After long being left to drown by the WWE Universe, Bray Wyatt was given a lifeline by the 'Woken' one. There was a painfully inevitability to it all, too, in spite of game and gutsy fan denial. Bray, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan had engaged in a skit with The New Day in 2016 that liberally pillaged the bones of the original 'Final Deletion' battle between Matt and Jeff, sans nuance, wit and charm. Like The Undertaker slaying beasts in the early-1990s, Wyatt was Vince's new Boy for any gimmick that needed the house lights turning off. Finn Bálor escaped having to dress like a pumpkin when Bray went down with mumps, but Matt wasn't so fortunate.
The pair's hostilities had less electricity than the darkened 'House Of Horrors' Wyatt d*cked about in with Randy Orton a year earlier.
Little of the hackneyed and dated dialogue landed between them, but the company persevered nonetheless as plans were made to have their own crack at producing the madness of king Matt for Monday Night Raw. 'Ultimate Deletion' was...okay, actually, but clearly something Vince McMahon felt too old for even before it aired.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
