How WWE Should Bring Back Bray Wyatt

Looking at the existing evidence of the comebacks so far, it wouldn't be inconceivable for the marketable and bizarrely beloved Fiend to return exactly as his fans remembered him. But there was considerable damage done to that gimmick in contrast to the likes of Lumis, Gargano and even the seemingly-doomed Karrion Kross.

In all those cases, WWE had eroded almost any sense of hope that the pushes would succeed. Not the case with Wyatt - he existed either side of an NXT project that briefly rebuilt hope for the company's future. A project overseen by Triple H, the man now in charge of a potential return.

The answer - as was never possible during the Vince McMahon autocracy - is a compromise.

Take the elements of The Fiend that might have worked once (him being indestructible enough to rattle his foes but not freakishly so to the point of cartoonish absurdity) and all the stronger elements of Wyatt's promos (eg whenever he wasn't spouting absolute b*llocks that went nowhere), and a humanised Fiend damaged by his prior experiences with the company might be a perfectly measured restart.

Wrestling fans are nothing if not extremely forgiving of the dirt worst sh*t, as proven by WWE listlessly holding onto a monopoly as long as they did. Those bad faith artists you see with every swipe downwards on Twitter pleading for folk to like "more than one wrestling company" weren't doing that - they were asking you to like WWE despite the fact that AEW's 2019 launch exposed just how little Vince McMahon's Raws and SmackDowns even were wrestling shows anymore.

Mondays and Fridays weren't the place for celebrated NXT call-ups, for Sasha Banks or even Roman Reigns at various points. They definitely weren't the place for Wyatt as a backwoods killer, cult leader or The Fiend.

2022 WWE under 'The Game' though? It's all to play for.