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IMPACT WRESTLING RELEASES LOG OF COMMUNICATIONS OVER 'BROKEN' HARDYS GIMMICK, INCLUDING MATT HARDY CONTRACT EXCERPT & WWE EMAIL EXCHANGE

In the latest twist in the Matt and Jeff Hardy vs. Impact Wrestling situation over the ownership of the "Broken" gimmick used by the Hardy family in Impact Wrestling before leaving at the onset of 2017, which have been called into question, complete with Matt Hardy filing a copyright on the "Broken Matt Hardy" name, followed by Impact Wrestling filing a number of trademarks on names related to the "Broken" gimmick and characters, Anthem Media's Ed Nordholm contacted PWInsider.com this evening, releasing the following statement, which PWInsider.com has not edited in any way:

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Good afternoon,

In response to on-going speculation concerning our position with respect to the “Broken Brilliance” creative, I am providing this detailed log of our communications on the subject and the contractual structure of our relationship with Matt Hardy with respect to intellectual property matters (which is standard to our roster and in the industry).

There has never been any argument from Impact Wrestling that the Hardy’s were key contributors to the development of the characters and story line, or that Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy executed on their roles in spectacular fashion. But the position taken by the Hardys is a massive disservice to the contributions of the rest of the creative team at Impact Wrestling, including Jeremy Borash, Dave Lagano (sic), Matt Conway and Billy Corgan, and is totally at odds with the terms of their contracts.

The Hardys would have you believe that Anthem is somehow avoiding their lawyers to address this. This is the log of our communications with the Hardys and/or their lawyers. It is clear that we have not been avoiding them.

• March 10 – EBN speaks with executives at ROH about “Broken Brilliance” being used in ROH shows. I indicated willingness to provide an arrangement that would allow the creative to be used in ROH shows and encouraged ROH to have Matt speak with me if he wanted to pursue that discussion
• March 11 – EBN spoke at length with Matt by telephone about the structure of an amicable arrangement for use of the Broken Brilliance creative
• March 14 – Matt sent text message to Ed Nordholm at 4:05pm:

“Tried giving you a call, it rang & went busy. I'm open to working things out amicably as we spoke about. The lawyer who represent me is interested in seeing your offer. My lawyer's email is {redacted} which you could send the offer to for review. Thanks.”

And I responded by text at 6:41 pm

“Thank you Matt. I was supposed to be [flying] into NYC today and am a little twisted. I will pull something together with [our] lawyers and try to get it over to your lawyer tomorrow or Thursday at latest“

• March 16 – At 8:25 pm I sent an update text to Matt:

“Hi Matt. My lawyer got me a draft too late to get reviewed for today. I will look at it in the morning. Sorry for the delay”

And he responded at 9:16 pm

“Ok, he's ready for it. Thanks for the update.”

• March 17 – counsel for Anthem Wrestling delivered draft proposal to counsel for Matt Hardy
• March 24 – counsel for Anthem Wresting followed up with Matt Hardy counsel requesting comments on the proposal
• March 27 – counsel for Matt Hardy responds that they have been away and have not reviewed the proposal but will be back “in the next few days”

After which no further communication until

• April 18 – counsel for Matt Hardy leaves a voice mail message for counsel for Anthem Wrestling asking to arrange a meeting
• April 20 – EBN contacts WWE by email to determine veracity of internet rumours concerning WWE interest in Broken Brilliance
• April 21 -- WWE respond by email that there “is no interest on our end” {redacted email exchange attached}
• April 21 – counsel for Matt Hardy sends a follow up message requesting a meeting
• April 27 – lawyers speak to arrange a meeting
• May 16 – lawyers meet but no agreement reached

Finally, I am attaching a copy of the relevant provisions of Matt’s contract with Impact. The clause is virtually identical to the corresponding provisions of every wrestler under contract with Impact.

The facts are that we tried to accommodate the Hardys for their Ring of Honour engagements, and have tried to elicit an indication from WWE whether they have an interest in using the Broken Brilliance creative in WWE. We are not hoarding it from WWE; WWE is not interested in it.

We fully respect the decision of Matt and Jeff to return to WWE and appreciate all of their contributions to Impact Wrestling. We wish them every success.

Our focus is on the future and we will not have any further public comment on this matter.

Ed Nordholm

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PWInsider.com confirmed with other Impact officials that the email from Nordholm was legitimate, as were the files that were attached.

The except of Hardy's contract features several highlighted passages that denoted that any original intellectual property created while working for Impact would become Impact's property under "work for hire" rules and that they would retain that ownership of the IP as well as the video rights to the performances, even after the contractual relationship between the two sides had completed.

To read the PDF file from the excerpt from Matt Hardy's contract with Impact Wrestling, click here.

The retracted email exchanged between Nordholm and someone from WWE revolves around online rumors that WWE was looking to get involved in the situation between Anthem and the Hardys and that they were looking to use the "Broken" personas on WWE programming.  The email exchange states, from the WWE side, that there was "no interest on our end in getting involved."

To read the redacted email between Anthem and WWE, click here.

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Shortly after departing Impact Wrestling in January, the ownership of the "Broken" characters portrayed by the Hardys during their time Impact Wrestling when it was owned by Dixie Carter have been called into question.  Matt Hardy filed a copyright on the "Broken Matt Hardy" name, followed by Impact Wrestling filing a number of trademarks on names related to the "Broken" gimmick and characters.  Since that time, the Hardy family have been very public about the belief that they are the rightful owners of the gimmick and characters.    While there have been hints of the situation becoming a full-blown legal fight (and each side has spent money on legal fees already), no lawsuit has been filed.  The statement from Nordholm above confirms our report yesterday that the legal representatives for the two sides had begun speaking last week.

Interesting to note that the March 10th date that Nordholm listed as speaking with ROH officials would be the same date at the ROH 15th Anniversary PPV, which saw the Hardys tone down the "Broken" characters after Ring of Honor and numerous PPV outlets received a cease and desist from Impact the day of the event regarding the usage of the "Broken" material.  That cease and desist led to The Dish Network pulling the PPV altogether.

The release by Nordholm appears to be have been timed as part of a concerted effort to defend the company's side of the Hardy situation as it fell on the same day that Nordholm's complete interview with John Pollock of The Fight Network (also owned by Anthem Media, recorded days ago) was released today in video form, which you can watch below.   It makes sense that Impact would want to take advantage of the interview with John Pollock being released:

 

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