Matt Hardy commented on Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm sending PWInsider a log of the communications between the company and Hardy over the ownership of the “Broken” gimmick. Nordholm included an alleged four-page excerpt from Hardy’s contract with highlighted passages which stated that the company owned all intellectual property after their relationship ended.
Nordholm also posted an email exchange with a WWE employee who stated that WWE had “no interest” in getting involved with acquiring the gimmick.
Hardy responded on Twitter:
I tell the truth & I don't need to desperately overcompensate to prove my public credibility. My facts will be shared via the correct venue.
The issues between the Hardys and Impact Wrestling got even uglier tonight. Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm sent PWInsidera log of the communications between the company and Matt Hardy over the ownership of the “Broken” gimmick. Nordholm included an alleged four-page excerpt from Hardy’s contract and highlighted passages which stated that the company owns all intellectual property after their relationship ended.
Nordholm also posted an email exchange with a WWE employee who stated that WWE had “no interest” in getting involved with acquiring the gimmick.
Below is the email that Nordholm sent to PWInsider:
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
Reby Hardy responded to Nordholm’s leaks and timeline of events, and threatened to release some of their phone calls, as seen below:
YALL ARE A JOKE & in that aspect alone, YOU ALREADY LOST. But we can – and will – make the L official, my dude.@EdNordholm#NoCredEd
Long story short: TNA tried a literal sales pitch on WWE re: #BROKEN gimmick (which isn’t legally theirs) & they said “LOLZ yeah no, thanks”
— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) May 23, 2017
Anthem mad because WWE didn’t fall for their offensive money grab. That type of “business” is right on par with @RealJeffJarrett gold scam
I just think it’s cute that TNA feels the need to “prove” themselves to randoms on the internet. Know why we don’t bother ?
— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) May 24, 2017
Because it’s ALLLLLL coming out in court, honey. From the attorneys we hired back in MARCH. Where are those “logs” ?
Oh. And you might want to try spamming dirtsheets with the ACTUAL final version of that contract if you’re going to break confidentiality
— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) May 24, 2017
But hey, that’s cool. Something else we’ll add to the list of offenses. Thanks !
Matt and Reby Hardy continue to battle publicly with Impact Wrestling regarding the ownership of the “Broken” gimmick. In an interview with the LAW earlier this week, which is owned by Anthem, the parent company of Impact Wrestling, Impact Wrestling president Ed Nordholm said that it was “unquestionable” that they owned the gimmick.
“I think it’s unquestionable that the ownership of the characters in the storyline resides in Impact Wrestling,” Nordholm said. “I don’t think even the Hardys would dispute that. They’ve all signed contracts. Their contracts are standard contracts. Not only in the wrestling industry, but in the entertainment industry, generally, the producer of the show owns the content and it doesn’t really matter who in the creative team came up with the idea of what the character should be. The person that owns the storyline and the character is the person who invested to take that idea and put it on TV. That’s what we did. Impact put those characters on TV, and the contracts with those people are indisputably contracts that provide their IP to Impact.”
Impact Wrestling Creative Consultant to Head of Creative Dutch Mantel, who has been bickering with the Hardys on Twitter lately, responded to Nordholm’s comments and thanked him for “clearing it up.”
Matt chimed in, noting that Senor Benjamin was never paid by the company despite being promised, and he never signed a release to allow the company to air footage with his likeness:
Was in the TNA's top story & NEVER PAID A PENNY, even tho promised.
Ed Nordholmmay have publicly said he’s not keeping the Broken Universe from The Hardy Brothers, but the family confirms that’s not the case — he dodged Matt Hardy‘s legal team for over a month as they attempted to come to an agreement over the trademarks.
Sources tell Pro Wrestling Sheet the Hardys hired counsel at the beginning of April with the intention of locking down the trademarks/characters and their lawyers were ignored by Anthem for weeks.
PWS was told Matt wants Impact to sign over any claim they may have to the Broken Universe because The Hardys believe they have ownership rights after creating and funding the inception of it all — long before Anthem purchased the company. In return, his entire family will agree to hold off on suing the company over a litany of alleged claims they have stemming from their time there.
