The date was December 2nd, 2016. Following a match between the Young Bucks and The Briscoes at ROH’s Final Battle PPV in New York, the lights went out, and on the big screen appeared none other than, the one and only Broken Matt Hardy to one of the loudest pops of the year. The first shot was fired and this would lay the groundwork for the collision between the Hardys and The Young Bucks. After some back and forth tweeting, it was announced on Twitter that The Broken Hardys are facing The Young Bucks at Supercard of Honor on April 1st of this year. Supercard of Honor is obviously an ROH PPV event. This brought on talk of a partnership between Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor. After the announcement of this match was made, there have been other tweets between the two teams as well as the regular occurence of Broken Matt Hardy calling out all top tag teams including those employed by Meek Mahan and the man with three H’s, more specifically The New Day. Their partnership with Pro Wrestling NOAH is often promoted on episodes of Impact. Many of the Impact talents take part in HOH events. And Jeff Jarrett is back on board and he often adds #ImpactonPop along with #GFW to his tweets when he is working on things. So it seems that Impact Wrestling, while still the second most main stream wrestling promotion in the US, has settled in with the other indy promotions now and will engage in talent sharing along with the rest.
But getting back to The Hardys. They have kicked off a new campaign called Expedition of Gold, where they will travel around and collect all the gold, proving they are the greatest tag team in all of time and all of space. I’m aware that Impact Wrestling has filmed several of these matches that will air week after week, but I do my best to avoid spoilers so I have no idea where they’re showing up. Of course, I know they’re winning because if they don’t, then this Expedition of Gold is meaningless. The question now is, how far do these partnerships extend if, in fact, they are partnerships? And with Impact Wrestling’s tag team division nothing more than an afterthought at this point, what does it mean for the status of the Hardys? We’ve all heard their contracts are up sometime this month and I haven’t heard any news that they’ve re-signed. It’s worth noting they are featured on the advertisement for the upcoming Impact Wrestling tapings in March but they could be on some sort of a deal where this Expedition of Gold will continue on and they’ll just make a few appearances during the four day taping schedule. They’ll be featured on Impact Wrestling episodes as they scour the wreslting scene and take on the top tag teams in wrestling, WWE obviously excluded, though it would be one of the all time greatest things in history if the Expedition of Gold took them to WrestleMania. I’d be as giddy as a kid in a candy shop if I got to see 60,000 people chanting DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!
Back to reality though, I think it’s pretty clear the end game for Expedition of Gold is Supercard of Honor, where they face the The Young Bucks and attempt to add the ROH tag team titles to their shrine. Their match Supercard of Honor is very unpredictable which makes this whole Expedition of Gold something special. I’m sure I can research to find out what belts they got and who they beat for them but I’m enjoying the weekly suspense of this. It is just a talent share like most other indy promotions do but it just feels a little different because we get to see these crossovers on a weekly basis on TV. On a side note regarding crossovers, Cody will be on Impact next week as well so that is something to look forward to as well. He’s coming to thank Moose, but hasn’t he been a heel lately? Hmmmm.
How do you guys feel about Expedition of Gold? Do you think it ends at Supercard of Honor? Do you think it should end there? Should WWE swallow their pride and get involved and having the Hardys show up at WrestleMania?
Thank you all for taking the time to read this. Have a great weekend and be safe everyone.
