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The Fiend won The Universal Championship from Seth Rollins at Crown Jewel and while The WWE Universe was noticeably happy about the outcome, one has to wonder what the company has planned next. One also has to wonder how long The Fiend's reign as champion will last.
Of course, there are probably a lot of fans that think Wyatt's superhuman persona and momentum will carry him to a long title reign, but they might not realize how difficult it is to pull something like that off. It may be difficult to wrap your head around but holding the Universal Title for too long could end up hurting the character.
Whether it does or not remains to be seen and will depend on what WWE does with the character going forward, but here are five signs that The Fiend's time as Universal Champion won't last very long. As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below and tell us how long you think his reign should last!
#5 Might hurt other Superstars
Although the WWE Universe is absolutely in love with The Fiend character right now and the company has created some of the most entertaining television this year utilizing him, putting The Universal Title on him comes with problems. Unfortunately for The WWE Universe, that problem could be that it makes other Superstars look weak in comparison.
Between repeatedly kicking out at one after being stomped, to getting hit in the face with a steel chair and getting back up, it seems very apparent that The Fiend is impervious to anything a Superstar can throw at him. That doesn't mean that the character is untouchable and can't be neutralized for a moment or two, but it feels like nobody will ever have enough to put him away.
With that being said and the company going all out to show that Wyatt is superhuman, you start to see the problem with booking him as champion. Keeping him as champion forces the company to recycle the same kind of match week after week (or however often he does wrestle), which could be problematic for the guy who is supposed to be the most important man on the roster. It also puts The Fiend in a position that could make him even more untouchable than Brock Lesnar, if that's even possible.
In the end, it's just going to make anyone in his path a sitting duck and another notch on his belt. That is not a good thing for a title picture desperately in need of unpredictability and it could end up hurting The Fiend character in the long run.
#4 Legitimacy factor
When Friday Night Smackdown first aired on FOX in October, it was instantly obvious that the focus would be on making the blue brand look legitimate. The company ultimately achieved this aesthetic in spades by integrating their product into weekly FOX programming, bringing in big names from other sports and even having Brock Lesnar compete on the show for the first time in a decade.
With that being said and Fox Sports highlighting legitimacy with WWE why would they then go and focus on a gimmick like The Fiend? In fact, between The Fiend being imperious to virtually any kind of attack and a majority of his character based on the supernatural, one has to wonder how the company would even go about it?
Now that's not to say that The Fiend isn't a brilliant character created by WWE and shouldn't be the focus of a brand, but it begins to stretch believably when the brand's prime focus is legitimacy. This also doesn't mean that he can't be on Friday Night SmackDown, he just shouldn't be in the title picture at the moment.
In the end, it's just too stark of a contrast when you have guys like Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez feuding for the title at one point and then switch to a supernatural character like The Fiend. It just dosen't make sense and is probably very jarring to the audience.
#3 Target on his back
It's no secret that The Fiend has been on a rampage over the last couple of months and he has stockpiled quite a list of victims as well. Interestingly enough though, none of his victims have come back looking for revenge, which begs the question: will any of the victims be coming for him now that he's the champion?
Maybe it wouldn't be one of his former victims at all. WWE legends like The Undertaker or Sting could return to put the supernatural character in check. Either way, WWE has a lot of options when it comes to how to get the Universal Title away from Wyatt without hurting him, and that in itself calls into question how long his reign will last.
Think about this: it felt like WWE was making it clear that they didn't necessarily want Wyatt as champion when Seth Rollins walked out with the belt at Hell in a Cell. Furthermore, It was only after immense fan backlash and The Firefly Fun House being burnt down that the company seemed to feel like Wyatt was a viable option as champion.
In the end, this might not be how WWE wants things to go and could just be trying to appease fans in the short term. The question is how long it last and how the company gets out of it.
#2 Possibility of Lesnar coming back to SmackDown
Will Brock Lesnar come back to Friday Night SmackDown?
While some don't think that's a possibility, especially after Lesnar straight up quit SmackDown in order to pursue a feud with Rey Mysterio, WWE's deal with Fox Sports points to this not being the case for very long. It could even be something that happens after only a matter of weeks.
Why would WWE officially bring Lesnar to SmackDown in the 2019 draft, only to ship him off to RAW a few weeks later? If you keep in mind the fact that Lesnar is one of WWE's few Superstars with mainstream appeal, you can start to realize that not having The Beast could be a problem for the FOX executives who expected Brock to be on their show.
Another problem with this whole proposed move is the fact that Lesnar has been on RAW for almost a decade, which is why bringing him to SmackDown felt so refreshing. If nothing else, keeping him on RAW could make the fans resent him more and hurt the overall product.
Maybe this is something that will work short term. It will be very interesting to watch with Survivor Series coming up, but this can't be the plan in the long run, right?
#1 Ruining the character
Despite the fact that good ideas are sometimes hard to come by, especially when producing seven hours of television a week, the company struck gold when they debuted The Fiend. They followed that up by slowly building him up into the most enthralling character on the entire roster, which was even more surprising to watch play out.
WWE took a big chance on The Fiend gimmick and it worked to absolute perfection. Sure, there were a few missteps here and there, but the company ultimately knuckled down and did what was best for business, at least in the extreme present. The problem with the possible last-minute decision to make him champion is coming up with what they plan to do next with him.
Does he stay on SmackDown and become a weekly fixture on television? Or does WWE turn Wyatt into a part time champion and have him only show up on special occasions? Both plans have their problems and could end up ruining the character if certain precautions aren't made, but which is worse in the long run?
For example, if WWE makes Wyatt a part time champion, they risk building up the same resentment that fans had for Brock Lesnar and holding the title picture hostage in the process. If they have him compete on a weekly basis however, they risk chipping away at the lore of the character and exposing it in one way or another.
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