From the Impact/ROH Rumor Mill: Why the Hardys vs Young Bucks cross-promotional feud didn't happen
What's the story?
For a while, it looked like we were going to witness a Broken Matt Hardy and Brother Nero vs The Young Bucks feud spanning across both Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor. To our dismay, it didn't come to fruition. New reports from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter have revealed why that was.
In case you didn't know...
Not too long ago two things were true. The first being, Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy were the biggest stars in independent wrestling. Matt with his Broken Matt Hardy gimmick and Jeff with his Brother Nero gimmick. The second being that Impact Wrestling had a good working relationship with Ring of Honor.
The heart of the matter
Because of their good working relationship, Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor had a plan to capitalise on the popularity of The Hardy Boys and the Young Bucks. The two wrestling promotions put them in a lengthy cross-promotional feud against each other.
As detailed by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
The old regime had the beginnings of a deal with ROH and as noted, last year there were plans in place for a long-term Hardys vs. Young Bucks program that would run in both promotions with both sets of tag team titles changing hands.
The WON goes on to state that the Hardy Boys signed for the WWE before the plan could really be put in place. They also add the reason why the working relationship between ROH and Impact broke down.
The Hardys signing with WWE ended that feud, but what ended the working relationship was Impact sending the cable providers threatening letters about the Hardys and their broken character which caused the Dish Network to cancel airing any ROH PPV at the last minute, and forcing the entire Bucks vs Hardys PPV match to be restructured at the last minute.
What's next?
Currently, the Young Bucks are enjoying tag-team success in NJPW as well as in ROH. Whilst Matt Hardy has just become 'Woken' in the WWE and is slowly gathering steam as he recreates the gimmick with a feud against Bray Wyatt. Jeff Hardy is currently off with an injury but has been announced to appear at the RAW 25th Anniversary show.
Author's take
The Young Bucks vs The Broken Hardys probably would have been the biggest thing in wrestling the year had it happened. It's a shame that ROH and Impact couldn't make it work.
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