Surprising reason why The Fiend's burnt look in WWE was "so extreme" 

'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt debuted a grotesque appearance in WWE earlier this year, and many fans thought it looked quite extreme. While the charred get-up seemed to be nightmare fuel for younger audiences, the look was specifically designed to make sure WWE steered clear of any unintentional controversy.

Special makeup artist Jason Baker and his team created The Fiend's burnt look at Callosum Studios. Baker recently spoke to Adam Barnard of Foundation Radio about the topic, revealing that they aimed to make The Fiend appear "movie-realistic." According to him, an anatomically accurate look could have been viewed as a mockery of real-life burn victims.

"Surprisingly, one of the things we really, really pushed for was we didn't want to offend anyone," said Jason Baker. "Because there are people who have had the misfortune of being horribly burned, horribly misfigured. We never want to ever make fun [of] or make light of those horrible situations that those people have gone through. So one of the many reasons why the burnt Fiend look was so extreme, was that we took it beyond anatomically possible, if that makes sense. We made it look movie-realistic, but not authentic-realistic. Because we didn't want anyone to be like, 'Thank you for mocking my trauma.'"

At the time, The Fiend, Alexa Bliss, and Randy Orton's storyline involved many fantasy elements. Jason Baker's team did an excellent job of creating a grotesque look that yielded favorable responses from the WWE Universe.

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Jason Baker compares The Fiend's charred look in WWE to a burnt hot dog

Well all I wanted was a scarier version of The Fiend and we got exactly that. Bray Wyatt is a genius. #WWEFastlane pic.twitter.com/aWqvY3x9xE

— F❌DE TO BL❌CK (@BLACKXMASS_) March 22, 2021

The Fiend's alternate appearance existed in the first place because, as per the storyline, Randy Orton set Bray Wyatt's alter-ego on fire at TLC 2020. The burnt get-up lasted from WWE's Fastlane pay-per-view in March 2021 to WrestleMania 37 in April.

Jason Baker made a hilarious analogy to further explain his fantastical approach towards The Fiend's charred look:

"We're like, 'Yeah, let's make him not look like a burn victim. Let's make him look like a hot dog that got put in the microwave,'" Baker joked. "You know that one hot dog that falls into the grill during the barbeque? And you find it when you're cleaning? That's what we're going to make the burnt Fiend look like."

During the interview, Jason Baker also credited a specific WWE writer for the Firefly Fun House segments. He spoke about Bray Wyatt's secret talent as well.

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If any quotes are used from this article, please credit Foundation Radio and H/T Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.