What’s the story?
Impact Wrestling’s Chief Creative Officer Jeff Jarrett recently gave an interview to Wrestle:List where he claimed that Impact Wrestling owned the broken gimmick and that the dispute over the ownership of the gimmick between The Hardy Boyz and Impact was a “silly squabble”.
In case you didn’t know...
Ever since The Hardy Boyz left Impact Wrestling in March 2017, they have been embroiled in a dispute with Impact Wrestling over the rights to their “Broken” gimmicks.
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As par The Hardys, they own the rights to the gimmicks because they allegedly came up with it by themselves and even financed some of the segments.
Impact Wrestling, on the other hand, have been consistent in their claims that the rights to the “Broken” gimmicks belong to them. Impact have even issued notices to other professional wrestling promotions where the Hardys have performed, warning them against the use of the gimmicks.
The heart of the matter
During the interview, Jeff Jarrett spoke about his experience with the music scene in Nashville and said that he was well versed with the laws surrounding intellectual property.
Jarrett said that Jeff Hardy had been one of his “best friends” for 20 years and that their families frequently took vacations together as well. Jarrett, however, reiterated that “business is business” and said that the intellectual property of the “Broken” gimmicks belonged to the “publishers” and “writers” (meaning Impact Wrestling) and not the performers, referring to The Hardys.
Also read: What are the "Delete" Chants and Broken Gimmick of The Hardy Boyz all about?
Jarrett was quoted as saying:
“There is no question that Broken Matt and Brother Nero’s performances were off the charts good. But when it comes to ownership to me its almost a silly squabble, it’s never been in question. Impact are the owners.”
Jeff Jarrett also spoke about Slammiversary 15 during the interview and expressed his excitement about Impact’s future.
What’s next?
Jeff Jarrett will be keeping busy for the next week or so as he and the rest of Impact Wrestling preparer for their annual Slammiversary event. Slammiversary 15 will be taking place on 2nd July 2017 at the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida.
As far as the Hardy Boyz are concerned, Matt Hardy has recently expressed optimism about being able to use the “Broken” gimmicks in the WWE in the future.
In the interim, The Hardy Boyz are feuding with Sheamus and Cesaro for the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships, and they’re expected to be booked in a match at WWE’s Great Balls of Fire Pay Per View which will be taking place on 9th July 2017.
Author’s take
In all honesty, what Jeff Jarrett is saying does make a lot of sense. It has been confirmed via various sources that the "Broken" gimmicks were created by several Impact writers, alongside Matt Hardy and it can thus be said that the gimmicks do belong to the writers and publishers Impact Wrestling like Jeff Jarrett said.
However, rumours of the WWE attempting to buy the gimmicks from Impact have been persistent and seeing how Matt Hardy is optimistic about being able to use the gimmicks in the WWE, the day might not be far when a settlement is reached and the Broken Universe comes to the WWE.
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