What’s the story?
WWE Superstar Matt Hardy has supposedly had his trademark application for the “Broken” gimmick rejected. The news has been reported by PWInsider, with this being the latest in a string of developments in this long and drawn out saga.
In case you didn’t know...
Impact Wrestling and WWE have been tussling it out back and forth for a while now, with TNA and Jeff Jarrett claiming that they own the rights to the Broken gimmick. Matt, alongside his wife Reby have fought back as hard as they can in order to ensure that the WWE Universe gets to see his new character on the biggest stage.
Thus far, however, things haven’t exactly gone to plan.
The heart of the matter
The following is the beginning of a statement from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
"Registration is refused because the applied-for mark, as used on the specimen of record, identifies only the name of a particular character/personal name; it does not function as a service mark to identify and distinguish applicant’s services from those of others and to indicate the source of applicant’s services.”
What’s next?
It seems as if this whole process is only going to continue, with Matt desperate to work some aspects of his previous gimmick into his current character. Vince’s involvement in the whole issue has yet to be confirmed, with many rumours suggesting that he isn’t actually interested in seeing the Broken gimmick play out on WWE television.
As is always the case, we’ve got to wait and see.
Author’s take
It’s great to see how hard Matt is trying to get the job done here, but we’re starting to wonder whether this is all worth the stress. After all, it must be taking quite the toll when their main task should be focusing on their role as Raw Tag Team Champions. With that being said, it’d be pretty cool to see the Broken characters return at some point.
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