Impact Wrestling President Releases E-Mails From WWE, Matt Hardy Contract Excerpt, Hardys Respond

The battle between House Hardy and Impact Wrestling has been raging on for months now, and everyone’s waiting to see what is to become of the Broken Universe. Fans are hoping that the Hardys will eventually use the gimmick in WWE, but Impact Wrestling president Ed Nordholm recently claimed during an interview that WWE has no interest in using the gimmick.

The battle over the gimmick has been very public, and Nordholm faced some backlash on social media following the interview.

Now Ed Nordholm is telling more about Impact’s side of the story, and he released e-mails from his conversations with WWE, as well as excerpts from Matt Hardy’s contract which can be seen here and here respectively.

Nordholm also released a lengthy statement to PWInsider which allegedly details the timeline of events that have taken place regarding the legal situation over the rights to the Broken Universe. The statement can be read below.

Good afternoon,

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 Lagano (sic), Matt Conway and Billy Corgan, and is totally at odds with the terms of their contracts.

The Hardys would have you believe that Anthem is somehow avoiding their lawyers to address this. This is the log of our communications with the Hardys and/or their lawyers. It is clear that we have not been avoiding them.

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”

After which no further communication until

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

Finally, I am attaching a copy of the relevant provisions of Matt’s contract with Impact. The clause is virtually identical to the corresponding provisions of every wrestler under contract with Impact.

The facts are that we tried to accommodate the Hardys for their Ring of Honour engagements, and have tried to elicit an indication from WWE whether they have an interest in using the Broken Brilliance creative in WWE. We are not hoarding it from WWE; WWE is not interested in it.

We fully respect the decision of Matt and Jeff to return to WWE and appreciate all of their contributions to Impact Wrestling. We wish them every success.

Our focus is on the future and we will not have any further public comment on this matter.

Ed Nordholm

Never one to be shy, Reby Hardy responded shortly after the statement was released.

Matt Hardy also commented on the situation with the following: