Impact Wrestling Releases Hardy Contract Info And WWE Emails About Broken Persona
05/23/2017 09:45 pm EDT
Just when you thought the Hardys/Impact Wrestling feud couldn't possibly have any less mud to sling, Impact President, Ed Nordholm, has decided to attempt to settle the dispute with shocking email leak that would have probably been better saved for the courts.
Nordholm emailed Pro Wrestling Sheet with an actual copy of The Hardy's contract and a supposed log of all conversations in regards to the Broken gimmicks. This is from Nordholm's email:
"In response to on-going speculation concerning our position with respect to the "Broken Brilliance" creative, I am providing this detailed log of our communications on the subject and the contractual structure of our relationship with Matt Hardy with respect to intellectual property matters (which is standard to our roster and in the industry)."
"There has never been any argument from Impact Wrestling that the Hardy's were key contributors to the development of the characters and story line, or that Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy executed on their roles in spectacular fashion. But the position taken by the Hardys is a massive disservice to the contributions of the rest of the creative team at Impact Wrestling, including Jeremy Borash, Dave Lagana, Matt Conway and Billy Corgan, and is totally at odds with the terms of their contracts."
He then released a log-line of what he claims is every communication he's had with Matt/his lawyers.
- March 10 – EBN speaks with executives at ROH about "Broken Brilliance" being used in ROH shows. I indicated willingness to provide an arrangement that would allow the creative to be used in ROH shows and encouraged ROH to have Matt speak with me if he wanted to pursue that discussion
- March 11 – EBN spoke at length with Matt by telephone about the structure of an amicable arrangement for use of the Broken Brilliance creative
- March 14 – Matt sent text message to Ed Nordholm at 4:05pm:
"Tried giving you a call, it rang & went busy. I'm open to working things out amicably as we spoke about. The lawyer who represent me is interested in seeing your offer. My lawyer's email is {redacted} which you could send the offer to for review. Thanks."
And I responded by text at 6:41 pm
"Thank you Matt. I was supposed to be [flying] into NYC today and am a little twisted. I will pull something together with [our] lawyers and try to get it over to your lawyer tomorrow or Thursday at latest"
- March 16 – At 8:25 pm I sent an update text to Matt:
"Hi Matt. My lawyer got me a draft too late to get reviewed for today. I will look at it in the morning. Sorry for the delay"
And he responded at 9:16 pm
"Ok, he's ready for it. Thanks for the update."
- March 17 – counsel for Anthem Wrestling delivered draft proposal to counsel for Matt Hardy
- March 24 – counsel for Anthem Wresting followed up with Matt Hardy counsel requesting comments on the proposal
- March 27 – counsel for Matt Hardy responds that they have been away and have not reviewed the proposal but will be back "in the next few days"
- April 18 – counsel for Matt Hardy leaves a voice mail message for counsel for Anthem Wrestling asking to arrange a meeting
- April 20 – EBN contacts WWE by email to determine veracity of internet rumours concerning WWE interest in Broken Brilliance
- April 21 — WWE respond by email that there "is no interest on our end" {redacted email exchange attached}
- April 21 – counsel for Matt Hardy sends a follow up message requesting a meeting
- April 27 – lawyers speak to arrange a meeting
- May 16 – lawyers meet but no agreement reached
Norholm also released images of The Hardy's contract which you can see at Pro Wrestling Sheet, as well as images of the email transactions with WWE.
Reby Hardy was quick to push out a response to Nordholm's release.
The Hardy's claim that WWE is not interested in purchasing the trademarks because they don't believe they will have to.
At this point, I don't see how this feud doesn't end up in court.
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