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

#2 Broken or Woken - I knew you'd come...

Bray Wyatt and 'Woken' Matt Hardy, the Deleters of Worlds

During his last run in TNA Impact, Matt Hardy was given the opportunity to demonstrate a level of creativity he had never shown before. The result was 'Broken' Matt Hardy - a new persona that was merely using the body of Hardy as a 'vessel', and that the entity residing within him was thousands of years old.

He spoke in a faux-Shakespearean dialect, bleached a streak into his hair, and claimed to be able to predict the future. He threatened to 'DELETE' his opponents - including his own brother, Jeff, whom he referred to as 'Brother Nero'.

It was awesome. Here, this should help:

It became the talk of the wrestling world and helped push TNA aka Impact Wrestling to levels of popularity it hadn't seen in years.

So, when Hardy returned to WWE and was eventually able to bring his creation there, fans immediately began to imagine what a feud between the Master Of Deletion and the Eater of Worlds would look like.

And then it happened.

Wyatt would come out the loser in that encounter, but also came out a changed man. He assisted Hardy in winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale, and the two became a team, giving themselves the name DELETErs of Worlds. They would go on to win the Raw Tag Team Championships.

This new side of Bray Wyatt was short-lived, but it was significant. For years, while still playing an evil character, Wyatt still showed some traits of a babyface. Most of them were superficial but evident, such as: referring to the fans in the crowd and the lights they held up as he entered the ring (his "Fireflies"), his mentioning the name of the city he was in before his entrance, and just the general way he would play to the crowd during his matches.

There was a brief moment where the Wyatt Family was beginning a full-fledged face run, as they attacked heel stable The League of Nations on the Raw after WrestleMania, but injuries derailed that plan altogether.

So, this was the first chance we got to see the character as a babyface, and teaming him up with a character as beloved by fans as 'Broken' (or 'Woken', at that point) Matt Hardy was a good way to explore that possibility.

Eventually, though, the team ended their run, and Bray took some time off.

And then things started to get weird.