Bray Wyatt made his return to the ring on Boxing Day (Picture: WWE)
Bray Wyatt shocked fans at Madison Square Garden as he appeared in his first WWE match since April 2021.
The former world champion, who made a sensational return to the company at Extreme Rules back in October after getting fired in the summer of 2021, is yet to wrestle on television following his comeback.
His last match came over 20 months ago when he lost to Randy Orton at WrestleMania 37.
However, he gave everyone at the World’s Most Famous Arena in New York City a Christmas present when he answered Jinder Mahal’s open challenge on the traditional Boxing Day (December 26) show at the Garden.
During the show, the Modern Day Maharaja came out to complain about not being included in the evening’s Ladder Match which saw Intercontinental Champion defend the gold against Ricochet, Santos Escobar, Kofi Kingston and Shinsuke Nakamura.
Instead, he got met with Wyatt, who came out in new ring gear, opting for black pants and a patterned vest top rather than the plain, all black outfit he’s been wearing on SmackDown the past 11 weeks.
The match – which Wyatt won with the Sister Abigail – was also one of the first occasions in a long time where fans have seen him wrestle without The Fiend mask, which dominated his in-ring appearances during his last run, besides a couple of rare matches as the Firefly Fun House host alter ego.
The untelevised match, which has been shared by fans in clips on social media, comes amid rumours Wyatt is set to properly return to the ring on worldwide TV at the Royal Rumble in San Antonio, Texas next month.
In a typically cryptic move, a new advert has appeared on WWE’s YouTube channel hyping up a so-called Pitch Black Match for the January 28 premium live event.
Although there’s no word on what the new match type will involve, the letting used in the video – and the name itself – suggests Wyatt could be involved, potentially against LA Knight.
Elsewhere during his match, this week, he paid tribute to his late friend and former Wyatt Family member Luke Harper – whose real name is John Huber and was known as Brodie Lee outside of WWE – on the two year anniversary of his death.
During the bout, he held his hands to his eyes and threw them up and out in the way the late, great wrestler used to do in his own matches.
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He’s finally returned to the ring.
