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While the supernatural character of The Fiend has been on an absolute reign of terror since debuting at SummerSlam, WWE has seemingly had him go missing for some reason. Whether this was intentional or not remains to be seen, but it begs the question of what exactly happened and what exactly is WWE trying to tell us with this move?
With that being said and The Fiend and Bray Wyatt now missing from programming for the time being, here are five reasons we think that The Fiend didn't appear on this week's edition of Friday Night SmackDown. As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to tell us what you believe happened to The Fiend.
#5 A surprise return.
WWE has gotten pretty good at surprise returns lately, which could explain why The Fiend has suddenly gone missing from television. In fact, after Bray Wyatt was hit with a running knee at TLC, it might be better for WWE to keep The Fiend in waiting and have him return at the opportune time.
At least that way, WWE has a way to keep fans tuning in and waiting for The Fiend to return, while also allowing other parts of the storyline to come together in his absence. It also gives them a chance to build up speculation on where The Fiend is, which could be a creative storytelling device to help build up his eventual return.
Now this probably wouldn't be a good idea if WWE was in the middle of WrestleMania season or any other period of the year, but The Fiends absence means very little right now. It also gives WWE a chance to build up to his eventual return, which should be interesting to watch.
#4 Avoid making the character look stale
Let's be honest here. As much as the WWE Universe is in love with The Fiend right now, especially with all the different storyline avenues that have been taken so far, the company is starting to make the character a weekly attraction. The problem with this however is that it starts to remove the uniqueness of the character and could make it become stale.
Now, that wouldn't be an immediate thing and would probably take months to actually play out, but the more the company goes back to the well that is The Fiend, the less options they have for the character later. With that being said and the company making the character somewhat of a weekly attraction, it makes sense to slow things down a bit.
Not only does that create the opportunity for WWE to stage a surprise return later down the line, it also allows the company some time to figure out what to do next. Of course some fans are probably not going to like that and want The Fiend back on television as soon as possible, but imagine what doing so would risk.
If nothing else, The Fiend is one of the company's most powerful entities in a long time and it would be a shame to waste it during a period with so little activity or significance.
#3 Gives time to showcase the 'new' Daniel Bryan
WWE has really played up the fact that the Superstars who face The Fiend leave the match fundamentally changed forever and the results have been interesting. Finn Balor was the first official victim of The Fiend and while he reappeared months later on NXT as a babyface, before turning heel only a short time later.
Then there was Seth Rollins, who faced The Fiend on two different occasions and then turned his back on The WWE Universe. Rollins joined up with AOP and is now on what could turn out to be a great run as a heel . Of course that's going to be up to what WWE do with him next.
With that being said, it seems like Daniel Bryan and The Miz are also undergoing these changes and WWE only amplified that during this week's edition of SmackDown. Interestingly enough though, it was the very absence of The Fiend that helped to showcase those changes even more.
Sure, everyone probably was thinking in the back of their minds that The Fiend was going to appear in some capacity, but when he didn't, they were forced to focus on the action. They were forced to watch Daniel Bryan and The Miz transform into 'better' versions of themselves all thanks to The Fiend.
In the end, that's probably the best part of his character. The fact that The Fiend or even Bray Wyatt need to be present for their presence to be felt.
#2 WWE didn't need him this week
Did WWE really need The Fiend this week?
Think about it this way, between WWE being stuck in a state of limbo due to planning for WrestleMania season and trying to keep The Fiend relatively fresh, it makes perfect sense for the company to simply not use him. In fact, doing so gives the company a lot of booking options going forward and creates some very unique booking situations.
A little more on that later, but what would having The Fiend on this week's edition of Friday Night SmackDown really accomplish? Sure, it would have been a great chance for him to showcase some of his awesome parlor tricks or even add another interesting layer to his lore, but shouldn't WWE be saving that stuff?
Seriously though, WWE did not need The Fiend to further storylines in any way and would have just wasted the characters presence. Beyond that, WWE's original plan with The Fiend was to save him for special occasions, which could be what the company is starting to do now that he's established.
In the end, The Fiend didn't need to be there. There was no purpose that he could have served and probably better for WWE to start making him a special attraction again anyway. At least that way, it's always a surprise when he turns up and WWE can find new and interesting ways to explain his absence.
#1 Is The Fiend weakening?
What if what happened at WWE TLC weakened The Fiend?
While that might seem absolutely ridiculous to think about, especially since the character has proven himself impervious to pain, it becomes a little more likely when you consider the situation. In fact, if you consider the fact that The Fiend's zombie red light wasn't on when Daniel Bryan returned and hit Wyatt with the running knee, you start to see a different picture being painted.
With that in mind and The Fiend nor Bray Wyatt appearing at all during Friday's episode of SmackDown, what if Bryan's running knee weakened the character? Furthermore, what if Bryan being dragged into the underworld a couple of weeks ago gave him powers that would help him combat that of The Fiend?
Not only would that go a long way in explaining why The Fiend would be so vunerable to a running knee strike, it also explains why he would be absent from programming as well. Maybe it's just WWE's way of acknowledging that The Fiend character has been weakened in some way and Bryan is so far the only one to know how.
Whether that turns out to be it or not remains to be seen, but it's an interesting theory and would go along with the idea of a showdown with The Fiend changing you.
