Posted in: Movies, Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: ecs, ed nordholm, HRL, impact wrestling, matt hardy, reby hardy, wrasslin, wrestling, wwe

Impact's Ed Nordholm Regrets Feuding with Hardys over Broken Gimmick

Now that the dust has settled and Matt Hardy has won the legal battle with Impact Wrestling, obtaining full ownership of the trademarks of his Broken Matt Hardy gimmick, Impact Wrestling president Ed Nordholm, who once posted what he claimed was Hardy's contract on Twitter as part of their ongoing feud over the gimmick, has finally admitted that the feud was a bad idea.

"Attacking hispanic women who are protecting their men," Nordholm said when asked by Newsweek what he regretted from his first year as a pro wrestling promoter. "As a fresh person into the wrestling world, a guy from the corporate environment where we don't play in the social media world, we clearly took on a shitstorm — and I got my head handed to me."

Nordholm's public feuding with Matt Hardy's wife, Reby Hardy, over the Broken gimmick made headlines throughout 2017, and none of them made Impact look good. Additionally, Impact ended up ceding the trademarks to Hardy, changing future contracts to allow wrestlers to keep their gimmicks, and if new rumors are true, even licensing some footage from past Broken Universe storylines involving Matt and Jeff Hardy to WWE.

The ironic part is that if Impact had willing collaborated with Hardy from the start, it would not only have brought positive attention to Impact by exposing more people to the Broken Hardys' time in Impact, but it would have also let other wrestlers know that there's value in collaborating creatively with the company, even after they move on. That's a lesson the company seems to have taken to heart, as Impact exec Scott D'Amore noted while talking about recent WWE signee EC3 in the same Newsweek interview.

"If you look at it, the idea of a wrestling company owning the [intellectual property] wasn't really to profit from it, but owning the I.P. — if a person leaves they can't use that name or wear that outfit people recognize," D'Amore said. "We want a collaborative environment where people can feel like they're creating something [with us]… and if the time comes where you go separate ways, you both get to walk away knowing you have some ownership of something you created. Mike Hutter gets to go out and play the character he helped create. It's better for him, better for wrestling, and better for us — we have a library full of amazing EC3 content."

Who would have ever thought that, in the world of pro wrestling, not being a dick could be a sound business strategy?

Read the full interview, which covers more topics about the future of Impact Wrestling, here.

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