Both Matt and Jeff Hardy returned to the WWE at "WrestleMania 33," where they took part in a ladder match resulting in the two winning the "WWE RAW" Tag Team Championships for the first time. Of course, they already had multiple WWE Tag Titles to their credit. Most people felt that it would be amazing to see the brothers return, but as the Broken Hardy's and not Team Xtreme. Everyone loved Team Xtreme when they were with WWE, but the Broken gimmick became so popular that the fans in WWE sort of expect it to return.
Matt Hardy has not helped matters, as he has been teasing it by going in and out of character via Twitter and on television.
The storylne reason for why Matt is not broken has to do with the loud ovation he and Jeff got with their return to WWE at WrestleMania. It sort of makes sense, in theory. WWE is in talks with Anthem Sports and Entertainment to acquire the "broken gimmick" from them. Although Matt Hardy invented it, Anthem has been legally battling the Hardy's to keep the gimmick as a TNA original thing, which has cost WWE in the end as they want to own it.
This is why they are talking, as the hope is to take the broken gimmick from them and use it for Matt Hardy in the WWE. The expectation for WWE is that Matt Hardy can do very well with the gimmick and use it to bring in huge merchandise sales as well as bring something unique and different to the promotion.
Most would expect to see Jeff Hardy become Brother Nero once more in this, but that does not seem to be the case.
So what does WWE have planned for Jeff Hardy?
There appears to be big plans for Jeff Hardy involving a possible World Title push. The idea most thought would be the case is that if Matt was Broken Matt once more, Jeff would take on his old role and work with his brother.
However, WWE had plans for quite some time to bring back Jeff Hardy. Hardy's talks with TNA became toxic toward the end, but both brothers agreed to a deal in December of 2016. Neither thought the deal was quite right, and asked for a one year deal with a few amenities added, which seemed to go well at the time. TNA came back with a bad offer and even ruder comment toward them.
The Hardy's lawyer spoke to the VP of Anthem and told him that Matt and Jeff Hardy had offers from other companies. The VP at Anthem said, "tell them go back to WWE then." Jeff Hardy was furious over this and refused to continue talks, which happened to be earlier this year. Matt attempted to stay, but also could not work out a deal. He was valuable as Broken Matt, so WWE offered both men a contract to return. Yet WWE seemed to never have it in their plans to see Jeff become Brother Nero again.
WWE had talks with Jeff the previous year, but he ended up getting hurt in a dirt bike accident and re-signed with TNA in early 2016. However, in that time it is believed WWE spoke to Hardy about return plans that would have led to Jeff seeing a main event push.
Due to the fact that WWE needed top stars with name value both last year and now, Hardy seemed into the plan then. This was before the broken gimmick came about, which is why the brothers attempted to stay with TNA. When Anthem pretty much screwed themselves out of a chance to keep the Hardy's, they were WWE bound.
What does all of this mean for the Hardy's?
According to Wrestlezone, the plan as of now is to bring the broken gimmick back, with Matt taking this on and Jeff heading to the main event scene of "WWE RAW." Most assume that WWE brought Bray Wyatt to "WWE RAW" in the Superstar Shake-Up recently due to a few changes they were making to the show and new talks with Anthem. At the time, it was claimed that Wyatt came over last minute.
However, WWE also did not have plans to use the broken gimmick at first due to the Anthem ownership or alleged ownership at the time. WWE still wanted the Hardy's and needed them on "WWE RAW."
Wyatt was brought to "RAW" to rival the new WWE version of Broken Matt Hardy. Meanwhile Jeff Hardy will be seen at the top of the card and could very well take on Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship some time this summer. WWE could also use Hardy in the WWE Intercontinental Championship scene for some time as well. However, WWE knows Lesnar will most likely drop the title by "WWE SummerSlam" and take time off again.
This would be a good time to see Hardy hold it, and Lesnar could always win the title back before "WrestleMania 34" where Lesnar is rumored to be working with Roman Reigns, yet again. All this being said, both Matt and Jeff Hardy look to be busy guys this year in WWE and fans will get to see both in roles they have excelled in before.
