WWE News: Real reason backstage the Hardy Boyz returned to WWE SmackDown this week

What's the story?

This week's episode of WWE SmackDown Live saw The Hardy Boyz return to action as a team. Jeff and Matt Hardy teamed up to face The Bar -- Sheamus and Cesaro.

This was not the only return of the night with a former Universal Champion also returning to action on this week's episode of WWE SmackDown Live.

However, given the rumors that Matt Hardy might retire due to injuries, what was it that caused WWE to bring them back this week as a team once again?

In case you didn't know...

Last year, we saw Matt Hardy team up with Bray Wyatt in a run together as the RAW Tag Team Champions. However, issues with Matt Hardy's health saw the team break up and both Superstars fade away to the background. While Matt Hardy took to recover from his injuries and rehabilitating himself, while hinting at retirement, Bray Wyatt disappeared to apparently be repackaged by the WWE.

Meanwhile, Jeff Hardy continued to compete on SmackDown Live and participated in numerous feuds against Randy Orton and Samoa Joe to name just two Superstars. He was also in the Elimination Chamber match competing against five other Superstars to become the WWE Champion.

The heart of the matter

Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy reunited on SmackDown Live this weekend to face and defeat The Bar -- Sheamus and Cesaro.

According to a report by Wrestling Inc, backstage news suggests that WWE decided to roll forward the contracts of Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy one more year. Apparently, their contracts were set to expire a week from now, and they had signed a two-year contract with the company on their return.

However, there was a clause by which WWE could extend their contracts by one year with a significant rise in their pay, and that's exactly what they chose to do. It will be interesting to see how WWE books them going forward.

What's next?

Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy already defeated the Bar. This could be the first step on their journey back towards collecting the SmackDown Tag Team Titles one more time.

However, this could also be a one-time partnership, with Jeff or Matt getting one more WWE Championship run as singles competitors yet. If that was to happen it would be in the future.