It doesn't matter anymore who's in charge of Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA), be it Jeff Jarrett, Anthem Sports & Entertainment, or the man on the moon. Someone's always bound to screw things up.
Prior to Ring of Honor's 15th anniversary PPV, Anthem Sports & Entertainment issued a pair of cease & desist orders, one to ROH, the other to Matt & Jeff Hardy, to prevent the former TNA, now ROH, tag team champions from using the "Broken" gimmick that Matt cultivated a year ago. Before Anthem even took over the freakin' company.
The problem is that Anthem thinks the gimmick is their intellectual property. The gimmick was developed under another administration, and while Anthem has since taken over, they're trying to cover their collective corporate butts after they dragged their feet on offering the Hardys a new contract. When it became apparent that said contract wasn't going to be on the table within a certain period of time before February 28, the Hardys were walkin'. Right to Ring of Honor.
Give ROH's Joe Koff credit for striking while the iron was hot. Three days after the Hardys left TNA Impact Wrestling, the brothers made a surprise appearance in New York at Manhattan Mayhem, and accelerated the timetable, if you will, unseating the two-time tag team champions, the Young Bucks. In Las Vegas, the Hardys retained the titles in what became a triple threat vs. the Bucks and Rappongi Vice. Even though Matt was still using portions of the "Broken" gimmick, he couldn't be billed as "Broken".
What this says to me is that Ed Nordholm and Anthem were just being a collective of spoiled rich kids who lost one of their toys and wanted it back by any means necessary. All they've done is jeopardize any chance Impact might've had of starting a new business relationship with Ring of Honor. This isn't on Jeff Jarrett and his crew (Bruce Prichard, Dutch Mantell), but on Nordholm, 100%.
So Impact has to improvise to explain away the Hardys' forfeiture of the tag titles. Meanwhile, the expedition of gold continues. It will be interesting to see how the Hardys are presented--inevitably--on ROH-TV. Reby Hardy has indicated more legal action is being threatened against ROH to keep the Hardys off TV. Now, that's just being cold, petty, and stupid, all at once.
Anthem Sports realizes they're fighting a losing battle, just like Panda Energy before them, against not only WWE, but also ROH and the expanding American base that New Japan is building. The way they're going about it, however, is just sickeningly stupid. All this will do is convince viewers to ignore Pop-TV, the former TV Guide Channel, on Thursdays, and let Impact die the slow death that started long ago. Rumors of Jarrett looking to bring the promotion back to Spike TV (soon to be the Paramount Network) have started, but for that to happen, Jarrett has to keep his own black sheep (Vince Russo) far, far, far away. That's why, according to rumor, Bruce Prichard is the point man for Anthem on television. Well, he's more credible, anyway.
With a month's worth of television being taped today in Las Vegas, expect ROH to do something to address this issue. We'll give Matt Hardy this. Hearing his fake foreign accent reminds us of how bad Booker T was in impersonating British royalty in TNA & WWE over the last decade, although we think Matt learned how to mispronounce Vince McMahon's name from listening to the late Grand Wizard's promos from the 70's. In slow motion. Yeah, that's the ticket.
