Matt Hardy’s ‘Broken’ Legal Troubles Are Over

Matt Hardy may have just received one of the biggest victories of his wrestling career.

As has been reported at length, when Hardy and his brother Jeff first made their returns to WWE last year, Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA) prevented them from using the Broken Universe characters that they had made wildly popular over the last couple of years.

This did not sit well with the Hardys or the wrestling business in general, as Matt and Jeff had went out of their way to get these gimmicks over on their own accord with or without TNA’s help. However, legal obstacles prevented them from using the names “Broken” Matt Hardy and Brother Nero in the WWE.

Eventually, Matt ended up using the slightly altered “Woken” Matt gimmick in WWE, but it now appears he could go back to his original “Broken” Matt name if he so desires.

According to a report from PWInsider, Matt Hardy is now listed as the owner for TNA’s trademark applications for Broken Matt, Brother Nero, Broken Brilliance, and Vanguard 1. Apparently an agreement was signed between Matt Hardy and Ed Nordhold on January 8, and the official transfer of the trademarks happened on January 31.

Impact has also recently announced a changed to their policies and will now allow performers to continue using their gimmicks following their exit from the company. Frankly, that was a good PR move as their feud with the Hardys over the Broken Universe didn’t sit well.

No word yet on his Matt will actually now change it up to “Broken” Matt on WWE programming. WWE does like to own the characters presented on their television, but they have also started to relax a bit on this as some of their latest signees (ie: Ricochet) have kept their independent names they made famous before joining the company.

We’ll have to see what Matt Hardy has in store this week on RAW. He did tease the “Broken” term in a tweet recently, so that could be a clue that a change is coming.