From one of the freshest faces on the main roster to one of the most redundant acts in WWE, PWP’s Tim Bell wonders what went wrong with Bray Wyatt.
On July 8th, 2013, when The Wyatt Family made their debut on RAW, attacking Kane and taking him out of the upcoming Money in the Bank Ladder Match, I was instantly sold. This was before the real boom period for NXT we’re experiencing now, so my first exposure to Bray Wyatt was through the vignettes shown each week leading to their debut.
The moment did not disappoint, as the Wyatt’s immediately made an impact, not only that night, but Bray Wyatt was immediately recognized as a major player from the beginning, inside and outside the ring when including his promo skills.
So how, only a bit over two years later, does Bray Wyatt feel so ordinary?
I’m sure that the immediate reaction of many reading this will be to jump to the losses Wyatt has suffered. I’ve spent more time than I’d really like to admit trying to explain to people why Wyatt’s feud with John Cena wasn’t detrimental to the Eater of Worlds, but rather helped solidify Wyatt as a legitimate threat. Others have argued that Wyatt was irreparably damaged by his loss to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 31.
In my opinion, while the match failed to live up to the stage it was offered, I never truly expected a Wyatt victory, and felt the lead-in to that match, with Wyatt providing all of the substance to his feud with The Phenom, helped enhance the aura Bray delivered every time he beamed through your television screen.
So what happened?
Well friends, I’m here to do something I don’t do very often. Those who know me well know I’ve watched WWE for my entire life, and many would probably accuse me of being a bit too easy on them at times. Truth be told, I can normally find enjoyment in most things they do, one way or another. It’s rare they make me angry enough to tweet or rant about it, not because I’m trying to rid the internet of wrestling negativity (an impossible task), but simply because I’m generally just a fan. I’m a John Cena fan, a grown man who has nothing against Roman Reigns, and I don’t hold a personal grudge against Vince McMahon every time a wrestler I enjoy loses a match.
However, when it comes to Bray Wyatt, I can wholeheartedly admit and vehemently proclaim that WWE saw a good thing, and didn’t just overdo it, they beat it into a crying, desperate submission.
When Bray debuted on 7/8/13 along with Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, he didn’t even get physically involved in the attack on Kane. Wyatt’s actual debut didn’t take place until approximately 5 weeks, in a Ring of Fire match at SummerSlam. Wyatt was held out of the ring, and his appearances early on were truly treated as an attraction. You’d see Harper and Rowan on a weekly basis on RAW, but you were forced to wait for Bray.
Now, obviously, eventually Bray is no longer seen as the shiny new toy, and he’s thrown into the weekly rotation for RAW, but even still he was mostly held within tag matches, and always with the family. Nowadays, it’s routine to see Bray teaming with a Rusev type, or one-time enemy Seth Rollins, for no other reason than WWE is short on main event-level heels. However, this watering down of Wyatt’s motives had forced fans to see him as simply another face in the crowd, rather than the mythical Superstar he was before.
Unfortunately, this was not even the worst misstep in the devolution of Bray Wyatt.
One of my most anticipated segments of Monday Night RAW in late 2013 and early 2014 every week was when the Wyatt screen would cut in, and we’d be treated to a Bray Wyatt promo. When Bray was embroiled in a feud with Daniel Bryan, or John Cena, his promos were masterful, a perfect blend of mystical rhetoric paired with just enough substance to deliver a solid message, furthering his story with whichever combatant he was addressing. When it came to ranking talkers in WWE, Wyatt was head and shoulders above everyone else, as charismatic talker Dean Ambrose was still hidden in the shadow of The Shield.
However, something suddenly happened, and it changed Wyatt’s projection dramatically; WWE realized the fact that Bray was the best promo guy they had. This realization meant more confidence in Wyatt to improvise (a positive), and more opportunities to speak (one would think, another positive). However, with Wyatt no longer having an opponent, or more importantly, a story to tell that was as strong as those we’d seen him weave with Bryan, Cena, and The Shield, the challenge of delivering two promos every week began to wear the entire presentation extremely thin.
Did we need six promos building up to his forgettable clash with Ryback? Or two promos a week, each and every week in his 3-plus month feud with Roman Reigns? A segment that used to have me sitting up in my bed every week now causes me to groan and consider changing the channel.
Ultimately, the fault cannot be solely placed on Wyatt, nor can he truly receive the majority of the blame. What is Bray expected to say, don’t put me on TV?
That’s a difficult position to take when you’re trying to establish a character in a notoriously fickle WWE Universe, referring both to the audience in the stands, and the personalities inside the creative room backstage. Realistically, Wyatt may have been able to maintain a bit of his originality and mystique, had the stories he was involved in during the past few months been more intriguing or authentic, perhaps it wouldn’t feel like Bray’s been giving the same promo for the past 3 weeks.
However, the reality is that Bray Wyatt’s win/loss record, combined with his weakened presence is a major reason WWE felt compelled to build a family around him once again in an effort to recapture the magic we saw just last year with The Wyatts and The Shield. Sadly, that strategy is never successful, and instead we’re all simply waiting to see where Wyatt will be left once Roman Reigns leaves him behind after Hell in the Cell.