Matt Hardy Announces He Is Leaving WWE, Cites ‘Creative Outlook’

After weeks of speculation, Matt Hardy confirmed Monday that he has allowed his WWE contract to expire and is a free agent. 

Hardy made the announcement in a YouTube video published just minutes after his contract officially expired. 

“It’s just time for me to take a break and become a free agent,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave WWE because it is my home. The reason I needed to leave WWE is because when it comes to my creative stance and my creative outlook on myself and my career and how I wanted to go for these last three or four years that I have to spend as an active in-ring competitor, I just think myself and WWE are on different pages.”

Hardy, 45, said he wants to maximize creative control of character while he’s still physically able to perform in the ring. 

“I want to enter a creative renaissance and I want to have non-stop input on my creative process,” Hardy said. “I think that’s where WWE and I are on different pages.”

Hardy’s future has been a hot topic in wrestling circles in recent weeks, especially after he was apparently written off of WWE TV with an attack from Randy Orton. Hardy was reportedly offered a new WWE contract that included working for the company’s NXT brand. Hardy, best known for his supernatural “Broken Matt” gimmick, has also been widely speculated to be the “Exalted One” in All Elite Wrestling’s Dark Order storyline. 

AEW added fuel to that fire by tweeting a reference to the “Exalted One” minutes after Hardy’s video was released.

In his video, Hardy said he does not know what the future holds for him. He said he’s “positive” he’ll return to WWE at some point in the future.

“I think there’s definitely a WWE Hall of Fame ring waiting on me and my brother [Jeff],” Hardy said. “But I think right now I need to weigh all my options, see what all is out there and see what will be the perfect environment for Matt Hardy to maximize these next few years in his career.”