Throughout his wrestling career, Matt Hardy has gone through several incarnations of his character. One of the most popular versions of his persona was the whacky Broken Matt character.
The Broken Universe burst onto our screens in 2016 during his final run in IMPACT! Wrestling. During a feud with his brother Jeff, Matt began to show signs of a fractured psyche. Matt displayed a wild hairstyle and spoke in a strange accent, Matt blamed Jeff for breaking him and threatened to delete him. Matt used his pet drone, Vanguard 1 to call out his brother for a match called the Final Deletion.
The cinematic match fought on the Hardy compound involved a plethora of insane and absurd moments. Everything from magic powers to fireworks, the river of incarnation and of course a dilapidated boat were all featured in the unprecedented match.
The character revolutionised Hardy’s career and made him one of the most talked about wrestlers in the industry. Different versions of the character have appeared in multiple promotions.
On a recent edition of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the former WWE Tag Team Champion revealed a bizarre influence for the eccentric character.
“There was a lot of inspiration taken from Salad Fingers in the creation of Broken Matt Hardy as well. You know, like, the word orgasmic was a word that Broken Matt used a lot, Isaiah has used to just recently and that actually came from Salad Fingers.”
For those who don’t know Salad Fingers is a 2004 animation that became an internet sensation. The videos consist of 12 episodes that centre around a weird and creepy character named Salad Fingers. He is a thin, green, bug-eyed man with terrible teeth, who lives in a desolate wasteland and does inappropriate and uncomfortable antics. The show has a cult following and is widely regarded as one of the first viral videos.
Matt Hardy Debuted In AEW As Broken Matt Hardy
In 2020, Hardy left WWE and signed for AEW. On March 18 of that year, he appeared in Dynamite as Broken Matt in a segment with Chris Jericho. The two would feud and participate in the first-ever Stadium Stampede match.