What if Matt Hardy joins AEW after his WWE contract expires?
Matt Hardy's days in WWE may be numbered. The rumors are rampant across the internet about his departure from WWE, as his WWE contract expires on March 01, 2020. At the same time, speculation will be abundant as to where he will end next.
His brother, Jeff Hardy's contract is going to end much later due to time being added to his deal due to injuries. He also has a court date coming up. For the most part, Jeff Hardy is going to be in WWE for a while and it's less likely the Hardy Boyz will be teaming together in another promotion.
This leaves one major option for Matt Hardy. He's already been building content on his YouTube channel and has also praised AEW personnel. One of the reasons why Matt Hardy may not re-sign is not because of the money but due to the fact he's not getting to be creative. Sean Ross of Fightful reported this and said:
"We have been pretty transparent about Matt Hardy for months and months. His deal is up at the beginning of March from what I understand is, he ain't coming back unless he gets something creative and creatively satisfying."
"You see him out there, producing his own content on his own channels on YouTube, Twitter...all over the place. Guy wants to create. He wants to do cool stuff. And WWE is not having him do cool stuff right now, so he was brought back."
So, let's for a second, imagine that Matt Hardy actually signs with AEW after he is done in March. Most likely, he won't be held to the 3-month no-compete clause as Jon Moxley was able to debut for AEW in May at Double or Nothing after his WWE contract expired in April. That clause would only be in effect if he was released from his WWE contract.
Matt Hardy Debuts in AEW
If Matt Hardy did debut in AEW, it could be as soon as March 04, 2020, on AEW Dynamite. But the question remains, how would Hardy fit in AEW? The one group that would benefit from his debut would be The Dark Order.
The Dark Order's domination over The Elite on the last Dynamite of 2019 fell a little flat. But AEW is not abandoning the storyline and they're moving through with it. A new video was released where it was revealed that Evil Uno answers to a Higher Power.
Now, this entity or person goes by The Exalted One. When Uno explained that the attack went as planned, The Exalted One responded with a "Wonderful." That term is mostly used by Matt Hardy in his Broken/Woken gimmick.
If it is revealed that Matt Hardy was the man behind The Dark Order, it would certainly give legitimacy to the group and allow Hardy to flex his creative muscles. While unlikely at this point, don't be surprised if Broken Matt Hardy appears on AEW Dynamite.