10 Ultimate Wrestling Guilty Pleasures

Matt Hardy has accomplished just about everything in the ring, yet in 2016 he took his career to dizzying new heights and briefly revitalized TNA by debuting his radical new character, a man "Broken" by the loss of his world title. Speaking in an ambiguous accent and sporting a grey streak in his hair, Broken Matt Hardy blamed "Brother Nero" Jeff for his fall from grace, marking his longtime partner and occasional rival for deletion. Whatever the hell that meant.

Over the course of the coming weeks, Matt Hardy carved a niche for himself on TNA programming, creating the part-horror, part-mall goth Broken Universe and assembling a cast of characters that challenged the very nature of sports entertainment. It all culminated in "The Final Deletion", a TNA special where Matt defeated Jeff for the right to the Hardy brand. There were drone attacks, dilapidated boats, and extraordinary xylophones, not to Senor Benjamin preparing the battlefield for massacre. Some hated it, others couldn't get enough. And while any wrestling was secondary to the larger story, nobody can deny the Broken Universe stood out.

Sadly, efforts to recreate the magic of the Broken Universe in WWE following Matt's 2017 return didn't quite succeed, although it wasn't for lack of trying. Matt's "Woken" gimmick felt all too familiar by now, proving that sometimes lightning doesn't strike twice.