Reby Hardy was a guest on The Sheet Podcast yesterday and talked in depth about Matt & Jeff Hardy's battle with GFW/Impact Wrestling over custody of the Broken gimmick IP.
She spoke about why talks broke down between the Hardys and Anthem President Ed Nordholm:
“They just kept dodging it, kept dodging it, kept pushing things. And then it got back to us that Jeff Jarrett had said, my favorite person Jeff Jarrett, ‘Well yeah, just keep dragging it out. They’ll get tired of spending money.’ Really? Because I might get tired of it, but it’s not going to stop, I’ll tell you that.
“I’m pretty sure they’ve been betting on the fact that we were just going to get bored or going to get tired. But I think everybody is kind of underestimating my level of petty. And my level, my need for vengeance. It’s never even been about money, it’s more about the principle of things. And I think on their end it’s more about ego. And for me personally, I don’t know about Matt, it’s more about doing the right thing really.”
Earlier this week, Nordholm claimed that Matt had demanded an extra $100,000 during contract negotiations with only days to spare before the next taping, a claim that both she and Matt have denied. Matt has even said that he has an audio recording of the phone call to prove his side of the story.
“So my favorite part about Ed Nordholm going on record and saying, ‘Oh, he held me up for one hundred thousand dollars more,’ or whatever. Honestly, I haven’t even read the interview, we’re on vacation. Anytime I see anything he said it makes me so incensed and it makes me sick. I can’t even read it. But everyone’s telling me this is what was said. That was absolutely not what was said, and my favorite part is that we have it on record. Over and over and over, Matt going over things with Ed Nordholm saying that he’s willing to work things out with him, saying the actual amount that they were negotiating in order for him to resign. So just the fact that he has this nerve to tell Sports Illustrated, ‘Oh yeah, he’s holding me up for money.’ He’s not holding anybody up for money. What would he be holding up anyway? It’s his contract. It’s a matter a resigning, he’s not holding up anybody. So to even put it in those terms, it’s like what f*cking nerve, dude.”
There has been speculation that Matt could do a similar "Broken" gimmick in WWE, altering enough as to not run afoul of any Anthem legal claims.
“It’s funny that you even mention that because there’s so many people that have left and keep their name. It’s like their whole stand on this is, ‘Oh, it’s just business. It’s just a matter of protecting ourselves. It’s just a matter of protecting our intellectual property,’ even if it was one hundred percent their intellectual property, which I’m pretty sure still legally it cannot be deemed as such. Even if it was, why aren’t they going after everyone who has ever worked for TNA who’s now gone on to bigger and better things? Bobby Roode, AJ Styles, everyone. Why aren’t they protecting that intellectual property? Why specifically this? Why haven’t they filed copyrights for their current performers? It’s an adjective, are you fucking kidding? It’s so frustrating. If they’re that concerned, if that’s their stance, ‘Oh it’s just business, we’re just protecting ourselves,’ why are you just protecting yourself when it comes to two performers out of your entire roster of people that have ever worked there, including people that currently work there? That’s that important to you. It’s just nothing they say ever adds up.”
Matt has been dropping hints about "re-Breaking" himself during promos in WWE, and his gestures and mannerisms are basically "shattered" at this point.
“He would be doing whether or not there was any deal in place. And he has been doing it even at WrestleMania when things were still very much up in the air, when it could have gone either way, when both parties were sure it could’ve gone either way. Up until a couple of months ago, there were still negotiations going on, up until even a few weeks ago. Up until the last time I popped off on Twitter. That was the last straw for me because we had a verbal agreement and it was pretty much, ‘Hey Reby, shut the fuck up while we figure out what we’re doing,’ which I obliged to. I was like, ‘Fine, okay, that’s cool. I can do that.’ And in the meantime we’re going to figure this out, our lawyers are going to commission that and it’s going to go back and forth. And we’re going to agree to this, this, this and this and we’ll get back to you next week. And a week passes. And then a few days pass. And then a damn interview with one of these stooges comes out, either Jeff or Dutch Mantell f*cking goes on Twitter and pops off or Ed gives another interview with some inaccurate information or releases a statement. It’s like, ‘Wait a second. We’re actually holding up our end of the deal here. We’re still thinking this is going to go through for the nine hundredth freaking time at this point, and meanwhile you’re breaking it. You are breaking your end of the deal over and over and over and over.’ If this deal was going to happen, I promise it would’ve happened already. And it would’ve been more beneficial to them. … Best for all parties, but they’re the ones that have to deal with the public perception. And people can say all day and night, ‘Oh Reby Hardy is this and this and this. And she’s unprofessional and she’s a brat and blah blah.’ That’s great, I’m not running a company. I’m not a corporation, I’m not making money for an umbrella of people, they are. They have to worry about that. They have to worry about public perception. The boys are going to be good no matter what. This is not affecting the boys’ livelihood, the boys’ stand with the office. They’re good, they’ve got jobs. They’re on TV every week. We never had any doubt about that.”
Some of the financial terms of the most recent deal that fell through were reported in the media recently, and one detail included that Anthem had apparently demanded that they receive 50% of any and all Hardy revenue, including the sale of Jeff's art and music.
“It would be almost impossible to do a royalty kind of thing because it would be involving WWE, and WWE is not stooping to that level to be dealing with that. There was money involved, and we would’ve gotten our desired outcome. And they would’ve gotten their desired outcome too. The thing is what they’re fighting for, which is to protect their property, they get nothing out of what they were asking for in the agreement, nothing more than they were already getting had none of this happened. We never had a problem with them releasing merch or DVDs or making money off the Broken gimmick, that was not a problem. We just wanted to be left alone with it, like every other performer who has ever come and gone from there. We just wanted to be able to use what we created and move on with our lives.”
You can listen to the entire interview at this link.
