardy Compound, including the Final Deletion special. PWInsider claimed at the time that Ed Nordholm reportedly did not sign off on the deal, likely due to Anthem’s new demands. Back when their contracts were coming up in Impact earlier this year, the company offered Jeff Hardy a multi-year lucrative deal, but did not do the same with Matt. They reportedly did offer Matt a spot on the creative team, but Jeff Jarrett apparently got that idea reversed. It seems more and more likely each day that this will have to play out in court if we want a clear and decisive winner.