Matt Hardy is a special kind of breed when it comes to the wrestling business. If you had any doubts about that when he departed the WWE in 2011, the Woken one has done more than change your mind in the seven years since.

Now back with the biggest wrestling promotion in the world, the 43-year-old has brought his genius gimmick that captured the internet's heart with him.

Even if you are only a fan of WWE and have never watched Impact Wrestling - also known as TNA - or Ring of Honor, you will have become familiar with the "delete" chants and his broken persona.

Although he returned as one part of Team Extreme with his brother Jeff Hardy, and injury to Jeff meant Matt was able to embark on a solo run.

Legal problems with Impact meant his Broken gimmick could not be directly transferred, but Woken Matt has now been born and the WWE Universe is excited.

Speaking to Matt Hardy on the GiveMeSport WWE Podcast, Turnbuckle Talk, the nine-time WWE tag-team champion denied claims he has total creative control on his Woken character.

"It's definitely a collaborative effort. I mean, if you work for a corporation like the WWE - which is a massive, enormous, global corporation - obviously it's going to be a collaborative effort.

"Vince [McMahon] has got to have the final say. But, they have been very open and I have got to interject myself and obviously, I am the one who understands how this whole Woken universe or the Woken character or Broken character works, so it's definitely a collaborative effort."

Hardy also stated that the Woken character has to be a slow burn for various reasons the WWE Universe will come to understand.

"So we have to bring along the young kids that are unaware of, you know, Ring of Honor, Impact [Wrestling]; there's some people that just watch WWE and are casual fans," Hardy said. "So, it's a slow process. Everything must be introduced, you must understand what this is all about to get to another good place and that's one of the things that might be frustrating some people because they might be a fan that knows the backstory of Woken Matt Hardy and they want to see everything immediately, but there's a lot of fans who don't.

"And also, the fact that I'm interacting with Bray Wyatt - another character full of magic - makes things even bigger and there's a huge story that lies in the background of everything that people are going to have to wait to understand which will make more sense. So, the biggest thing I can say to wrestling fans is patience is paramount."

Matt Hardy was speaking to GiveMeSport ahead of WWE 2K18’s Enduring Icons Pack, which is available now as downloadable content for £7.99.

Matt and Jeff Hardy feature in the pack alongside WWE Hall of Famers Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson (The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express) and WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix. WWE 2K18 is available now worldwide for the PS4™ system, Xbox One, Windows PC and Nintendo Switch.