On the March 19 episode of Raw, WWE debuted the `Ultimate Deletion,` a pre-recorded (final?) confrontation between `Woken` Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt. After a wide variety of missteps while booking this feud, the WWE, in a rare instance of humility, allowed Matt Hardy to do whatever he wanted for his latest short film. The result was that #UltimateDELETION was the #1 worldwide trend on Twitter on Monday evening. WWE allowed something outside of its comfort zone to simply `be` and thus reaped the rewards.I grew up during WWE`s New Generation Era, which meant that every Saturday, I`d cheer as pig farmers, circus clowns, psychotic dentists, and fitness gurus squared off in the ring. It was an age of outlandish gimmicks, when you could wrestle as a Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown survivor, and people would nod their heads and say, `Sure! That sounds reasonable.` It was done with a wink and a smile--an acknowledgement that this was fun, escapist entertainment and not an accurate reflection of the real world.WWE has lost some of this fanciful, farcical `fun` over the years. Nearly every current superstar portrays an outsized version of himself, rather than a different character entirely. And that`s why left-field characters like Bray Wyatt, a backwoods cult leader who follows the teachings of Sister Abigail--and Woken Matt Hardy, who believes he is an immortal spirit trapped in a human vessel--stand out from the rest of the pack. They hearken back to the sort of free-wheeling, throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks ethos that WWE used to indulge.It made sense for Hardy and Wyatt to feud with one another, especially leading into Wrestlemania 34. But over the course of several weeks, WWE killed their momentum with a series of lackluster, unimaginative matches accompanied by repetitive promos, where Hardy and Wyatt would trade off laughing at each other. That got stale in a hurry. Fans love Hardy`s Broken/Woken gimmick, which began in TNA, for its variety, randomness ...
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