PWS sources say the two sides finally met last week and it had appeared like they’d be resolving the contentious situation — but then Nordholm did an interview with Live Audio Wrestling last night saying they haven’t been in contact and nobody at WWE would even want the characters/trademarks.
PWS reached out to the Hardy Family, who verified that the facts in this story are accurate.
PWS also reached out to Nordholm, who said: “I do not think you have drawn the correct conclusion from what I said in the interview about prior contacts on this; there have been proposals back and forth on this, and WWE has advised me directly that they have no interest in this. As per the interview, we are now and always have been amenable to negotiating an arrangement with the Hardys that respects our investment in this IP.
I have no comment on the Hardy’s legal posturing. Our position is clear.”
The New Day are set to make their WWE SmackDown Live debuts this Tuesday night in Toledo, OH, according to PWInsider. As noted, the group has been held off TV while Kofi Kingston recovered from an ankle injury. The return will help promote the “Fantastic Ride” WWE Network special on The New Day that airs this coming Tuesday.
This year on YouTube there have been some controversial videos regarding social relations that has caused large advertisers to back away from the site. This has also forced YouTube to be much more strict on their viewing restrictions, especially with teens and children.
Based on the type of product pro wrestling presents, especially within the independent circuit, many organizations (including the WWE) will now suffer the fate of being a part of the roll-out of changes Google is doing to ensure that the content presented on YouTube remains for the most part, family-friendly. The “Restricted Mode,” which acts similar to “Parental Control”, affects wrestling channels, and specifically their revenue.
A number of independent promotions have already stated how this has hit them financially and today WCPW has put out a statement that they will have to cancel a number of upcoming shows, due to the recent changes. The video above talks about the cancellations. Here is their full statement:
“In a decision that has not been made lightly, WCPW must today announce that the forthcoming weekly Loaded shows at Manchester’s Bowlers Exhibition Centre will no longer be going ahead.Effective immediately, our June 9, June 16, June 23, June 30, July 14, July 28, August 4, August 11, and August 18 shows have been pulled from our events pages, and refunds will be issued automatically to anyone who has purchased tickets to these events.
All other announced dates, including our PPVs and all Pro Wrestling World Cup dates are unaffected by this. Our initial June 2 show will also be going ahead as scheduled, and all tickets purchased for this are still valid.
YouTube Policy
This is a decision that we absolutely did not want to make, but unfortunately it has been taken out of our hands by YouTube.
Owing to a change in their monetisation policy, which has now classified wrestling as “non-advertiser friendly”, it is no longer financially viable for WCPW to produce a weekly free show of the quality our fans deserve.
Since the change the WCPW YouTube channel has seen its advertising income decimated, with our recent match between Alberto El Patron and Rey Mysterio Jr earning only $44 despite receiving over 1,100,000 views. This is a reduction of around 98% in what would have been Loaded’s main source of revenue.
Without that money, it is simply not possible to organise, set-up, manage, produce and edit a free-to-air show on the scale we had intended, and we’ve been left with no choice but to alter our business model. We’re not alone in this either, as other promotions, journalists, and fans have seen their ability to make a living from their content jeopardised entirely by this change.
While we support YouTube in their endeavours to make the site a safer and more tolerant place to visit, we reject entirely the classification of wrestling as a whole as “inappropriate content”. As such, in the coming weeks WCPW will be partnering with other like-minded individuals and organisations to start a campaign aimed at reversing this sweeping change.
Wrestling is not about violence. Wrestling is about scripted entertainment, amazing feats of athleticism and, most of all, story-telling. We want to thank all of our fans for their continued support, and we hope to have more positive news for you soon.
