THE BACKSTORY ON WHAT LED TO TODAY'S GFW VS. HARDYS WAR OF WORDS

As Rebecca "Reby" Hardy stated this afternoon on Twitter, there has been a deal in place between Anthem Media and The Hardys that would allow the Hardys to utilize the "Broken Hardy" gimmick going forward.

In seeking to confirm Hardy's social media claims, PWInsider.com spoke with several sources who, under condition of anonymity, stated that all sides agreed to a deal in principle.

In a deal that it is believed Billy Corgan helped mediate, PWInsider.com has been told that all sides would have released a statement wishing each other well and would have agreed to no longer comment on each other publicly. The Hardys would have been able to utilize the "Broken" gimmick and (one would assume) Anthem Media would have received some sort of payment in exchange.

WWE was not involved in the deal, according to multiple sources.

The deal was then drafted by the Hardys' lawyers and sent to Anthem Media's Ed Nordholm to sign off on, but for whatever reason, several weeks have gone by without a response from Nordholm or any indication that the agreement was actually going to be signed.

One source stated that when Nordholm received the agreement in writing, he claimed that it wasn't what the two sides agreed upon, but confirmed that since that point, there had been no additional communication with the Hardys' side.

The drafted agreement led to Matt Hardy's comments on Twitter that they were close to a resolution on the situation. At the time, Impact sources remained steadfast that the two sides were as far apart as ever.

While Nordholm could still technically sign off on the agreement, Jeff Jarrett's comments during his media conference call today where he explicitly stated that there has been no changes regarding the situation and that Anthem, as producers of Impact Wrestling, hold ownership of the gimmick sparked Rebecca Hardy's latest social media comments.

A number of sources we spoke with today believed that unless Nordholm signs off on the agreement, the Hardys will have no last recourse but to file a lawsuit seeking ownership of the gimmick. We spoke with one source today who believes that decisions made by the company during the time period Dixie Carter owned Impact Wrestling were technically breaches of the Hardys' contracts, which appears to be the strategy the family would use as their strategy.

So, while it appeared last week that things were finally calming down between the two sides, it appears yet another volcano may explode due to Nordholm not signing off on the agreement. Whether the Hardys decide to go on the offensive and actually sue remains to be seen, but it appears that after all attempts at negotiating and all the back and forth sniping on social media, the stage has indeed been set for a legal showdown.

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