March 20, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Situation with Broken Matt Hardy and Anthem Sports, Wrestlemania card, more

The arguments about the ownership of the Broken Hardy gimmick, voted the best gimmick of 2016 in the Observer awards, led to The Dish Network pulling the plug on the 3/10 ROH 15th Anniversary PPV after threatening legal letters from Anthem the parent company of Impact and The Fight Network.

Anthem sent a cease and desist letter regarding the gimmick, which they claimed to own, to not only the Hardys and Ring of Honor, but also to the cable providers, DirecTV and Dish Network, threatening legal action if the gimmick was used on the show.

ROH wouldn’t allow the Hardys to do their gimmick, as they created new music as opposed to the music they were using in TNA, introduced them as Matt & Jeff Hardy, made no references to their changed personalities, didn’t have the Hardys lead chants of “delete” or “obsolete,” even though the crowd did them themselves, and used Jeff as he’d always been. The Dish Network got cold feet and canceled airing the show. Evidently they felt the 2,000 or less orders they’d have gotten maximum for the show wasn’t worth risking legal action.

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