Broken Matt Hardy wants to delete ‘the Bray Wyatt’ and other highlights from an amazing in-character interview

Been a while since I’ve posted on Matt Hardy’s “Broken” gimmick, and that’s probably just as well for folks who aren’t fans of this latest iteration of the TNA wrestler. It’s understandable that a character who uses multiple different accents, comes up with weird twists on his rivals names and threatens to eat people might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

I find it, to use one of Broken Matt’s favorite exclamations, glorious. And if you’re with me in that, you’re gonna love the (mostly) kayfabe interview he did with Justin Barrasso for SI.com’s Broken Mustard.

In it, Matt explains how he came to be “broken”:

There was an incident at the end of the ‘I Quit’ match between myself and my brother, and he descended from the heavens from the top of the Impact Zone, and put me through a table. My brother had no remorse for my young son, King Maxel, or my beautiful wife, Rebecca–he didn’t worry about leaving them without a husband or father. He was trying to end me.

This incident was so traumatic that I woke up in the hospital with this shark streak in my hair. All of a sudden, I spoke differently. I thought differently. I moved differently. Considering this incident broke me, it also opened up parts of my mind that I did not have access to before–it unlocked potent areas of my mind, and now I have premonitions. I am often able to hear what people are thinking. In essence, it’s made me magic.

Of particular interest for fans of the crazy world of 2016 pro wrestling and/or lovers of inter-promotional beef are Hardy’s comments on the Wyatt Family/New Day “compound match”, which aired the week after he and Jeff’s “Final Deletion”. The latter match generated a lot of buzz and good ratings for Impact Wrestling, while the former was mostly dismissed as a knockoff, whether it really was or not.

It’s here that Matt almost breaks character, or at least allows himself to slip a little in order to talk about something he’s understandably proud of:

Those guys [The Wyatts & The New Day] having this thing in their compound was a very tough position for them.

The ‘Final Deletion’ was something that was so amazing–it was my brilliant masterpiece I performed in front of the world. Then, only a week later, for these guys to go out there and have this compound fight, especially in such a serious environment when the ‘Final Deletion’ was such an entertaining piece of art–it was a hard act to follow, and the fans let them know that.

It’s wondrous to see your masterpiece be emulated as such. It’s truly delightful.

Exchanges between Matt, his wife & others and Bray Wyatt in the wake of the WWE Raw segment were a little more heated than Hardy’s “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” take here. Would he be open to building off that for a match?

What do you think?

I actually find fondness and appreciation for the Bray Wyatt. I see that he is driven by a higher power, much like I am driven and motivated and inspired and given strength by the Seven Deities. I respect how he doesn’t walk the normal path, he carves his own. I would love, one day down that road, to show up in WWE and have a match with the Bray Wyatt. I would love to bring him to my battlefield and delete him–that would be my honor. If The New Day and the Wyatt Family would have been there with me, I would have not only deleted them, I may have even eaten them. My brokenness has made me become more primal, more instinctual.

Other than deleting, and possibly eating, Bray, Kofi Kingston, Big E, Xavier Woods, Braun Strowman & Erick Rowan, what’s left for Matt? Is there an end to this gimmick? Barrasso asked, and...

In order to be whole again, the first thing that comes to mind is the title of the world. I don’t know if that will even work since I have been broken so severely. My condition may be a permanent issue, so if that does not work, there must be a message the Seven Deities will send me, or a journey–because I have such a greater purpose in life than just being a normal, mortal person. I am more, I am magic. When the Seven Deities let me know what I must do to be complete again–even though I will be stronger and more than just a regular mortal man–I will fulfill that mission and become whole once more.

Extraordinary! Oops, slipped into broken-speak again.

The whole interview is, like the schtick, a fantastic piece of business (in my opinion). If you’re with me on that, click on over to SI.com to read it in its original brilliance.