10 Wrestlers Audiences Weren't Ready For
2. Bray Wyatt
It's The f*cking Fiend!
By the end of Bray Wyatt's WWE run, that ludicrous exclamation may as well have greeted every appearance for a character that had, very briefly, captivated millions and theoretically transformed a career.
Against Finn Bálor at SummerSlam 2019, it seemed as if audiences were very much ready for this hail mary, but they may have been too enthusiastic. Vince McMahon fell in love with the gimmick and killed the magic in pursuit of mammoth merchandise sales. Pushed into a Universal Championship programme with Seth Rollins long before the character was fully formed, an effort to protect each man in their Hell In A Cell match destroyed both.
It was a slow road to oblivion for Wyatt's once-horrifying alter-ego afterwards, but something odd has occurred in recent years that could have resulted in something so different. WWE's a narrative mess now, often beyond comprehension and completely free of any television disciplines such as logic, continuity and/or common sense.
The Fiend - a wacky alien clown sock of a thing, whatever it even is - belongs in this world far more than real humans. Real humans could and should (and some do) find employment elsewhere. Fiend isn't of this world, but neither, increasingly, is WWE.