Matt Hardy explains why he dropped the Broken gimmick. He made his AEW debut in his Broken form but soon changed his gimmick to Money Matt.
Matt Hardy set the world alight with his Broken universe back in TNA. He took the gimmick with him to the WWE. Unfortunately, bar the feud with Bray Wyatt, the gimmick wasn’t displayed as often as he and his fans would have liked.
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Hardy soon moved to AEW where he debuted with the gimmick. He would soon replace it with his Money Matt gimmick. While speaking to APP, Hardy revealed that this decision was made because it wasn’t translating to his new audience in the manner he hoped.
Matt Hardy explains why he dropped the Broken gimmick
Hardy described the gimmick as a ‘very audience-friendly character’ and the pandemic put the brakes on it immediately.
“Broken Matt Hardy is a very audience-friendly character. It needs a crowd. It needs an audience, and it just was not in the cards to be Broken Matt Hardy … because his debut was in the first-ever empty arena era, pandemic-era show, the first empty arena show that AEW had.”
Hardy added that AEW’s younger audience was much more sports-centric while his character was ‘very theatrical’.
“Broken Matt Hardy is … very theatrical, and it doesn’t translate as well to the current AEW audience that sits at home and watches because I’ve realized that this is a much younger audience. It’s a much more sports-centric-type audience.”
“I think if we had been in arenas full of people it would have been different, but considering we’re now playing to the television audience, it was better for me to zone in and focus on one thing.”
“And I think being Big Money Matt and being a heel, considering how I’m an older guy here and it’s such a younger demo, I think that’s the way for me to go. So I’m very happy with the groove that I’m currently in.”
Considering the hoops he jumped to get the rights to the character, it is unlikely that Hardy will throw the persona by the wayside. Who knows, he may have another go at it once we see a full scale return of fans at arenas.
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