Bray Wyatt Deserved Better
I like to keep things as positive as possible.
I like WWE.
I like AEW.
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I am writing this with no real information as to why the release of Bray Wyatt happened. Was it budget cuts? Did he ask for it? I don’t know. I would say at this point, there are very few people who truly do know. What I do know is that most of the fans in the wrestling community are distraught and/or saddened by the recent news of his release. I truly believe he was the most creative mind in the entire business and his Eater of Worlds and Fiend characters are two of the best creations we’ve seen in the past 25+ years. There hasn’t been many releases that have bothered me over the years but this one is an exception.
I never wanted to write something that I felt emotionally connected to, because I know I am not capable of delivering the topic/man justice. But I’m going to just wing it and hope it has some kind of cohesion to it, because it’s too big of a deal for me to just ignore right now. This will focus mostly on what I believe lead to the fall of The Fiend and why this once in a generation type of mind should have been a bigger deal than the WWE made him out to be.
Wrestlemania 37. Randy Orton is set to take on a returning Fiend after a very lengthy feud. Up until this point, The Fiend had been seen very sparingly due to speculation of his mental health. The burnt to a crisp angle was dragged on foooooorever which would lead to their payoff match at the biggest show of the year. Night two of Wrestlemania arrives and the show kicks off with this highly anticipated match. The crowd is electric as Bray makes his entrance, a gift box that towers over the ring where the newly revitalized Fiend would come out like a jack in the box. Alexa spins the handle and out of the top of the box comes The Fiend where he soaks in the fans for a moment before flying off the top, attacking Randy and the match begins. After a decent back and forth with Randy, Alexa appears as a darker witch version of herself which leaves Bray confused and distracted. Randy hits him with the RKO, Bray loses. Bray disappears from the ring. The next night, he gives us a send-off from the the Firefly Funhouse and thats it. We never see him again on WWE television.
To think that is our final appearance of Bray Wyatt on WWE does not sit right with me. When The Fiend debuted, he was a breath of fresh air. The Firefly Funhouse segments were comedic gold, that gave you a different side of the character. The whole package Bray was giving us was unlike anything we had seen before, and it was great. I know there was a lot of people who didn’t like the character but it was tailor made for what WWE does. They are not in the wrestling business. They are in the entertainment business, and thats what The Fiend did. He entertained us. His ring entrance as The Fiend, was an event. The first time we saw it, it was a “HOLY SHIT” moment because what we were witnessing was something that was beyond cool. When he stalked Seth Rollins in the ring, as Seth curled up in the corner scared for his life… that shit was as good as it gets. As much as I hate what would follow, that moment sold me on the whole character. Unfortunately, we didn’t get enough of it. Much like The Undertaker, he didn’t need a title to validate his status at the top of the card. And maybe that’s where the beginning of his end really began… way too early.
Finn Balor, Miz and Daniel Bryan are all evidence of feuds that The Fiend had that were done to perfection and showed how this dark and strange character could work in this universe. They had stories that served a purpose in the end. Altering their personas was a cool touch to the character that allowed others to benefit from and re-invent themselves. Even the build to the Seth Rollins feud was done well, but then Hell in a Cell happened. And that was strike one. If the ending to that wasn’t bad enough, they followed it up with Seth dropping the title to Bray in Saudi. Strike two. How do you take the title off of a character that has been built up to be a monster? The Fiend was built up to be a man you should fear and with that belt, he is now a person that has become the hunted. Nobody should be looking to go after the horror villain, and if they are it should be very few and far between. It just doesn’t work. So after dispatching of his foes he had enountered rather easily, and solidifying himself as a guy that will not and should not be beaten anytime soon, the final blow happened. Bill Goldberg and Saudi were strike three.
Where do you go from there? Bill Goldberg of all people is going to bring a hault to the mystique that Bray created? Thats a colossal problem. There should be no return from that big of a mess created by a Saudi Prince and his checkbook. BUT, Bray was able to redeem himself at Wrestlemania 36 with the Firefly Funhouse match with John Cena. In one of the most creative segment/vignette/matches in the history of the business, Bray avenged his loss while allowing his brilliance to be on display at the biggest show of the year. The fact that Bray was able to crawl out of the pit that he had been buried in and return to the status where he belongs was a true testament to how genius the man is. How would they capitalize on that? What would be next?
Nothing. Directionless. In what should have been a win that catapulted the character back to the monster he debuted as, he floundered around being plugged in to whatever angle the WWE saw fit. As interesting as the Alexa Bliss stuff was at first, it really didn’t seem like they had any endgame with it. And now we know, they didn’t. You could say a Universal Title program with Braun is something to be happy about it, but it ended with him winning the title(which he should not be in possession of) only so that he could drop it a week later to a returning Roman Reigns, which was only to garner more heat on Roman. I’m not saying Roman shouldn’t have got the belt, it was the right decision. But Bray should not have been anywhere near that entire situation. Especially when you look at the what happened after when they teased a revenge angle against Roman, only to ship him over to Raw a few weeks later and kill that whole idea. And from that point on, more directionlesss nonsense.
The Fiend went from being the biggest cash cow WWE had, while being a believable monster character that could have been used and built as a staple for the company for years to come. He should have been an attraction, not another member on the roster handcuffed to one brand. An interesting thing to add to all of this is that The Fiend wasn’t even his best creation. Eater of Worlds Bray was such a damn masterpiece of a character, and they waited too long to pull the trigger on it. By the time he got his title win, nobody was buying in to what he was saying anymore because of how poorly booked he had been up until that point in time. On one hand, its great because we did get The Fiend which was an awesome character to witness. But on the other hand, it should have never happened. Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt family should have been a massive success and been dominant over the entire company. But they dropped the ball on that one as well.
Bray Wyatt checks off all the boxes that you need to be a superstar in the world of wrestling. His creative mind, a term I have probably over used here but it really cant be said enough, should have made him a megastar. He had the whole world in his hands… but he was sacrificed for nothing and now is gone from the WWE. If he chooses to leave the business for good, I wouldn’t blame him, he’s been screwed over far too many times. But if he decides to continue his career elsewhere, I will follow and support him because he deserves it.
Best of luck to you Bray… yeah yeah yeah.
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