Matt and Jeff Hardy are the current WWE Raw Tag Team Champions, and they returned to the company that made them stars a few weeks ago during a ladder match at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando, FL.
When The Hardys signed their new WWE contracts, they still had obligations to fulfill on the independent circuit, and Matt Hardy informed fans via Twitter that WWE officials were letting them fulfill those obligations.
One of the those obligations included a match at the House Of Hardcore event in Philadelphia this weekend. House Of Hardcore had been advertising a match featuring The Hardys vs. Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer for months, but the match almost didn’t happen.
PWInsider reports that after The Hardys signed their new WWE deals, they were initially pulled from the appearance, but they demanded that WWE officials let them finish out their dates with HOH. WWE agreed to let them appear, but instructed them that they would not be able to wrestle at the event.
Initially The Hardys were not going to wrestle at the event, so Tommy Dreamer reached out to ROH to see if he could book The Young Bucks to replace The Hardys. The plan was for The Hardys to appear, and then they would run an angle so that The Young Bucks could replace them. However, Dreamer received a call on Saturday morning informing him that one of The Young Bucks had fallen ill and he wouldn’t be able to make the flight from California to Philly.
People close to Dreamer noted that on Saturday he was the angriest they had seen him since ECW closed, because he built HOH on the mantra of “No Politics, No BS, just wrestling.” Dreamer reportedly considered appearing in front of the fans and apologizing to them for not being able to deliver what was advertised.
Dreamer then reached out to WWE once again on Saturday afternoon, and explained the situation the company had put him in by pulling The Hardys. The situation reportedly went all the way up to the top of the WWE food chain, and Triple H and Vince McMahon had to sign off on letting The Hardys wrestle at the event.
Tommy Dreamer and Bully Ray then came out to address the fans, and Dreamer teased that politics may ruin the event. The Spirit Squad then came out and said that The Hardys wouldn’t be appearing, then they did. Matt told fans that even though they were told not to wrestle at the event, they were still going to compete even if it meant possibly getting fired from WWE which got a big pop from the crowd.
After the event Tommy Dreamer thanked Joe Koff of ROH, Triple H and Vince McMahon and said that House Of Hardcore owes them one.
On a related note, it’s also being reported that WWE recently applied to trademark Hardy Boyz.
[…] the show, The Hardys faced the team of Tommy Dreamer and Bubba Ray Dudley. There was some thought The Hardys wouldn’t be showing up. They had to toss the Spirit Squad out of the ring and started the match. The House Of Hardcore was […]