WWE: The evolution of Bray Wyatt - from NXT to The Fiend

#3 The Eater of Worlds

Bray Wyatt, WWE Champion

As fascinating a character as Bray Wyatt was (and is), the years between his main roster debut and his winning (and subsequent loss) of the WWE Championship have been, well...

They've been weird.

Like we said earlier, it's not helpful to go into the minutiae regarding the full history of the character at the time. But, it helps to have some context.

One of the biggest problems that WWE was having with the character was the fact that the company couldn't quite decide what it was. Was he a charismatic cult leader who convinced followers he had powers he didn't actually have? Did he actually have these powers? Was he what he said he was or was he just that convincing?

These weren't questions WWE was posing to the audience. These were questions that WWE didn't actually have answers to. Or, if they did, those answers changed on a weekly basis. One week, he was that cult leader. The next, he was an actual supernatural being, not unlike The Undertaker or Kane, who had actual comic book-like superpowers - powers that seemingly included getting groups of random children to sing campfire songs, apparently.

Let's be fair. Given enough time, you could probably think of a useful application for that.

It's a testament to Wyatt's charisma and talent that, despite some of the dumber moments throughout the Eater of World's main roster to this point, he still managed a way to come across as compelling and fascinating to watch. Even if the stories and feuds turned out to be lame, Wyatt never was.

WrestleMania seemed to be the stage that this version of Wyatt seemed to be given on a regular basis. Consider his opponents at the Show of Shows since debuting: WrestleMania XXX vs John Cena, WrestleMania 31 vs The Undertaker, a segment with The Rock at WrestleMania 32, defending his WWE Championship vs Randy Orton as WrestleMania 33.

Then again, it's probably worth noting that he's also never won a match at WrestleMania, either

It was around the time of WrestleMania 34 that, much like the dream matches between Wyatt's WrestleMania 31 opponent, The Undertaker, and WCW's Sting - a match between two dark, spooky, interesting characters from different, competing companies - fans began to speculate on the possibilities of a character like Wyatt and one that was emerging from rival promotion, TNA Impact.