NOTE: I would just like to point out before you read this article how much I respect and admire Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy, I respect them as people and their creations that they have brought to the ring over the decades. This is not a criticism to them or their work, but just a review and a in-depth look at some of the changes that would have taken place had Billy Corgan and Matt Hardy taken over TNA instead of Anthem.
While the relationship with Anthem and GFW is unknown, The formation of GFW and Anthem's Impact Wrestling gave TNA wrestling a new lease of life under a new guise. Anthem has made Impact a serious wrestling company again, and its new motto of more action and less talk, differs greatly to what the vision of Matt Hardy's and Billy Corgans, who were the top candidates in the TNA sale.
Whilst a more serious and more in-ring based product, The TNA style comedy and its serious competition related storylines still remain, but many of the negatives have been removed. Since the partnerships with other companies such as AAA, Pro Wrestling NOAH, Impact has united and created a pro wrestling frontline to WWE's empire. Following the pending launch of Anthem's new Global Wrestling Network, which will not only feature the TNA tape library, but feature other wrestling shows such as AAA and Noah, A true rival Wrestling Network can finally give the WWE's Network competition.
Now, onto the main topic. Jack Williams has mentioned in older articles about what would have happened had Billy Corgan taken over TNA, and I also truly believe that the changes he would have brought alongside Matt Hardy would tarnish the already criticised TNA image. Corgans ideas for TNA were quite worrying at the time when it was unknown as to who bought the company, with it being revealed he was the one who pushed for more content like The Final Deletion, which freyed from the normality of pro wrestling by a long way. Had Corgan won the bidding war and acquired TNA, The likelyhood of Both Matt and Jeff Hardy remaining with the company would be quite high, which in turn means that more Broken Matt stunts would have taken place, only more bigger and more absurd than ever before. The last months of TNA wrestling were drastically different than Impact Wrestling, It became the Broken Matt Hardy show, even in which not even Jeff Hardy had as much limelight compared to Matt, despite being shown in every show. Even Reby and Maxel received more attention than Jeff, who is one of the most adored wrestlers of all time.
I don't believe that Jeff, despite his incredible artistic nature and creativity would have done things like the deletion series had Matt Hardy not joined TNA. The way in which both Matt Hardy and Billy Corgan's minds were thinking, TNA was on route to becoming a wacky, cheap imitation of something from the science fiction channel, with toddlers beating grown wrestlers, Firework fights every other week, magical volcano's, supernatural boats and drones, and teleportation devices co-starring beside the Broken Family. Imagine, this could have only been the start of what was to come. Matt Hardy, in his new contract negotiations at the time, Rumoured to have requested to be head of creative, so all of his creative ideas that wouldn't have got the nod from the previous creative team, would be able to be unleashed upon the fans of the show. And it's more than likely that Corgan would have said no to Matt, seeing as he endorsed the ideas.
Anthem purchasing TNA prevented that from happening, and returned the company direction and its programming back to a pro wrestling show, and not the Broken Matt Hardy show of which it had become. Not only was it unfair to the fans to see a great mixed wrestling show, but also for the wrestlers who were deprived of on air time whether it be in promos or in matches, due to the endless and show-filling segments of Broken Matt's escapades from just eating green-beans, making his "scribe" write down the word delete ovah and ovah ageen, or sparring with kangaroos. I must confess that I did enjoy the wackiness at the time, it was just so stupid that it was funny, but looking back to that time and now that the Hardy's have gone, I've realised that how much of the product was being hijacked by Matt, and what direction the company was going in. Arguments can say that TNA had higher and more consistent ratings under the Broken era, but what was the product was on offer in that time? I don't believe that it was pro wrestling, but a sci-fi show with touches of pro wrestling. Another thing that to me stands out as a negative was the use of outdated elements such as the fan plant, and fake blood packs that Matt used when "biting" "fans". It looked so obvious and uneeded that it dumbed down the show or segment it was featured in, making an already fake enough show even more fake.
When I look back at the amazing Jeff Hardy or "Brother Nero" during this time, he had become overlooked and underappreciated, especially considering the amazingly high quality matches he put on, it seemed at least to me that only Matt got the major attention. If Anthem were to have kept on both Hardy's had they reached a new deal, Or even signed just Jeff to a new deal, I would certainly have loved to see more of Jeff, and even Matt, but only if Matt would just calm the craziness down and stick to reality, after all, the WWE's wacky 90's era storylines and gimmicks became out of touch in the naughties, take Undertaker for example, He no longer used the urn for his mystical powers, something his gimmick relied heavily on in the beginning. The Hardy's in-ring work even in the last months of TNA was unbelievable, They still remained at the top of the work rate for tag teams despite age and wear and tear, and I truly think that they could have helped the company's tag division big time during their launch of the new era.
I do hope that in the future things can be worked out between The Hardy's and Anthem, as alot of money can be made and alot of fans will be happy to see the Brothers of Extreme inside six sides of the Impact ring again.
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