Matt Hardy officially became a free agent on Sunday when the clock turned to Midnight as his deal with WWE came to its expiration.
On Monday, Hardy posted a YouTube video confirming his status and elaborating on the decision to become a free agent at the age of 45.
The reason I needed to leave WWE is because when it comes to my creative stance and my creative outlook on myself and my career and how I want it to go for these last three or four years that I have to spend as an active in-ring competitor. I just think myself and WWE are on different pages.
Hardy returned to WWE in April 2017 alongside brother Jeff at WrestleMania 33 to one of the loudest reactions in WrestleMania history. The two entered as a mystery team and reunited as The Hardy’s for the ensuing months.
In time, Hardy would flirt with his previous ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy character as the Woken version. This allowed Hardy to take elements of the success he had in Impact Wrestling and apply them to a WWE setting including a segment filmed at the Hardy Compound that aired on Raw and a WWE Network special. The character never reached the success of the original incarnation. Hardy had been off television for a long period until recently where he confronted Randy Orton and was laid out in back-to-back angles on Raw last month.
In the video, Hardy was complimentary of WWE by thanking Vince McMahon, Paul Levesque, Stephanie McMahon, and Michael Hayes. He said he had no doubt that one day he would be back with WWE noting that he expects him and his brother to enter the WWE Hall of Fame.
His belief is creatively he and WWE are on different pages and that’s the driving force behind this decision to leave. He noted that he has to be used in a certain way at his age and doesn’t have time on his side with the ballpark of 3-4 years remaining as an active in-ring competitor.
Hardy added he would be watching everything to get a sense of where he would fit the best listing all of WWE’s programming, AEW, NWA, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, MLW, and New Japan.
Jeff Hardy is still under contract to WWE and will appear on WWE Backstage on Tuesday night.
