Matt Hardy says former Wyatt Sicks members would have a home in TNA, and he wants them presented as a hybrid of their real selves and the characters that made them famous.
Hardy was asked about the idea on the latest episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, following a report from The Takedown on SI that TNA has serious interest in bringing in multiple members of the group. That report didn’t say a deal had been reached with anyone or which members are specifically in play.
“I think they’re all very talented individuals that can, on top of playing these over-the-top characters, I also think they’re all very talented when it comes to being performers in the ring,” Hardy said. “So I certainly would think there’d be a home for them.”
Hardy was careful to note that he has no information beyond the rumor itself.
“That’s kind of above my pay grade. I don’t know what the exact status is, but that’s an interesting rumor that’s floating around,” Hardy said. “I guess in time we will see.”
All five members were released after WrestleMania 42 in April, part of a round of cuts in which WWE and TKO let go or declined to renew more than two dozen names. Their ninety-day non-compete periods expired over the summer, and most of the group went to the independents rather than to another promotion. Joseph Sawyer, known in WWE as Joe Gacy, is the reigning GCW World Champion and has continued tagging with Samuel Shaw, formerly Dexter Lumis. Nikki Storm, formerly Nikki Cross, bought British promotion Progress Wrestling with her husband Big Damo in May and has wrestled for the company since. Taylor Rotunda, who played Uncle Howdy, has not returned to the ring.
Asked how he would want them used if they did arrive, Hardy said the association with the group is not something they can or should shed entirely.
“Since for the majority of them their biggest stardom was obviously doing the Wyatt Sicks, I would almost feel like some sort of hybrid, like the real person with a little bit of the Wyatt Sicks character kind of rolled into one,” Hardy said.
He said the supernatural element is where he would pull back.
“Maybe not as intense as the whole Wyatt Sicks thing was, as far as going super deep in the deep end of supernatural conduct,” Hardy said. “But I would like to see a little bit of a mixture of them.”
Hardy said the connection will follow them regardless, particularly the younger talent in the group.
“Anybody who sees them, whenever they watch them on an indie show or whatever else, they’re going to think about that Wyatt Sicks. They will forever be known for that,” Hardy said. “Those people, they’ll be linked together by it, especially the younger guys.”
His preference is a version that reads as authentic first.
“I would like to see a little bit more of a hybrid version of them where they seem real, but maybe they do have this other alter ego they could go to if they need to,” Hardy said.
When host John Alba argued that leaning supernatural risks TNA looking like a diluted version of what WWE already did, Hardy pushed back with a number. He pointed to the episode built around The Righteous, the Vincent and Dutch pairing his own team has feuded with for most of the past two years.
“The only time TNA has broken 300,000 viewers and the biggest audience we’ve ever had, and it did really good on replays and on the streaming version as well, was the show that was built around The Righteous,” Hardy said.
The episode Hardy is referring to is the July 23 edition of TNA Impact on AMC, built around the Righteous Deletion cinematic match at the Hardy Compound, which the Hardys won to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championships. It averaged 307,000 viewers, the highest figure for Impact since the show moved to AMC in January and a 7.3 percent increase on the record set the week before. It is not TNA’s biggest audience in the company’s history, which came during its years on Spike, but it is the high mark of the current television run and the only time the AMC show has cleared 300,000.
