Bray Wyatt still isn’t convinced that “Woken” Matt Hardy is anything more than a deranged jester with a funny laugh, but there may be more method to Hardy’s madness than The Eater of Worlds gives him credit for.

After Wyatt likened his rivalry with Hardy to a chess game, Hardy re-emerged later in the show to take the analogy one step further. Not only did he defeat Napoleon Bonaparte — evidently reincarnated as a goldfish — in a game of chess, he presented a new board as a metaphor for “The Great War,” with 16 white pieces to represent Hardy and his Woken Warriors on one side, lined up against two black pieces (a king and queen) — Wyatt and Sister Abigail — on the others. And, as always, the ultimate goal of this game is not checkmate, but deletion.

Credit: WWE.com

Bray Wyatt and the WWE Universe met “Woken” Matt Hardy for the first time last week, and the newly reborn former Raw Tag Team Champion continued his war of words with The New Face of Fear, promising to illuminate the masses with his “Woken Wisdom” and “Broken Brilliance” and proclaiming that Wyatt’s very presence was the result of an “addiction” that had consumed the soul of Sister Abigail.

Hardy doubled down on his vow to “delete” Wyatt even as the former WWE Champion warned the Universe to choose their allegiances wisely. Despite Wyatt’s proclamation, it was Hardy’s demented cackle that once again got the last word.

Credit: WWE.com