10 Things We Learned From Matt Hardy On Talk Is Jericho

4. His Original Plans For Bray Wyatt

Matt wanted to offer the same sort of guidance to Bray Wyatt.

His plan was to tell the story of a man who had been freed from 'Sister Abigail' and had become lovable as a result. Hardy had loads of vignettes in mind that'd help show Bray's personality, but WWE spoiled it all with their formatting. They wanted to plug a hole in three-hour Raw episodes, and that meant weekly matches for the new team.

Matt told Jericho he didn't like that, because it became formulaic and didn't let the pair explore why they were together. Some of the subtle nods towards "smart fans", like winking at the camera, were also edited out by Vince McMahon. The boss wasn't keen on playing towards that market, and he didn't think the nuances of why Matt and Bray had aligned were necessarily important.

When he was shown the 'Ultimate Deletion' match, McMahon said, "If it does a number I'm out of touch" and told Hardy he didn't really get it. That told Matt everything he needed to know. He'd expected the 'Broken/Woken' thing to be watered down in WWE, but everything was so frustrating.