John Pollack spoke with Anthem’s Ed Nordholm this weekend about the ongoing public dispute between Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy and Reby Hardy with Impact Wrestling and Anthem over who owns the rights to the “Broken” gimmick used in the company.
Nordholm was quick to point out that Anthem and Impact Wrestling do indeed have the ownership rights to the characters and when Pollack noted how that is being disputed (mainly by both Matt and Reby Hardy on Twitter in recent weeks), Nordholm disagreed adding that the “ownership of the characters in the storyline resides in Impact Wrestling and I don’t even think the Hardys would dispute that directly.”
He also discussed how all of the Hardys signed “standard contracts” and that generally in the entertainment industry, the producer of the content would own the rights and it “doesn’t really matter” who came up with concepts or ideas as part of a creative team. Nordholm added how Impact Wrestling then distributed that content on television and doesn’t believe a genuine dispute is really taking place right now.
Nordholm said they have been more than willing to come to the table with Matt, Jeff and Reby Hardy regarding the use of the characters as long as it was beneficial for both sides. He was quick to note the online backlash to Anthem and Impact after they went public with not re-signing with the company, showing up in Ring of Honor and later signing with WWE. Nordholm said he expected to get “heat” for a while over the situation, but felt it would blow over as he was given no indication WWE has any interest in the “Broken” characters.
You can check out the full interview with Nordholm below.