Brother Nero: He Knew You’d Come

Last week, I made an impassioned plea to TNA to do something about Matt Hardy. Just days removed from his unconscionable attack on a fan at ringside, I warned that TNA’s willingness to allow the Broken wrestler to do whatever he wanted simply because it garnered attention was going to inevitably cost them dearly.

And while I am not surprised that I was proven right, I am surprised that it happened so quickly. This past Thursday, live in front of millions of viewers, we saw the conclusion to months and months of workplace harassment. We saw what happens when a company allows an employee to badger a coworker on a daily basis. When they allow the intimidation to occur not only at work, but even at the employee’s home, they can only expect that, at some point, something’s got to give.

This past Thursday, TNA lost its hero, and it has no one to blame but itself.

Unsatisfied with having defeated Jeff in The Final Deletion, Matt has continued to hassle his hated Brother Nero at every turn. Recently, that turned into forcing Jeff to basically wrestle alone in “tag team” matches that saw Matt only get involved at the end to steal the glory with the deciding pinfall. As he explained it, Jeff still owed Matt for the tag team titles his broken leg cost them last year.

While it’s clear that Matt has been holding onto some seething anger since Jeff’s ill-fated dirtbike ride, it’s also unsettling that TNA management – namely Billy Corgan and Dixie Carter – would sanction any type of match with the two as opponents, let alone a scenario where Jeff is constantly placed into, more or less, handicap matches at the whim of his brother who quite clearly hates him.

Jeff Hardy is a cash cow for TNA, if you listen to the fans. He moves merchandise. He’s a well-known name. He’s wrestled for TNA for years, winning its World Heavyweight Championship on multiple occasions. That TNA would allow a top star to be treated like this, at some point, has to register with Jeff himself. It’s not that Jeff needs to be protected from his brother, it’s that TNA should have stopped the dangerous scenarios a long time ago, and they instead chose not to, because of all the talk around the water cooler the hijinx of Matt Hardy have inspired.

And so, with his back against the wall, treated as nothing more than property by his own brother, and wondering just how valuable he is to his employer, Jeff finally snapped this past Impact.

After a shocking conclusion that saw Jeff win a match in TNA where the deck appeared to be supremely stacked as he took on The Tribunal (Basile Baraka and Baron Dax), Jeff would appeal to his brother after the contest.

“You want to see passion? You want to see fire?!” Jeff grew more frustrated, as he dropped both Barak and Dax with Twists of Fate, before turning and dropping Al Snow with the same move. “How’s THAT for passion?!” he screamed at Matt, who seemed to enjoy the chaos more and more with each passing second.

Hardy would then put Al Snow through a table at ringside via splash, showing that he did still have that crazy passion in him. At this point, though, no one seemed to care. TNA officialls apparently don’t care about managers being assaulted by wrestlers, so no one came out to help Al Snow, or The Tribunal.

“The only person in this world that punishes me… is me” he said to Matt, before climbing to the top, and diving through a table on the floor with a Swanton. His pained shrieks filled the arena, before settling into a disturbing laugh.

Matt joined him, as Jeff would scream “Brother Nero! I AM BROTHER NERO!!”

In that moment, that moment where two tortured brothers finally reunited in a beautiful symphony of destruction and laughter, it became clear that TNA had lost its hero. All for the coverage. All for the YouTube hits. All to appease a man who continues to delve deeper into his own madness, who preaches about his Broken Brilliance as if it’s something to be worshipped and not scorned. All to continue to allow the wrong things to happen to the wrong people.

Jeff Hardy is gone. This isn’t like when Willow appeared in Jeff’s search for a darker persona to counter the Evil Empire that was running TNA. In Willow, Jeff Hardy always existed. He was simply Jeff’s dark place, a persona in which to turn when blinders to violence were needed. It was Jeff’s way of protecting himself from the bad that he was going to do, because while it needed to be done, it wasn’t something from which he took pleasure.

Willow was Jeff Hardy’s attempt to save TNA, and when the dust settled, he was able to return as himself, and able to take in the joy of having protected the company he loved so much.

With Jeff now identifying as Brother Nero, the reality is that he has been pushed to far, an obsolete mule treated as such not only by his brother, but by his employers. They sat and watched, and they allowed it to go too far. And now, they have only themselves to blame, and absolutely no one to whom they can turn.

The Broken Hardys will undoubtedly look to make TNA their own personal playground of destruction. Knowing what the two have been capable of with weapons while in better mindsets, everyone on the TNA roster should be mindful of what awaits should they sign the dotted line to compete against Matt and Brother Nero.

Not only is there a danger intrinsic with competing against the two, but in the back of their heads, everyone on the roster must deal with the knowledge that, regardless of what Matt or Brother Nero do, TNA will be complicit, provided those actions garner some more attention.

And that, if you’re a TNA Wrestler, has to be the scariest thought of all, knowing that your employer will gladly send you out to wrestle what could be your final match, and all for a couple hashtags that might trend for a while.

Matt Hardy wanted passion. Jeff Hardy wanted a reunion. On Thursday, each got what he wanted. Now, we find out if TNA got what it wanted, too.

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