The ongoing saga between the Hardy family and Anthem Sports/Global Force Wrestling has been a volatile one, to say the least. Since the Hardys opted to not renew their contracts with Anthem this past January, there has been a noticeable tension. Terse words get exchanged (mostly by Matt’s wife, Reby) and potential resolutions fall through at the last minute. It would seem that both sides would be ready to put it all in the past and move forward. Unfortunately, negotiations once again hit a bump in the road.  GFW changed their minds on coming to an agreement with the Hardys over the Broken gimmick.

First reported by Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, both parties pretty much had a deal set. However, Ed Nordholm, the President of Impact Wrestling, refused to sign off on the deal. Meltzer had this to say:

“They made a deal last week. But I’ve got to say this. They made a deal last week but when that happened I was pretty much told that they’ve come close before.  But it’s fallen apart.  And you know the fact is even though it was agreed upon, Ed Nordholm had not signed off on it. And that happened, you know, it’s happened before. So it’s a very tenuous tense situation.”

This would imply that there have been multiple attempts at reaching an agreement and for whatever reason, they backed out at the eleventh hour. It only benefits both sides to come to sort of an agreement. But instead, it seems like others are being dragged into the mess.

Former Impact agent and on screen talent Shane Helms gave his two cents on the Sheet Podcast recently:

“I caught some residual heat when the contractual situation with Anthem and the Hardys broke down. I got text messages asking me what did I know…Just a lot weird, angry texts and very unprofessional and inappropriate texts to me. To the point where there had to be a phone call made and then I had to get loud. I’m not putting up with this. And having to tell Jeff, ‘You’re not going to talk to me in-person like you’re talking to me on this phone. At least you better not.’ But even when I met Ed (Nordholm) the next time there was some kind of weird standoffishness towards him.”

Whatever personal issues are preventing Impact and the Hardys from coming to terms, both need to swallow their pride and move forward with a deal. For the Hardys, lobbing negative comments at GFW is only further delaying a potential contingency plan in case it doesn’t work out in the long run with the WWE. Impact comes across as petty and shooting themselves in the foot by constantly backing away from the deal at the last minute. Both parties stand to benefit from the deal. For the sake of their reputations and retaining what fans they still have, both sides need to swallow their pride and sign the deal.