Matt Hardy goes in-depth.
Before The Hardy Boyz returned to WWE at WrestleMania 33 they rejuvenated their careers with the "Broken" characters and were known as "Broken" Matt Hardy and Brother Nero. The character change along with the unique skits and video packages that were being done by Matt, Jeff and Reby Hardy drew massive amounts of attention to the Hardy camp. When Matt and Jeff returned to WWE fans hoped that they would be seeing what Matt and Jeff did in IMPACT Wrestling being done in WWE.
Other than a few hand gestures and bits and pieces of the "Broken" language being used, for the greater part of 2017 Matt and Jeff never fully became "Broken". It was not until this year that the character was brought out of the tool shed but instead of being "Broken", Matt became "Woken". Hardy has done the infamous "Ultimate Deletion" match in WWE with Bray Wyatt and has gone on to win the RAW Tag Team Championships with Wyatt as well. Although Hardy has been in "Woken" form for the greater portion of 2018, fans still feel that there is something missing and that Hardy is not all the way there with the gimmick like he once was in IMPACT. During a recent Q&A session that Matt Hardy hosted on YouTube, he was asked why does his gimmick seem toned down and he went in-depth about the ins-and-outs of WWE as a company and added that there's certain things that he was able to in other companies and promotions that would offend a sponsor or advertiser of WWE if he was in full-fledged "Broken" mode.
“Well first and foremost, I wanna say this: when you work for the WWE, that is a massive, enormous, vast corporation, global corporation… no one that’s a performer has full creative control. That’s a myth, its not true, it doesn’t happen." Hardy said. "There’s a big difference between Broken Matt Hardy and Woken Matt Hardy. Broken Matt Hardy has never been in WWE for sure. When I did Broken Matt Hardy in IMPACT Wrestling and Ring Of Honor and whatever, I was in control of everything I wanted to do and I didn’t have to meet any standards such as a rating for children and I didn’t have to worry about people that were sponsors and advertisers for the programming being offended because of whatever I did or how controversial it was and that was really cool and it was very creatively liberating no doubt about it. At WWE its very different." He explained.
Hardy continued by speaking about the "smart" wrestling fans who feel that he is being held back. He explained that the WWE has to work and create content within a certain space to not offend any of the people who financially support their product which is why it may seem like the "Woken" character is just a lesser version of the "Broken" character.
"A lot of wrestling fans especially the frustrated internet fan, they don’t understand that WWE has these strict parameters they have to work around too - also for the television programming. " He continued, "They don’t wanna… they can’t annoy or they can’t offend certain sponsors. They kind of have to stay in this weird lane you know and sure, WWE is not perfect and they don’t make perfect decisions and they put out so much content its truly impressive that they are able to put out as much content with as many people and just their content is unbelievable. No one else puts out the content, especially live content, that a company like the WWE does. Its really an undertaking and its extremely impressive. So, Broken Matt Hardy and Woken Matt Hardy are both very different. There’s a lot of things I did as Broken Matt Hardy that I’m extremely proud about that was really, really fun. There’s a ton of stuff I’ve done as Woken Matt Hardy that I’m extremely proud of and that I liked." Hardy stated. "Could it have been better? Maybe so, but I understand the scenario. I’m working for a big corporation [that] has parameters and you don’t always get what you want, and that's just the truth of the matter. But the fact is, when you come to the WWE, you get so much more exposure globally, and then you also make more money. I mean, that's just another fact and that's… at the end of the day whenever you go to a job and you wanna work and bring home money for your family, I think the majority of people would agree that a job is supposed to be based on [making] as much money as possible to give you and your family the best life possible. So, that’s the answer to that question. Hope that helps.” Hardy concluded.
Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt lost the RAW Tag Team Championships at the 'Extreme Rules' PPV in July and since being knocked off the tag team throne, the tag team scene on RAW has seen a slight change in the form of Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler becoming the new kings of the division.
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