AEW's Hardy Family Office Stable Is A Bad Idea
AEW has hit a lot of home runs on a weekly basis. There’s consistent interest and a buzz of something new and refreshing each and every week. However, not everything is perfect. The Hardy Family Office led by ‘Big Money’ Matt Hardy is something that isn’t really working, and this is why.
Matt Hardy Has Struggled To Find His Place In AEW
Matt Hardy has had an up and down time whilst in AEW. It’s true that he’s been booked better than he was in his latest WWE run, with him being featured as a prominent player on programming, regularly on TV and pay per view. This hasn’t always been positive, though.
He was introduced to the company donning the ‘Broken’ gimmick, which gave some laughs during his feud with the Inner Circle, but it also caused some damage to AEW at times, due to the more realism and sports orientated nature of the product. Things like teleportation didn’t sit right on Dynamite.
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Then came the multiple faces of Matt Hardy, where he could switch between gimmicks in an instant depending on the match, feud, or moment. This too, didn’t resonate. AEW was simply the wrong atmosphere for it. With backlash by some for this strange gimmick, as well as bad press following a scary fall in his match with Sammy Guevara at All Out 2020, Hardy’s time with the company was slightly marred with numerous issues. His latest gimmick, returning to being ‘Big Money Matt’, has been more successful, though it has had its downsides.
The Group's Members Are Laughably Different
The biggest downside is the HFO stable, as they seem to have no chemistry. The initial alliance with Private Party clicked. Matt worked well as the entitled veteran who believed his insight was God’s word, but ultimately wanted to use the up and comers for his own benefit. Taking cuts of their pay and manipulating was an engaging and logical story.
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The future Hall of Famer then began hiring members of the roster to do his dirty work, paying off teams such as TH2 and the Butcher and Blade. In what started as one-off payments has led to them joining forces with him in his faction. On-screen, there was little explanation as to why these one-time payments turned into a fully-fledged alliance, or if Matt is in fact continuing to pay these people. Gaps like this are uncommon in AEW, so they are glaring when they occur.
The faction itself may be the weirdest, disjointed group of all time. The Butcher and Blade are two silent, scary men who cut meat in the kitchen of Daily’s Place and wear leather masks and monocles, with The Bunny by their side. Then there’s TH2, two athletically gifted in-ring talents who wear blinding lime green and dance to the ring. Then there is also Private Party, two members of a young, flashy tag team wearing bling, drinking, and partying. Next to all those men is the leader, veteran of the wrestling business, Matt Hardy.
When they are all standing together as one, it is enough to make someone laugh at the absurdity of the alliance. They just don’t match. It feels awkward and the chemistry is virtually non-existent between all its members. There is little interaction between people, as they keep to themselves. Their development has been flat and empty.
AEW Has To Stop Making The Hardy Family Office Feel Like Filler
One thing that has regularly gave AEW an edge in terms of storytelling is the way characters develop and change over time, but within the HFO, the characters remain stagnant and lack depth. At the moment, they simply fill the void of heels in order to put over babyfaces – they’ve transitioned from feud to feud with little reason, from ‘Hangman’ Adam Page to Christian Cage to Orange Cassidy. This is a fine role to have of course, as it’s important to have these ‘filler’ feuds for certain stars as they go from story to story, but it would help if the group was more engaging.
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Their matches are often uninspiring and lack story, with them being heels who pick fights with no apparent motive, with no obvious championship goals. This can change of course, and there is potential with the very talented members of the group. Due to their peculiarity, it could even open up the possibility of comedic bits between the group, or perhaps some of them could drop individual gimmicks to be more on the same page.
With AEW’s use of groups being a large part of their show, this could be a case of one group too many in order to include as many people as possible. As shown on Dynamite, it’s manageable to juggle many groups and individuals, but this particular group feels like an obvious case of giving people, who aren’t necessarily in plans, regular featured appearances on television. Either way, there are different avenues going forward with this group to keep them from garnering any ‘go away’ heat that they may accumulate, but as of now, it just hasn't clicked.
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