Last week, Broken Matt Hardy was on the Talk Is Jericho podcast. Not regular ol’ Matt Hardy. Broken Matt Hardy. The dude did the entire interview as his beautiful, broken self. During the interview, Chris Jericho asked him what his place of employment, TNA Impact Wrestling, needed to do to succeed. While never breaking character, Matt gave an answer that seemed like more than just him playing around.

He still answers in the accent (which you can feel free to read the quote in) and refers to McMahon as Meek Mahan as he does as Broken Matt. But his points are valid even outside his broken world.

“They have to find some sort of identity. They have had an identity issue I think for a long long time. Because now professional wrestling has been so engulfed underneath Meek Mahan’s show. And Meek Mahan is just above and beyond everything else and anything else that seems so similar to Meek Mahan’s show is going to end up coming off like a second rate copy. And I think it’s very important, very vital, for Impact Wrestling to find their way, find their own identity. “My broken universe is something different that has never been seen anywhere else before. I can tell you this, my broken universe... Mr. Meek Mahan would be terrified of it. He would be afraid to let me go there. He wouldn’t let me shoot the fireworks on his show. He wouldn’t let me burn up my Brother Nero. But it’s time to go to a different place... and that is what Impact Wrestling must do to succeed. That is the only way TNA can truly grow is find it’s own identity.”

This certainly not a new critique of TNA’s product (outside Vince not letting guys set their brothers aflame) but the points remain salient. For many years, TNA seemed more focused with trying to compete with WWE instead of trying to be TNA. Instead of trying to find something they could call their own, they would often try to be WWE and it would often come off as late era WCW.

Finding a different identity from WWE isn’t the easiest thing because WWE does so much in their five hours plus on TV every week. In fact, if you were to ask me how to describe WWE’s “identity,” I may say they are a wrestling variety show, exploring almost all aspects of pro-graps in their time on TV. So the best way to be different from wrestling’s top promotion may be to pick one thing and run with it.

That is why promotions like Lucha Underground and Ring of Honor serve as good alternatives for the big brand. They pick one thing and they try to own it. Lucha Underground prides itself on the theatrics and fantasy that is seen in pro-wrestling. Sure WWE does that on occasion with characters like the Undertaker but LU takes it and makes it their own. It’s their brand. The appeal of Ring of Honor is high work rate matches and the stories they tell are often to set up these matches.

The Final Deletion was one of the first times TNA did something that WWE doesn’t do often (and when WWE tried the following week with their similar Compound Match, reactions weren’t as positive). Even in WWE’s wide variety show, you don’t get a character as crazy and consistently outrageous as Broken Matt Hardy. Impact is also exploring this more with the spooky Decay faction, even doing some off site videos with them as well.

It’s not all the Final Deletion. TNA continues to have standard wrestling feuds as well, which no wrestling company should be able to lay claim to. As of late, they have been telling some more long form stories with feuds intertwining with other feuds more often. These subtle differences give the stories a bit of a different feel from the ones WWE tell. Doing these small things has made TNA a more consistently enjoyable program this year. Hopefully they can continue to forget about WWE, just concentrate on themselves, and some fans will come back around on the promotion.

You can listen to the rest of the Talk Is Jericho podcast here and if you’re a fan of the Broken Matt character, it’s definitely worth a listen. He explains the process of deleting more, his accent, and plenty of others.