page_title: Jeff Hardy
section_title: Brother Nero (2016–2017)
hierarchical_section_title: Jeff Hardy / Professional wrestling career / Return to TNA / Brother Nero (2016–2017)
caption_attribution_description: English: This image shows professional wrestler Jeff Hardy as his Brother Nero character at a Carolina Wrestling Federation (CWF) Mid-Atlantic independent show posing with his TNA World Tag Team Championship belt on January 29, 2017.
context_page_description: Jeffrey Nero Hardy is an American professional wrestler and musician. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand and is the current WWE Intercontinental Champion in his fifth reign.
  Hardy is best known for his work in his multiple runs with WWE. He also worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Ring of Honor, and several companies on the independent circuit. Before gaining prominence in the WWE, Hardy, along with his real life brother Matt, ran and performed for the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts. The Hardy Boyz worked as enhancement talents for the World Wrestling Federation from 1994, and were signed to full-time contracts in 1998. They gained notoriety in the tag team division, partly due to their participation in Tables, Ladders and Chairs matches. With the addition of Lita, the team became known as Team Xtreme and continued to rise in popularity. Alongside Matt, he has held twelve world tag team championships between WWE, TNA and ROH.
context_section_description: On the January 12, 2016 episode of Impact Wrestling, Hardy made his return in a segment that involved Ethan Carter III denying Hardy an opportunity at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, instead bringing out Shynron to face Hardy, won the match. On the January 26 episode of Impact Wrestling, Hardy issued a challenge to the villainous Matt Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, as the match was set to begin he was attacked by Eric Young and Bram. Hardy returned on March 15 episode of Impact Wrestling, Jeff Hardy defeating Eric Young in a match to determine the third challenger for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship match in which included Matt Hardy and Ethan Carter III, which Jeff lost. After Matt losing the title, he started a feud with Jeff, he wanted an I Quit match against him. On the April 19 episode of Impact Wrestling, the match eventually ended up in a no-contest after neither man could continue.
  On the May 10 episode of Impact Wrestling, Hardy teaming with James Storm against Decay in a losing effort after an Imposter Willow distracted Hardy. After the match, Hardy searched backstage for Imposter Willow but attacked by three different people dressed as Willow. On the May 17 episode of Impact Wrestling, Hardy defeating one of the Imposter Willow. Afterwards, Matt Hardy revealed himself to be one of the Imposter Willows behind the attacks on Jeff. In the following weeks, Matt Hardy would debut a new persona as a "Broken" man with part of his hair bleached blonde along with a strange British-like accent, blaming Jeff (who he began to refer to as "Brother Nero", Nero being Jeff's middle name) for breaking him and becoming obsessed with "deleting" him. On the June 28 episode of Impact Wrestling, Matt challenged Jeff to a final battle with the Hardy brand on the line, to take place at their home in Cameron, North Carolina the next week. On July 5, during special episode "The Final Deletion", Matt defeated Jeff in the match to become sole owner of the Hardy brand, forcing Jeff to drop his last name and become referred to as "Brother Nero". Also, Matt would force Jeff to stop using his high-flying moves in order to stop him from being a "spot monkey".
  On the August 18 episode of Impact Wrestling, Brother Nero and Matt defeated The Tribunal, The BroMans and The Helms Dynasty in an "Ascension To Hell" match for an opportunity to challenge Decay for the TNA World Tag Team Championship. On September 8, they faced Decay in a match held at the Hardy compound dubbed "Delete or Decay", where Brother Nero would again sacrifice himself to save Matt from Abyss. At Bound for Glory, the Hardys defeated Decay in what was dubbed "The Great War" to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship for the second time. On the October 6 episode of Impact Wrestling, they successfully defended their titles against Decay, in a Wolf Creek match. During the match, Brother Nero "transformed" into Willow and his Hardy Show persona Itchweeed during the pre-recorded backstage fighting.
  On the November 3 episode of Impact Wrestling, the Hardys successfully defended their titles against The Tribunal. After the match, the Hardys were attacked by the masked trio known as Death Crew Council (DCC), with Matt later suffered (kayfabe) amnesia after being knocked off a forklift by one of the DCC members. On the December 1 episode of Impact Wrestling, Matt returned to the ring, ambushing DCC by using their entrance theme; he would accept DCC's title challenge. The Hardys faced Bram and Kingston, and Matt would pin Kingston to retain the titles. In the following weeks, the Hardys would issue an open challenge for the tag team titles. On December 15, during special episode "Total Nonstop Deletion", they were once again successful in retaining. Brother Nero hit Crazzy Steve with the Twist of Fate, who then fell into a volcano (that had appeared on the compound in the weeks leading up the event), and was shot up into the sky, landing in the ring. Matt then covered him to win the match. Hardy had previously debuted the Itchweeed character earlier in th
caption: Hardy, in his Brother Nero gimmick, as TNA World Tag Team Champion in January 2017
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