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AEW star Matt Hardy has been known to possess multiple gimmicks throughout his career and recently spoke about one that didn't quite work out in Tony Khan's company.
Matt Hardy arrived in AEW to much fanfare, debuting on the first ever Dynamite episode without fans. The Elite summoned the tag team legend in their war against the Inner Circle and Hardy proceeded to assault Chris Jericho. However, without fans the 'Broken' Matt Hardy gimmick struggled to hit home and he had to switch soon.
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Speaking to Essentially Sports, Matt Hardy explained why the gimmick didn't work and how the absence of fans made it tough to pull off.
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“The Broken Matt Hardy character is a very fan driven character,” Hardy said. “It was just very hard for it to work as it should have without fans in the venue. Obviously the whole world was in the midst of this pandemic, so we just changed courses and I went to a more reality based character in Big Money Matt. We took a step back from Broken Matt, and who knows? Maybe now that fans are back, you’ll see Broken Matt again down the road.”
Assessing Matt Hardy's career in AEW so far
Matt Hardy is currently the leader of Hardy Family Office with numerous members in the faction including Butcher and the Blade, Private Party and The Bunny. However, when he first arrived in AEW, Matt Hardy was a much bigger deal.
The Elite needed one more man to even the odds against the Inner Circle and Matt Hardy stepped up, immediately becoming part of the biggest feud in AEW. He was a crucial part of the inaugural Stadium Stampede match as the Elite walked out victorious.
Since then, Hardy has taken up the role of a mentor rather than a main event singles star. He feuded with the likes of Sammy Guevara and Orange Cassidy and it seemed like he was going to mentor the Private Party to the top of the tag team division.
He's nowhere near the main event scene and with the likes of Bryan Danielson, CM Punk and Adam Cole in the company now, he won't be around the main event scene anytime soon. The Best Friends vs HFO feud was a snooze and overlong and hopefully AEW has something better planned for Matt Hardy in the future.
What would you like to see Matt Hardy do in All Elite Wrestling in 2022? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
