Matt Hardy Says Broken Gimmick Didn’t Translate To AEW Audience

Matt Hardy debuted in AEW and he was the Broken version of himself. Now he has transformed into Money Matt, but fans still feel that the Broken Universe ended early for All Elite Wrestling.

They were able to do some neat camera tricks with teleportation, but they didn’t count on the wind messing with Jericho’s hair and ruining the illusion.

While speaking to APP, Hardy revealed why he dropped the Broken Matt Hardy gimmick in AEW. It simply didn’t translate to the AEW audience like he hoped it would.

“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.”

“Broken Matt Hardy is … very theatrical, and it doesn’t translate as well to the current AEW audience that sits at home and watches (on television) 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(graphic), I think that’s the way for me to go. So I’m very happy with the groove that I’m currently in.”

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We’ll have to see if a return of live fans on a greater scale will encourage Hardy to give his Broken persona another try. He certainly went through legal battles with Anthem Sports to attain it. WWE sat on the idea for the longest time and then debuted Woken Matt Hardy. That didn’t work out too well, but he did get his own cinematic match out of the run.