12 WWE Raw 25 Impulse Reactions

6. Broken

Triple H Revival
WWE.com

It seemed a rather cliched take to assume that WWE would ruin Matt Hardy's 'Broken' gimmick as soon as they got their hands on it. But WWE have ruined Matt Hardy's 'Broken' gimmick.

It went out in style at least.

Nobody loses to Bray Wyatt without beating him more, so Matt will undoubtedly rebound from this moribund Manhattan Center defeat, but the character he rejuvenated his entire career with in TNA is already a desperately dead horse WWE will now flog for months until the crowd are asking for Hardy's entire back catalogue to be deleted.

Losing in front of an audience duty-bound to adore him was the icing on WWE's poisoned $400 cake. The responses from audiences to Hardy have been gradually decreasing by the week as the company pull the curtain further and further back on the twisted persona, but the 'ITK' followers in the smaller venue seemed determined to treat him like a major star before the loss.

Speaking of major stars, one actually turned up when the cameras were turned off. Appearing for the live crowd only, Jeff Hardy left the supposedly live poker game on Raw to classify himself as obsolete for the benefit of an overjoyed audience. Would have looked nice on telly, that.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett