Impact's Ed Nordholm: WWE has 'no interest' in Broken Hardys gimmick

[cero2k]

Source: f4wonline.com

The legal situation surrounding the ownership of the "Broken Hardys" characters inevitably came up when Ed Nordholm (president of Impact Wrestling and Executive VP of Anthem Sports & Entertainment) sat down with John Pollock for an interview that aired on this week's episode of Live Audio Wrestling.

Just as inevitably, Nordholm spoke definitively about the characters belonging to Impact Wrestling.

"I think it’s unquestionable that the ownership of the characters in the storyline resides in Impact Wrestling," Nordholm said. "I don’t think even the Hardys would dispute that. They’ve all signed contracts. Their contracts are standard contracts. Not only in the wrestling industry, but in the entertainment industry, generally, the producer of the show owns the content and it doesn’t really matter who in the creative team came up with the idea of what the character should be."

"The person that owns the storyline and the character is the person who invested to take that idea and put it on TV. That’s what we did. Impact put those characters on TV, and the contracts with those people are indisputably contracts that provide their IP to Impact."

It didn't take long for Reby Hardy to respond to Nordholm's comments after the interview had gained attention. She wrote on Twitter that Nordholm was: "Taking advantage that fans do not know details of contracts, which were NOT 'standard entertainment contracts' & not drafted under Anthem."

Nordholm also had interesting comments regarding whether WWE is even interested in the "Broken Hardys" gimmick. He claimed that he'd be open to speaking with The Hardys and that they've been offered the opportunity to find an arrangement that would work for both parties, but said that he doesn't believe WWE is interested in their "Broken" characters.

"As far as I know, the WWE doesn’t want the gimmick, and indeed, from every conversation I’ve had with them, I’ve been told they have no interest in it," Nordholm said.

Reby Hardy responded to that as well: "Only thing apparent here is the level of desperation from a person of his position doing a phone podcast re: intentions of a billion $+ co."

Below is the video clip where Nordholm discusses the legal situation:

phpBB [video]

[KILLdozer]

Yeah I read this on another site earlier.

If the conflicting reports about everything he's saying are true...this guy's one of the biggest and most ridiculous liars I've seen in a long time.

[Big Red Machine]

Yeah I read this on another site earlier.

If the conflicting reports about everything he's saying are true...this guy's one of the biggest and most ridiculous liars I've seen in a long time.

Well, he works in TNA management, so that's to be expected.

[cero2k]

Yeah I read this on another site earlier.

If the conflicting reports about everything he's saying are true...this guy's one of the biggest and most ridiculous liars I've seen in a long time.

I don't think it's a lie, but ore like not all the details are there in the quote. WWE may not be interested in the gimmick, but are interested in the Hardys making them money and that gimmick could be more money than normal Hardys. Metlzer said that WWE is interested in the gimmick, but not leasing it from Impact.

All in all, the only thing for certain is that the Hardys don't own that gimmick and they need to get over it.

[KILLdozer]

The way the guy puts it though I'm not sure what he really has to lose from WWE and The Hardys using it. Sure they'd make a lot of money off of it, but he's not actually even making any money from it so it's not like he'd lose any.

[cero2k]

The way the guy puts it though I'm not sure what he really has to lose from WWE and The Hardys using it. Sure they'd make a lot of money off of it, but he's not actually even making any money from it so it's not like he'd lose any.

nothing to lose, but nothing to gain either, except WWE can actually gain millions of dollars, so it makes perfect sense for Impact to want to get a cut from that. it's really no different from WWE not allowing the Dudleyz to be Dudleyz outside of WWE and many many other instances. Chyna, Warrior, and Ryback had to freaking legally change their name because of bullshit like this

[Big Red Machine]

Yeah I read this on another site earlier.

If the conflicting reports about everything he's saying are true...this guy's one of the biggest and most ridiculous liars I've seen in a long time.

I don't think it's a lie, but ore like not all the details are there in the quote. WWE may not be interested in the gimmick, but are interested in the Hardys making them money and that gimmick could be more money than normal Hardys. Metlzer said that WWE is interested in the gimmick, but not leasing it from Impact.

I think his statement is intentionally misleading. WWE obviously wants the gimmick, but rather than they themselves pay for it, they'd rather Matt and Jeff win a court case while TNA continues to look petty and greedy in the eyes of the fans.

All in all, the only thing for certain is that the Hardys don't own that gimmick and they need to get over it.

Is that certain? Meltzer said that he hasn't seen Matt's contract, and the Hardys are pretty guarded about their IP rights and Matt's a pretty shrewd wrestling businessman. I could definitely see Matt's contract being different. Remember that when he signed TNA was in a very desperate place and I can definitely see them having let Matt keep IP rights to his stuff.

