Current NWA owner Billy Corgan recently spoke with Mike Johnson of PWInsider about the dispute between The Hardys & Anthem/Impact Wrestling over the “Broken” gimmick. Corgan stated that he was going to attempt to mediate the two parties but believes it has gone down the legal road which is beyond him.
Here are the highlights:
Corgan: “I was approached by Anthem to kind of to help mediate this situation and Matt & Jeff signed off on me sort of negotiating on their behalf. So I’ve been sort of the back channel negotiator for the past week or so trying to resolve this situation and I think though it’s not where anybody wants it to be, I think it’s a little bit more clarified.”
Excerpt From Cageside Seats:
From there, Billy breaks down both sides of the argument, more or less backing up what we as fans have figured out: Anthem has contracts saying they own intellectual property created by people they are paying. The Hardys argue concessions they made under the old ownership (not being paid on time, using their property and family members in material produced for Impact without them being under contract or compensated for their work, etc) represent special circumstances. Anthem is hesitant to set a precedent whereby other talent could take characters to other companies. The Hardys point out this has already happened with someone like Bully Ray.
Corgan On What He Thinks Of The Current Situation Between The Hardys & Impact Wrestling:
“I don’t have much of a role to play. It’s going to go more of a legal route at this point, which is unfortunate. Anthem does not ever have to release this gimmick and the Hardys would never be able to use the gimmick in WWE.”
