# Broken Matt Hardy Brother Nero Broken Matt Hardy is a professional wrestling gimmick that debuted in TNA in 2016, featuring Matt Hardy adopting an English accent and calling his brother Jeff "Brother Nero" in surreal, cinematic segments. The angle became a viral hit after the July 2016 "Final Deletion" cinematic match, spawning the trending hashtags #BrokenMatt and #BrotherNero. ## Overview Broken Matt Hardy is a professional wrestling character created by Matt Hardy during his 2016 run in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), defined by a theatrical English accent, wild hair, and a habit of shouting "DELETE!" while calling his brother Jeff Hardy "Brother Nero"[1]. The gimmick reached viral escape velocity through a string of pre-taped, deliberately low-budget cinematic segments filmed on the Hardy family property in Cameron, North Carolina[2]. Online fans compared the storyline's earnest weirdness to the 2003 cult film The Room, embracing catchphrases like "OBSOLETE!", "It's a dilapidated boat!", and Matt's constant summoning of "Brother Nero"[3]. The character mixed straight-faced supernatural lore, actual pyrotechnics, drone shots, and Matt's gardener Senor Benjamin into something wrestling audiences had never quite seen on weekly TV[1]. ## How It Spread Reaction hit critically online. r/SquaredCircle threads on Reddit obsessively re-quoted "It's a dilapidated boat!" and other lines from the match, and a novelty Twitter account roleplaying as the boat itself, listed with a location of "Cameron, NC," was set up on July 6th, 2016[4]. Following the July 5th broadcast, the hashtags #TheFinalDeletion and #BrotherNero trended worldwide on Twitter, and Jeff Hardy briefly changed his own Twitter handle to "#BrotherNero DELETED" after losing the match[5]. Wrestlers including Chris Jericho and the Young Bucks' Nick Jackson publicly praised the reinvention on social media [6][7]. After Matt Hardy left TNA (later Impact Wrestling), a public legal fight broke out over ownership of the "Broken" gimmick, and when the Hardys returned to WWE at WrestleMania 33 on April 2nd, 2017, they were initially restricted to their older Team Extreme personas[1]. Once Impact relaxed its stance, WWE rebranded the character as "Woken Matt Hardy," debuting after a November 27th, 2017 match against Bray Wyatt during which Matt spasmed in the corner and cried "Delete!"[1]. The callbacks kept coming. On March 19th, 2018, WWE aired "The Ultimate Deletion," another cinematic match at the Hardy Compound featuring Wyatt, the dilapidated boat, Senor Benjamin, Jeff Hardy as Brother Nero, and a finish in which Wyatt was pinned and pushed into the "Lake of Reincarnation"[8]. Reactions were compiled into a Twitter Moments story, Mick Foley tweeted "I HAVE NO IDEA WTF I JUST SAW…BUT I LIKED IT!" to more than 2,200 likes, and Hulk Hogan replied with a simple "I'm deleted"[8]. ## How to Use Fans typically invoke the meme by yelling "DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!" in Matt Hardy's exaggerated English accent, by calling any brother figure "Brother Nero," or by labeling anything old or broken "OBSOLETE" or "a dilapidated boat." It is common to pair the phrases with clips from the Final Deletion or Ultimate Deletion matches when reacting to something absurd online[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Broken Matt Hardy Brother Nero? It is a 2016 TNA wrestling gimmick in which Matt Hardy plays a mentally "broken" character with an English accent who addresses his brother Jeff as "Brother Nero"[1]. ### Where did Broken Matt Hardy Brother Nero come from? The character debuted on TNA Impact in May 2016 and broke out through the July 5th, 2016 cinematic "Final Deletion" match filmed on the Hardy property in Cameron, North Carolina[2]. ### What does Broken Matt Hardy Brother Nero mean? "Brother Nero" is what the Broken Matt persona calls Jeff Hardy, and the phrase became shorthand for the whole surreal, self-serious tone of the angle, alongside catchphrases like "DELETE!" and "dilapidated boat"[4]. ### How do you use Broken Matt Hardy Brother Nero? People quote "DELETE!", call things "OBSOLETE" or "a dilapidated boat," or address a brother as "Brother Nero" in Matt's exaggerated accent when reacting to something absurd[3]. ### Is Broken Matt Hardy Brother Nero still popular? It is a classic wrestling meme that peaked in 2016 to 2018, with WWE's "Ultimate Deletion" match on March 19th, 2018 marking the last major mainstream revival[8]. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCV7ZFURh5A]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKrOaWjZ4YM]() 3. [https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/]() 4. [https://twitter.com/DlapidatedBoat]() 5. [https://www.wrestlezone.com/news/697413-final-deletion-trends-worldwide-hardys-are-total-rock-stars]() 6. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/broken-matt-hardy-brother-nero]() 7. [https://twitter.com/IAmJericho]() 8. [https://twitter.com/NickJacksonYB2]() 9. [https://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/article/ultimate-deletion-matt-hardy-bray-wyatt]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/broken-matt-hardy-brother-nero Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library