Broken Matt Hardy was one of the most popular characters in pro-wrestling in 2016, so when Matt Hardy left TNA earlier this year along with his brother Jeff, everyone assumed we would see the broken gimmick go with him. However Anthem Sports & Entertainment, the new owners of TNA or Impact Wrestling, has claimed that they own the gimmick. Hardy has been in a legal dispute with them since. Matt has been using partial parts of the gimmick but nothing too far into it.

When he and Jeff Hardy joining Ring of Honor Wrestling for a month, most assumed we would see the gimmick used there a lot.

ROH was not able to show it a lot but was able to do enough that people knew it was the Broken Hardy's they were seeing. It was watered down but at least we knew what we were seeing even still. It was obviously tough for ROH to go too far into it, as they did not want to deal with a possible lawsuit any time soon. When they went to WWE, the gimmick was out almost completely with the Hardy's only playing into it a small way.

There is now an update on the 'broken gimmick'

WWE has reportedly been in talks with Anthem about buying the broken gimmick from them in hopes that they can use it on their programming. There has been a lot of talk regarding a possible deal that would allow Anthem to make royalties every year WWE uses the gimmick.

On the other hand, WWE is the kind of company that would want to pay a bulk price outright instead of doing a royalties deal. It appears that they have done just.

According to Cageside Seats, WWE has apparently reached a deal that is going to allow Matt and Jeff Hardy to be broken once again. This is why Matt has been playing up the character a bit more online and on television the last few weeks.

It has been small, but it does appear that WWE is not going to fully into it until after the Hardy's drop the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships. Funny enough, WWE Payback is this Sunday and the Hardy brothers very well could drop the titles then if WWE so desires them to do so.

What is next for the Hardy brothers?

As of now, the plan is to have Matt Hardy go full broken whenever the gimmick goes into play.

It is uncertain how WWE will break Hardy, as they would most likely enjoy the idea of creating an origin of their own for the broken universe rather than relying on the storyline given on TNA programming. This means WWE can bring in certain people to play roles and remove others so that it fits with the universe. This means we may not see Reby Hardy, Maxel, or even Senor Benjamin. Although WWE fans who have seen the broken universe play out would love to see them added in somehow.

Meanwhile, Jeff Hardy was a huge addition to the universe and was primarily known as Brother Nero the last year due to it. Nero is the middle name for Jeff, and his brother Matt tends to call everyone by their middle name in this.

WWE is rumored to be pushing Jeff Hardy to the main event scene while Broken Matt Hardy is used in the mid-cards for a bit to see how fans take to the new character that most casual fans do not know of. That said, many think WWE hired Crazzy Steve to play the Brother Nero role so that Jeff did not have to. He obviously won't go by the same name naturally.