"What Is This Delete Sh*t?" - Matt Hardy Recalls Explaining 'Broken Matt' To WWE's Vince McMahon

Matt Hardy has recalled the 30-minute meeting in which he explained his 'Broken Matt Hardy' character to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.

Hardy and brother Jeff returned to WWE at WrestleMania 33, at the height of the popularity of his 'Broken' Universe, and was finally given the chance to portray the character on WWE television following an injury to his brother.

It was Bray Wyatt, who Hardy was starting a feud with, that told the 'Woken One' that the angle had sign off from WWE creative, which led to Hardy sitting down with McMahon to explain the whole concept.

Speaking during his first-ever Twitch stream, Hardy said: “Vince probably didn’t have any idea about Broken Matt Hardy. Whenever we signed up for WrestleMania 33, we spoke with Vince but Triple H was the guy who did the majority of our negotiations. That's who kind of worked out the deal with, when it was all set and done. 

"It was very on the down low, only a handful of people knew about it and that was a part of the magic and what helped us coming back. Triple H was great the whole while, it was great working with him, it was great negotiating with him at the time.

“One of the reasons I think we were asked to comeback is because Vince kept saying ‘Why do these people keep saying delete? What is this delete sh*t? Why do people keep going delete?’ Eventually, we spoke to him and that’s how we ended up back there. We came back, we were the Hardy Boyz and once Jeff got hurt, I was going to do a Woken Matt Hardy run.

“I remember pulling up to the building one time and I had no idea. Bray Wyatt, who we were buddies before that and we really bonded and gelled as friends, but I remember pulling up to television that day and Bray Wyatt pulled up and he said ‘Hey man, are you excited about tonight?’ I was like ‘Why, what’s tonight?’ He’s like ‘You haven’t heard? We’re starting the whole Bray Wyatt, Broken Matt Hardy thing.’ I was like ‘We are?’ 

"Then I remember walking in and Michael Hayes said ‘Hey, Vince needs to talk to you, he’s got 30 minutes chiselled out for you and he wants you to explain the whole Broken Matt Hardy lure and how’d you come up with this and tell me about the character and what’s going on.’ 

"That was definitely one of the most interesting 30 minutes I ever had, especially telling him the whole idea of the essence of Broken Matt Hardy going from one body or vessel to another body over time. Explaining that to Vince McMahon was one of my favourite memories of all time. I remember there was a lot of ‘Hmmm, okay,’ and I know in his mind he’s going, this son of b*tch is crazy. I had to sound like a mad man to him, an absolute madman. 

"It was cool, it was fun and Vince really did stay open minded. He let me do Broken Matt on WWE TV and on top of that they had said we’re going to get some sort of compound deletion fight. He stayed true to his word, we really had to fight and work hard to do it.

"Vince is such a great talker. 30 minutes, it was probably 26 minutes of me talking and four minutes of him. He really was, he had an open mind to it. From what I understand, the Broken Matt Hardy craze is what ended up bringing us back to WWE so he knew there was interest there. Also it’s very different because WWE is such a more massive global deal. 

"When we were doing it on IMPACT, it was viral online and on the internet and it did really well on the IMPACT shows but that’s also a much smaller audience as opposed to WWE. Vince gave it a shot and for that I commend him and thank him. I have nothing but love and a lot of respect for Vince McMahon."

H/T Wrestling Inc.