[cero2k]

I think his statement is intentionally misleading. WWE obviously wants the gimmick, but rather than they themselves pay for it, they'd rather Matt and Jeff win a court case while TNA continues to look petty and greedy in the eyes of the fans.
an unfortunate double standard, if WWE doesn't let anyone leave with their gimmick, we'll, it's just how the business is, if Impact does the same, Fuck YOU TNA FOR NOT LET HARDYS BLAH BLAH. Impact could have literally given the blessing to the Hardys on day 1 and people would still shit on Impact because 'they can't even hold the hardys, they lose people, they fail to resign them, TNALOSESLOL. Only petty thing is Reby Sky's twitter feed.

Nordholm is not a wrestling guy, he's a business man and no matter what the wrestling business works like, he's gonna protect the IP he knows he legally owns.


Is that certain? Meltzer said that he hasn't seen Matt's contract, and the Hardys are pretty guarded about their IP rights and Matt's a pretty shrewd wrestling businessman. I could definitely see Matt's contract being different. Remember that when he signed TNA was in a very desperate place and I can definitely see them having let Matt keep IP rights to his stuff.It's been months, at this point if Impact didn't have any legal high ground, Hardys would have already taken the gimmick, but the fact that they haven't with the power of WWE behind them says a lot.

[Big Red Machine]

I think his statement is intentionally misleading. WWE obviously wants the gimmick, but rather than they themselves pay for it, they'd rather Matt and Jeff win a court case while TNA continues to look petty and greedy in the eyes of the fans.
an unfortunate double standard, if WWE doesn't let anyone leave with their gimmick, we'll, it's just how the business is, if Impact does the same, Fuck YOU TNA FOR NOT LET HARDYS BLAH BLAH.
It's not quite the double standard you're making it out to be and here is why: Because of the way WWE's Creative process is run, most people won't dispute that a WWE gimmick is something that WWE (or some company whose rights WWE bought) is mostly responsible for shaping. The only exceptions I can think of in the more modern post Hall and Nash to WCW "we own your gimmick" era (and I don't know these for a fact) are The Hurricane, Zack Ryder, and JBL (though I'm pretty sure about these, especially the last two). I'm not saying that others haven't put a lot of touches onto their characters (and I'm using that word in the way you'd think of a Jim Cornette using it where he clearly means something that is more than just Richard Fliehr' wrestling persona Ric Flair)- everyone from Raven to Taker to goofy NXT Emma to Tyler Breeze to crazy AJ Lee to Bray Wyatt to New Day the current Usos gimmick has put a lot of their own ideas into the character to have their characters evolve in the way that they have. But in all of those cases, the nexus of the idea seems to have been a WWE thing that those given the gimmick took and made their own; but the point of origin always seems to have been WWE Creative.
(For the purposes of clarification, the reason I left guys like Rock, Austin, Triple H, Nakamura, etc. off of this list is because their "character" is really just their own personality dialed up to eleven and given a name, and in those cases the real issue isn't so much the IP so much as it is the already-established publicity of the name. If you take New Day's names away from them and set them loose on the indies together, they're still going to get themselves over by doing the same sort of thing. They'll find something equally New Day-ish to replace Bootie-Os and unicorns with, but they'll still feel like the exact same guys but with a different name.)
In this case it seems pretty clear that the Hardys were the ones responsible for the ideas and unique aspects of the Broken characters and their surrounding universe. In WWE it feels like they're not letting someone use the gimmick that got them over. With TNA and the Hardys it feels like TNA is trying to steal something that clearly belongs to the Hardys.



Impact could have literally given the blessing to the Hardys on day 1 and people would still shit on Impact because 'they can't even hold the hardys, they lose people, they fail to resign them, TNALOSESLOL. Only petty thing is Reby Sky's twitter feed.
Yes, people would have pooped on TNA for not being able to resign the Hardys and whether or not that's a fair criticism is a matter of opinion, but that's not why people are hating on TNA here. This isn't hating on TNA in the mean-spirited schadenfreude kind of way. This is people hating on TNA because they're legitimately angry with them for something they have done that people view as wrong.




Nordholm is not a wrestling guy, he's a business man and no matter what the wrestling business works like, he's gonna protect the IP he knows he legally owns.
But saying things that anyone with a modicum of knowledge about the business knows aren't true (Reby is doing a good job of making sure of that) makes him come off like a liar. He could have just made his argument that "we as the people who put it on TV own the characters, like (he claims) the contracts say, but he didn't. He had to go a say a bunch of ridiculous things that just plain aren't true. If the Hardys will admit that TNA owns it, then why are they trying to fight it so hard now that they have their cushy, secure, WWE contracts? He's coming off like Joe Koff did when he was all smiles and "everything is great!" while fans were completely irate about the iPPV stream disasters. It's a very poor first interaction with your fanbase.


