Impact Wrestling has been locked in a legal battle with Matt and Jeff Hardy for the majority of this year over the rights to the Broken Matt and Brother Nero gimmicks.
Impact’s argument is the gimmicks were created while they were working in TNA but both Hardy brothers claim they created the idea behind the gimmicks that were of their own doing. Matt Hardy’s wife, Reby, has been very vocal in her criticism towards Impact over the legal issues and even tweeted that Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions President Ed Nordholm and Jeff Jarrett are the “scum of the earth.”
What complicates matters even more is Jeff Jarrett’s personal friendship with Jeff Hardy. Jarrett recently spoke to Wrestle:List about the ongoing legal battle, where he gave his thoughts on the squabble.
“I always take the high road because there is legal squabbles or potential legal squabbles but I have said this to a couple of outlets, and I say this with very broad strokes – I am from Nashville so I am around music which is intellectual property and I have been in the business 30 years,” Jarrett told Wrestle:List. “Intellectual property laws are very simple, there are two sides to it; there are publishers and the writers, then there are the performers as well.”
“Jeff Hardy has been one of my best friends for 20 years, you can look on my social media and their social media, and we take family vacations together but business is business,” Jarrett continued. “So when it relates to IP it’s real simple, there is a publisher who owns the property, there is a writer who gets credit and can monetize it, then there is the performers. There is no question that Broken Matt and Brother Nero’s performances were off the charts good. But when it comes to ownership to me it’s almost a silly squabble, it’s never been in question. Impact are the owners.”
Impact attempted to re-sign both Matt and Jeff Hardy when their contracts expired earlier this year but negotiations were unsuccessful. The Hardys worked for Ring of Honor in March before returning to WWE together at WrestleMania 33 in April.
