Matt Hardy on if He’d Ever Go Back to Impact or ROH, Broken vs. Woken, All In

Matt Hardy held a Q&A session on his official YouTube channel and some of the topics discussed included if he would ever go back to Impact Wrestling or ROH, comparisons between his “Broken” and “Woken” gimmicks, and his thoughts on All In.

On the topic of if he would ever go back to Impact Wrestling or ROH, Hardy stated he currently wants to finish his career in WWE but is leaving the door open for other options in the future.

“In a perfect world, in a perfect scenario, I will finish the remainder of my career with WWE. When I came back to the WWE, I really wanted to and it was really important to me because I feel like I owed WWE a debt. I hated how I left in 2010/2011. I was just burned out on every level possible and I wanted to come back and leave on a high note. I felt like I owed them a debt in many ways.

With that being said, I’m not naive enough to say ‘I will never leave WWE,’ anything is possible in this world, we don’t live in a perfect world, we don’t live in a perfect scenario. Sure, could I see myself going back to Impact Wrestling or Ring of Honor, if something didn’t work with the scheduling, or whatever the job was, if it conflicted with my family and I could do a shot here and there, kind of have my own schedule, almost like a Chris Jericho does? Sure, it’s a possibility.”

On the topic of the comparisons between his “Broken” gimmick in Impact and his “Woken” gimmick in WWE, Hardy stated the main difference is the amount of creative control he had over its direction. He said Impact gave him full control over his “Broken” gimmick while WWE gave him very limited control over his “Woken” gimmick.

“First and foremost I want to say this, when you work for the WWE, a massive enormous, vast, global corporation. No one – as a performer – has full creative control. That’s a myth, it’s not true, it doesn’t happen. There is a big difference between ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy and ‘Woken’ Matt Hardy. ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy has never been in WWE, for sure. When I did ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy at Impact Wrestling / ROH, I was in control of everything I wanted to do and I didn’t have to meet any standards, such as a rating for children and worry about people that were sponsors for the programming being offended because of whatever I did or how controversial it was, and that was really cool when it was creatively liberating, no doubt about it.

At WWE, it’s very different and a lot of wrestling fans – especially, the frustrated internet fan – they don’t understand WWE has these strict parameters they have to work around, too. They can’t annoy or offend certain sponsors or whatever, they have to stay in this weird lane, you know? Sure, WWE isn’t perfect, they don’t make perfect decisions, and they put out so much content, it’s truly impressive that they are able to put out as much content.

There’s a lot of things I did as ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy that I’m really proud of and was really, really fun. There’s a ton of stuff I’ve done as ‘Woken’ Matt Hardy that I’m extremely proud of and I liked. Could it have been better? Maybe so, but I understand the scenario, I’m working for a big corporation that has parameters and you don’t always get what you want. That’s just the truth of the matter, but the fact is when you come to the WWE, you get so much more exposure globally and you also make more money, I mean that’s just another fact. At the end of the day, whenever you go to a job and you want to work and bring home money for your family. I think the majority of people would agree that a job is supposed to be based on making as much money as possible to give you and your family the best life possible.”

On All In, Hardy said he has yet to watch the event besides the Zero Hour pre-show but praised everyone involved in the overall success of the event.

“Full disclosure, I got to be honest, I haven’t watch the ‘All In’ PPV. I watched the ‘All In: Zero Hour’ pre-show that was on television. … It looked extremely impressive. I love the [Young] Bucks, I am a big fan of the Young Bucks both as performers and as people. I like Cody [Rhodes], I’ve always liked Cody. I’m just very happy for those three and I’m very proud of those three. Everything I’ve seen from the show, the guys just killed it. I don’t know Kenny Omega well, I’ve met him once, maybe twice, but I like Kenny Omega a lot too and I think he’s a kick ass entertainer, as well.

I’m happy they had such a smashing, monstrous success with ‘All In.’ I hope it continues for them, I hope they can do more things like that. I think it’s good for the industry, it’s healthy for the industry, it’s healthy for the talent and more power to them. I’m very proud of everybody that was involved in that show, good for them.”