Report: Matt Hardy a free agent after AEW contract expires

Matt Hardy is reportedly a free agent. 

According to a report from Fightful Select, Hardy has allowed his current AEW contract to expire and has opted not to sign a new deal offered to him by the company. 

The 49-year-old noted on his podcast last month that he was offered a contract to remain in AEW. He said the deal was for "a few years" but he was currently weighing his options.

"I’m very happy to be invited to return to AEW and work for AEW for the foreseeable future, but we shall see. Because right now I’m just currently weighing out the options. There’s a couple things out there, and I would say in the next month, I should probably know what my immediate future’s going to hold," Hardy said. 

Hardy attended the March 18 episode of WWE Raw in his home state of North Carolina. He would later explain that his attendance along with his wife Reby Hardy that night was an "innocent thing" after they were invited by a friend to sit in a suite for the show. 

Hardy first signed with AEW in 2020 and debuted on the March 18, 2020 episode of Dynamite. Jeff Hardy would join him in the promotion beginning in March 2022. 

Matt Hardy and his brother Jeff have been mentioned multiple times on WWE programming of late as part of the promotion for Jimmy vs. Jey Uso at WrestleMania 40. Matt vs. Jeff Hardy and Bret vs. Owen Hart are the only other brother vs. brother matches to have taken place at Mania. 

Hardy's AEW deal was originally up at the end of March but Fightful reports that "word within the company" is that it had been extended by a few weeks through WrestleMania. It's not clear whether the deal was extended as a result of time missed due to injury or for other reasons, however.