Not everyone "got" "Broken" Matt Hardy.
The newsmaking "Broken Universe" was a major success in 2016 going into 2017, and helped lead to the return of the Hardy Boyz to WWE. It took a while for some doubters to pick up on what the story's visionary, Matt Hardy, was putting down. Some never picked it up. When speaking to Fightful recently, Matt told us that Vince McMahon needed a lengthy explanation of the character and situation before signing off on it.
"Yeah, when I was first was gonna do Woken Matt Hardy I had talk with him for thirty minutes and I explained the whole Broken Universe deal. I don’t think he understands it completely. Part of it is based off of different, various TV shows I watch, and it's very Deadpool driven. Broken Matt Hardy winks at the audience and kinda breaks the fourth wall and I don’t know that’s something Vince really enjoys or likes to do a lot or whatever unless maybe it’s this specific idea. I think it was very involved and I don’t think he got it all. I know when he watched the Ultimate Deletion he said “well people seem to like it, I don’t know if I get it.” But, the thing that I do give Vince credit for is he allowed me to do it. He allowed me to have that Ultimate Deletion, did give us an opportunity to do that, and internally it was a success, it did well," said Hardy.
Vince McMahon was far from the only person that needed explaining. Both Jeff Hardy and Bray Wyatt were involved in "Broken" and "Woken" Universe, and while Bray Wyatt's character is more in tune with what Matt Hardy was targeting, it was actually Matt's brother that had to be talked through the angle.
"I’m not sure Jeff did at first, but once he got into it and once he was Broken and he was Brother Nero he was all about it," said Hardy. "He loved it, he really did enjoy it. Bray and I -- we’re much more on a similar thought process. I’m a big fan of Bray’s creative process. I love the Fiend and the duality of the Firefly Funhouse character as well. How it gives him range. And it’s very similar in ways to the Broken universe. And I felt with five hours of live television programming variety is good. Variety is very good."
You can see our full conversation with Matt Hardy above. Subscribe to Fightful Select to get early access to content and interviews, and exclusive podcasts.
