10 Wrestling Storylines That Were Much Darker Than You Think
9. The Fiend's Relationship With Alexa Bliss
In the summer of 2020, the Fiend began to prey on Alexa Bliss, using her as an instrument to get into the psyche of Braun Strowman, who was gagging for it off her. Seems pointless.
How can you play mind games with that which has no mind?
She was terrified at first, but over time, Bliss stopped the Fiend from applying the mandible claw and stroked his face. When asked about this strange connection in a sit-down interview, she said that Fiend while "scary" was "compelling".
"I understand what they say when they say "a moth to a flame," Bliss said.
In this love triangle, Bliss chose the Fiend, and they developed a relationship. They were firmly aligned together as heels by the end of the year, during which time Alexa Bliss underwent a transformation. She wore her hair in pigtails. She started playing on swings. She even debuted her 'Alexa's Playground' talking segment. As her connection with the Fiend grew - who lest you forget romanced her to incite all of this - she adopted childlike characteristics.
In WWE's defence, even Vince McMahon at his brain-wormed worst wasn't stupid enough to book the Fiend as a shoot child molester.
What probably happened here is that, as is often the case with Bray Wyatt, the act drew heavily from horror cliché - and by portraying Bliss as the spooky child trope, WWE unwittingly cast The Fiend as a n*nce.
Whether by design or a signature, careless failure to connect one story beat to another, this was an act of grooming so apparent that it's a surprise the Republican party didn't storm the ThunderDome en masse.
Then again, that is only ever an awful, thinly-veiled excuse to attack marginalised communities!