Reby Hardy Comments on if She Will Take Anthem to Court, & More

It seems as though The Hardy Boyz are becoming a bit more BROKEN with each passing week. GFW’s recent attempts to trademark the gimmick were denied over the weekend, and it was teased on this week’s Raw that something had recently “awoken” from within the Hardys. As mentioned earlier, Matt and Jeff Hardy appeared in a Raw Fallout video on YouTube wherein the brothers seemed to be almost completely portraying their “Broken” personas from Impact Wrestling last year. While WWE’s current direction with the “Broken Universe” is still relatively unknown at this point, Reby Hardy has once again chimed in with some more information through a new interview with SI. As far as Billy Corgan supposedly working to help the Hardys and Anthem reach an agreement, Reby confirmed the following: “Billy Corgan did offer to help mediate, which was surprising to me given Billy had his own legal battles and issues with TNA, but he was so invested in the “Broken” storyline and diplomatic to both sides. Billy almost got more traction in the process than even our lawyers. That was a really positive time for us, and we were very hopeful because Billy was getting through to Anthem and we actually had the chance to communicate. Our lawyers would go weeks at a time without hearing from Anthem, which is part of the reason why this has been dragging on, seemingly, forever.”
Reby Hardy spoke recently with Sports Illustrated with some answers to questions pertaining to Anthem Sports & Entertainment’s recent claims. For example, Anthem recently denied that they asked for a huge percentage of the Hardy’s merchandise (including Jeff Hardy’s music and artwork) and they also said that their contracts were for nearly equal amounts of money. Reby stated: “In one of the contracts, Anthem snuck in a percentage the company would be owed from any income from ShopMattHardy.com and JeffHardyBrand.com. The fact that they would feel entitled to that is a joke. Jeff Hardy’s site is literally his paintings and music; it has nothing to do with wrestling and is an artistic venture. Why are they entitled to any of that? To slide that into the contract was a real shady move, and we have the documents to prove it.” As well as, “Jeff Jarrett’s plan was to give Jeff Hardy all the money, and he actually said to pay Matt as little as possible because he believed Matt could not go anywhere without Jeff Hardy. I had reservations about WWE for a long time, but I forgot all of my reservations and our loyalty to the TNA brand after I learned that.”
As for Matt supposedly holding up Anthem for more money earlier this year, Reby claimed: “In the phone call that Ed Nordholm is referencing, it is very clear that Matt did not hold Anthem up for any money. He did not request $100,000 more. Matt tried to make Impact great again, for real, and not just through a hashtag.” and also confessed this: “During contract negotiations, when I started to notice as well as hear from friends about Jeff Jarrett’s shady business tactics, I did two things: I immediately filed a trademark for “Broken” Matt Hardy, and started to record every conversation between Matt and anyone at that TNA office, including Ed Nordholm and Jeff Jarrett. For recording phone calls, it is legal with a one-party consent law in North Carolina, which is where we live, and Tennessee, which is where TNA has its office.”

Finally, Reby was outright asked if she and her family were going to pursue the rights to the gimmick over a court battle with Anthem. Her response seemed to indicate that she wants to settle the issue without going through such a drastic process, but even she admits that it no longer seems likely. She said, “Going to the court is not like going to the grocery store. There is a lot of money involved in a legal case, which is another reason why Anthem is dragging this out as long as they can. Jeff Jarrett said, “Just keep dragging it out, they’ll get tired of spending money.” We would rather settle this like civil human beings, which is what we have tried to do for months and months.
There are so many things that, if we choose to go to court, we can also add into the case. Senor Benjamin, who is my father, never signed a release to have his image be marketed. Technically, they should not have been able to air his footage. They do not have a release for my son, Maxel, who had no written documents saying he could be on set at Universal Studios, which could jeopardize their relationship with the place where they film on a monthly basis. There is also the fact that I created—shot, directed, and edited—so much footage that I never gave them a release to use, either.”
You can read the full interview over here: https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/08/01/reby-matt-jeff-hardy-broken-dispute-interview