Is that certain? Meltzer said that he hasn't seen Matt's contract, and the Hardys are pretty guarded about their IP rights and Matt's a pretty shrewd wrestling businessman. I could definitely see Matt's contract being different. Remember that when he signed TNA was in a very desperate place and I can definitely see them having let Matt keep IP rights to his stuff.It's been months, at this point if Impact didn't have any legal high ground, Hardys would have already taken the gimmick, but the fact that they haven't with the power of WWE behind them says a lot. It takes a while for cases to go to court.

[cero2k]

It's not quite the double standard you're making it out to be and here is why: Because of the way WWE's Creative process is run, most people won't dispute that a WWE gimmick is something that WWE (or some company whose rights WWE bought) is mostly responsible for shaping. The only exceptions I can think of in the more modern post Hall and Nash to WCW "we own your gimmick" era (and I don't know these for a fact) are The Hurricane, Zack Ryder, and JBL (though I'm pretty sure about these, especially the last two). I'm not saying that others haven't put a lot of touches onto their characters (and I'm using that word in the way you'd think of a Jim Cornette using it where he clearly means something that is more than just Richard Fliehr' wrestling persona Ric Flair)- everyone from Raven to Taker to goofy NXT Emma to Tyler Breeze to crazy AJ Lee to Bray Wyatt to New Day the current Usos gimmick has put a lot of their own ideas into the character to have their characters evolve in the way that they have. But in all of those cases, the nexus of the idea seems to have been a WWE thing that those given the gimmick took and made their own; but the point of origin always seems to have been WWE Creative.
(For the purposes of clarification, the reason I left guys like Rock, Austin, Triple H, Nakamura, etc. off of this list is because their "character" is really just their own personality dialed up to eleven and given a name, and in those cases the real issue isn't so much the IP so much as it is the already-established publicity of the name. If you take New Day's names away from them and set them loose on the indies together, they're still going to get themselves over by doing the same sort of thing. They'll find something equally New Day-ish to replace Bootie-Os and unicorns with, but they'll still feel like the exact same guys but with a different name.)
In this case it seems pretty clear that the Hardys were the ones responsible for the ideas and unique aspects of the Broken characters and their surrounding universe. In WWE it feels like they're not letting someone use the gimmick that got them over. With TNA and the Hardys it feels like TNA is trying to steal something that clearly belongs to the Hardys.

So if that were the case, why is this whole thing going on? WWE created The Club because they can't own the Bullet Club. If the characters is what they want, they WWE can just create the #WokenHardys and instead of DELETE, chant ERASE, and Brother Nero can become Nero Hardy, and they can bring in Redy and Sr. Miguel, and Space Robot-1, and with this, actually render Impact #Obsolete

This is all karma because WWE didn't allow Cody to use the name Rhodes.


Yes, people would have pooped on TNA for not being able to resign the Hardys and whether or not that's a fair criticism is a matter of opinion, but that's not why people are hating on TNA here. This isn't hating on TNA in the mean-spirited schadenfreude kind of way. This is people hating on TNA because they're legitimately angry with them for something they have done that people view as wrong.
that's the double standard, they think it's wrong because they're biased and they're not getting what they want regardless of who is right or wrong.



But saying things that anyone with a modicum of knowledge about the business knows aren't true (Reby is doing a good job of making sure of that) makes him come off like a liar. He could have just made his argument that "we as the people who put it on TV own the characters, like (he claims) the contracts say, but he didn't. He had to go a say a bunch of ridiculous things that just plain aren't true. If the Hardys will admit that TNA owns it, then why are they trying to fight it so hard now that they have their cushy, secure, WWE contracts? He's coming off like Joe Koff did when he was all smiles and "everything is great!" while fans were completely irate about the iPPV stream disasters. It's a very poor first interaction with your fanbase.
not defending Nordhold here, he's a businessmen and likely a piece of work, so like any other corp stooge, they have a way of saying things. But from all the quotes in the post, nothing is straight up a lie, maybe his incorrect assumption that WWE doesn't want them, but the rest doesn't seen like a lie.



It takes a while for cases to go to court.
True, but this is where I think that if Impact didn't had the legal standing, they wouldn't risk it. Also, the only lawsuit i can remember is Impact suing Hardys for defamation, so I don't even know if the rights for the gimmick are contested, otherwise there be a freeze and WWE can't even consider trying to buy it out.