Upcoming WCPW Dates
Hendrymania – Meadowbank Sports Centre, Edinburgh – Saturday May 27th
Fight Back – Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester – Friday June 2nd
Built To Destroy – Domain, Newcastle – Friday June 16th
Pro Wrestling World Cup: Germany Qualifier – Huxley’s, Berlin – Sunday July 2nd
Pro Wrestling World Cup: Japan Qualifier – Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester – Friday July 7th
Pro Wrestling World Cup: USA Qualifier – Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester – Friday July 21st
Pro Wrestling World Cup: ROW Qualifier – Domain, Newcastle – Saturday July 22nd
Pro Wrestling World Cup: Semi-Final – Planet Ice Arena, Miltion Keynes – Wednesday August 23rd
Pro Wrestling World Cup: Semi-Final – Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester – Thursday August 24th
Pro Wrestling World Cup: Final – Sports Central, Newcastle – Saturday August 26th
If you have any questions regarding tickets please contact us at wcpw@whatculture.com.”
Impact Wrestling president Ed Nordholm was a guest on The LAW: Live Audio Wrestling this week to discuss Anthem’s purchase of the company last fall, the departure of Dixie Carter, the Hardy’s situation and many more topics.
A segment from the interview discussing the ongoing issues with the Hardys is in the video below. Here are some highlights from the interview:
A lot of people will want to know about the relationship with the Hardys.
“I think it’s unquestionable that the ownership of the characters in the storyline resides in Impact Wrestling. I don’t think even the Hardys would dispute that. They’ve all signed contracts. Their contracts are standard contracts. Not only in the wrestling industry, but in the entertainment industry, generally, the producer of the show owns the content and it doesn’t really matter who in the creative team came up with the idea of what the character should be. The person that owns the storyline and the character is the person who invested to take that idea and put it on TV. That’s what we did. Impact put those characters on TV, and the contracts with those people are indisputably contracts that provide their IP to Impact.”
Are you open to speaking and sitting down with the Hardys?
“Oh, of course. I was open to speaking before and I’m open now. We’ve offered many times to find an arrangement with the Hardys that would allow them to continue to use the gimmick within reasonable parameters as to what’s important to us and what would be important to them. I understand with the dynamic of their move to the WWE and drama with which they created that launch – I understand their plan to create maximum “heat” in that period from when they announced to us that they weren’t going to sign the contracts, to the date that they revealed their new location. But I kinda half-expected that once that had been achieved, the thing would die its own natural death because as far as I know, the WWE doesn’t want the gimmick, and indeed, from every conversation I’ve had with them, I’ve been told they have no interest in it.”
So they’re not actively pursuing it from you.
“Oh god, no. We’ve been in communication because there’s all this chatter about how we’re keeping it from them. [Laughs] I’m taking heat because I’m keeping something from you. If you want it, why don’t you call me? And their answer to me has been, ‘No, not interested.'”
Back in March, the Hardys appeared on a Ring of Honor event in Manhattan announcing they would be appearing on the following Friday’s pay-per-view. What had come out was that on Friday, ROH was notified a few hours before the pay-per-view to stop utilizing these characters on their broadcast.
“We had conversations with the Ring of Honor people before the Manhattan event as to what I was gonna be good with and what they were good with. I thought we had an understanding as to where the line was going to be, and they communicated to me that they understood our position and would honour it. It became apparent in the day before the pay-per-view event that whatever Ring of Honor was putting forward as to who was showing up, who was being teased, and actually who they intended to appear was going to be the [Broken Hardy] characters. We did what people who own intellectual property do. You can’t do that. We had an understanding. You’re not living by that understanding.”
How would you characterize the relationship now with Ring of Honor?
“Fine. I think the Ring of Honor people would have preferred had we not interfered with that show. I don’t think they hold any ill will toward me for doing what I did. I’ve had discussions with Joe [Koff, Ring of Honor COO] from time to time. There’s still opportunities for us to be working with Ring of Honor much in the same way we intended to do before the Hardy Brothers left. They’ve got lots of other wrestlers within their organization that would be fun to see against our wrestlers and vice-versa, I’m sure. So hopefully as the heat from all of this dies down at some point, we can start working with them in much the same way as we intend to work with AAA or NOAH or anybody else. It doesn’t have to be an international partner for us to be wanting to bring the fans opportunities to see match-ups they want to see.”
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