[Big Red Machine]

It's not quite the double standard you're making it out to be and here is why: Because of the way WWE's Creative process is run, most people won't dispute that a WWE gimmick is something that WWE (or some company whose rights WWE bought) is mostly responsible for shaping. The only exceptions I can think of in the more modern post Hall and Nash to WCW "we own your gimmick" era (and I don't know these for a fact) are The Hurricane, Zack Ryder, and JBL (though I'm pretty sure about these, especially the last two). I'm not saying that others haven't put a lot of touches onto their characters (and I'm using that word in the way you'd think of a Jim Cornette using it where he clearly means something that is more than just Richard Fliehr' wrestling persona Ric Flair)- everyone from Raven to Taker to goofy NXT Emma to Tyler Breeze to crazy AJ Lee to Bray Wyatt to New Day the current Usos gimmick has put a lot of their own ideas into the character to have their characters evolve in the way that they have. But in all of those cases, the nexus of the idea seems to have been a WWE thing that those given the gimmick took and made their own; but the point of origin always seems to have been WWE Creative.
(For the purposes of clarification, the reason I left guys like Rock, Austin, Triple H, Nakamura, etc. off of this list is because their "character" is really just their own personality dialed up to eleven and given a name, and in those cases the real issue isn't so much the IP so much as it is the already-established publicity of the name. If you take New Day's names away from them and set them loose on the indies together, they're still going to get themselves over by doing the same sort of thing. They'll find something equally New Day-ish to replace Bootie-Os and unicorns with, but they'll still feel like the exact same guys but with a different name.)
In this case it seems pretty clear that the Hardys were the ones responsible for the ideas and unique aspects of the Broken characters and their surrounding universe. In WWE it feels like they're not letting someone use the gimmick that got them over. With TNA and the Hardys it feels like TNA is trying to steal something that clearly belongs to the Hardys.

So if that were the case, why is this whole thing going on? WWE created The Club because they can't own the Bullet Club. If the characters is what they want, they WWE can just create the #WokenHardys and instead of DELETE, chant ERASE, and Brother Nero can become Nero Hardy, and they can bring in Redy and Sr. Miguel, and Space Robot-1, and with this, actually render Impact #Obsolete
I'm not a copyright lawyer, but they probably could do something slightly similar (but not too similalr, which was how WWF sued WCW when Hall debut- because they argued that he was too similar to Razor Ramon when he debuted with the accent and the dress and toothpick. Though Hall was allowed to keep the toothpick because he proved that he was doing it in his 1992 run in WCW.

Yes, people would have pooped on TNA for not being able to resign the Hardys and whether or not that's a fair criticism is a matter of opinion, but that's not why people are hating on TNA here. This isn't hating on TNA in the mean-spirited schadenfreude kind of way. This is people hating on TNA because they're legitimately angry with them for something they have done that people view as wrong.
that's the double standard, they think it's wrong because they're biased and they're not getting what they want regardless of who is right or wrong.
That's not a double standard. A different type of unfairness, yes, but I don't see a double standard between the fan reactions to WWE's usual stuff and what TNA has done with the Hardyz.


But saying things that anyone with a modicum of knowledge about the business knows aren't true (Reby is doing a good job of making sure of that) makes him come off like a liar. He could have just made his argument that "we as the people who put it on TV own the characters, like (he claims) the contracts say, but he didn't. He had to go a say a bunch of ridiculous things that just plain aren't true. If the Hardys will admit that TNA owns it, then why are they trying to fight it so hard now that they have their cushy, secure, WWE contracts? He's coming off like Joe Koff did when he was all smiles and "everything is great!" while fans were completely irate about the iPPV stream disasters. It's a very poor first interaction with your fanbase.
not defending Nordhold here, he's a businessmen and likely a piece of work, so like any other corp stooge, they have a way of saying things. But from all the quotes in the post, nothing is straight up a lie, maybe his incorrect assumption that WWE doesn't want them, but the rest doesn't seen like a lie.
If he is making assumptions that are that incorrect, I would worry about his competence.


It takes a while for cases to go to court.
True, but this is where I think that if Impact didn't had the legal standing, they wouldn't risk it. Also, the only lawsuit i can remember is Impact suing Hardys for defamation, so I don't even know if the rights for the gimmick are contested, otherwise there be a freeze and WWE can't even consider trying to buy it out.
I'm not an expert in this sort of thing, but I was certain that Reby was at least talking about taking TNA to court over the gimmick.

[Big Red Machine]

http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/hardy ... ets-236131

[Big Red Machine]

Here are what Nordholm says are the relevant portions of Matt's contract:
https://joshnason.files.wordpress.com/2 ... xtract.pdf
I'm no lawyer, but he seems to have a pretty solid argument.

[cero2k]

Here are what Nordholm says are the relevant portions of Matt's contract:
https://joshnason.files.wordpress.com/2 ... xtract.pdf
I'm no lawyer, but he seems to have a pretty solid argument.

yeah, everything points to Impact having claim of the IP.