5 ways Bray Wyatt can bounce back after WWE Super ShowDown

This past Thursday, Bill Goldberg defeated The Fiend Bray Wyatt to win his second WWE Universal Championship at Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia.

To quote Douglas Adams, this has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

Judging by what I'm reading on Twitter and in the comments section, there are many among you who feel that Bray Wyatt - or, at least, the 'Fiend' character - is "finished". That there's no way he can recover from a defeat like this and that he is, effectively, "buried". As one of my Sportskeeda colleagues put it, "I can't believe it's over".

Well, first off, for people who are supposedly such big supporters of the Firefly Fun House host, it's disheartening to see that you have so little faith in his ability to bounce back from a setback like this. It's sort of like how Daniel Bryan's career went absolutely nowhere after losing his world title in a squash match at WrestleMania. Shame, really.

Well, *I* have plenty of faith in Bray Wyatt (or, in the words of his younger brother, I BO-lieve in Bray Wyatt), and I have no doubt that he'll recover from this and can even turn this into a positive.

How? Glad you asked. Here's just a few ways he can move on.

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#5 Torment Goldberg

The Fiend vs Goldberg

At the end of Super ShowDown this past Thursday, as Goldberg stood on the turnbuckles, celebrating, The Fiend was back on his feet, looking like he was about to pounce and attack the new champion. Goldberg, sensing someone was behind him, turned around - you know he expected something like this, as the WWE Hall of Famer had already shown he was prepared for Wyatt's tricks.

Instead, The Fiend made some wild, angry gestures at Goldberg - and then the arena lights went out. When they came back on, Wyatt was gone.

This is a good time for Wyatt - in all his forms - to vanish for just a little bit. Don't show up again, in any form, until the SmackDown after Elimination Chamber - or at least not until Goldberg's opponent for WrestleMania is determined. And, even then, don't even show up in person. Start to bring out a side of Goldberg we've never seen before. Make Goldberg nervous.

Not just Goldberg, though. If rumors are true, and we're getting Goldberg vs Reigns in Tampa, have Wyatt torment him, too. After all, much like the others that The Fiend has feuded with, Reigns and Wyatt have a history together. Soon, it will become apparent that The Fiend never really had any desire to be champion - he just wants to destroy people.

Eventually, everything will fall into place and The Fiend will be back to being the horror movie villain he's supposed to be.

And, if you absolutely can't keep him off TV for that long, there's maybe only one man who would be important enough to bring him back right away...

#4 ... AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA! (doo doodooDOOO!)

Wyatt and Cena certainly have a history together

Oh, man, I've always wanted to start a page like that.

Anyhoo, The other rumors bouncing around the rumorsphere is that we're going to see John Cena vs The Fiend at WrestleMania 36, too. Of course, there's also rumors of Cena vs Elias, and also rumors of Cena teaming with Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber to take on The Revival and Dolph Ziggler, which is a rumor I made up just now. But, we'll go with the Cena/Wyatt rumor for now.

Now that he's a part-time guy, any appearance by the 16-time champ on any show, much less a WrestleMania, is kind of a big deal. Having a match with him at the Show of Shows is sort of right up there with having one with The Undertaker or Triple H - if you're not going to be in a title match, this is the next best thing (and maybe even better). It's certainly a position that Wyatt has earned - and it's probably not one he could have had while being the Universal Champion.

As we mentioned about Roman Reigns, Cena and Wyatt have a history together. In fact, they have a lot of WrestleMania history together. There is, of course, the WrestleMania XXX match between the two, that Cena won for some reason. There was also the WrestleMania 32 appearance, where Cena arrived to help The Rock fight off an attack from the Wyatt family. So, needless to say, The Fiend has revenge on his twisted mind.

Bray Wyatt may have bigger fish to fry after Super ShowDown - and fish don't get much bigger than John Cena.

#3 Go after everybody

The Fiend should be doing this to EVERYONE. Even YOU.

There are a number of traits consistent with classic villains. One is that you can sort of see their point of view and even empathize with them (think Magneto, Thanos, or the bad guy Ed Harris played in The Rock). The other is that, when they fail, they blame everybody but themselves. They were so sure that they were right in their cause, they there's no way it was their fault they didn't succeed. It was everyone else.

That has to be Bray Wyatt. Up until now, The Fiend has gone after one individual at a time (mostly). And he's defeated them (and changed them), one by one. Now, he's come across an opponent he couldn't beat - and that means now everybody in WWE is going to pay.

This would actually be a great way to lead into a major company-wide angle for the summer. It would mean Wyatt having to lose against whoever he fights at WrestleMania - sacrilege, I know. Just stay with me.

Frustrated, angry, and now absolutely and completely insane, The Fiend is now going after everyone. Including Vince McMahon. That's how you know an angle is big when the Chairman gets involved. Really ramp up how dangerous The Fiend is. You wanna fight The Fiend in a match? Too bad, he's too busy destroying you in the locker room to mess with a lousy wrestling match.

Bray Wyatt - more specifically, The Fiend - becomes more than just an unstoppable opponent that's really scary. Now, he's a force that must be stopped at all costs.

I point out The Fiend specifically because of my next thought.

#2 Bray Wyatt vs The Fiend

Enter caption

OK, I know. Listen, this... look.. just, shut up and hear me out.

I know what you're thinking. You're having flashbacks to Undertaker vs Undertaker or, even worse, Sin Cara vs Sin Cara. That's not what I'm getting at here. Also, Undertaker vs Undertaker at SummerSlam '94 was awesome and you can't convince me otherwise.

One of the things that has made Wyatt/The Fiend such a successful character is the attention to detail. Every little thing Wyatt has done or said since that first Firefly Fun House episode has had meaning. And one of the things that has certainly been made clear is that while Wyatt and The Fiend share the same body, they're two distinctly different people.

Right now, they're two people that aren't all that dissimilar - and they certainly aren't polar opposites of each other. But, there have been little indications that - for lack of a better word - "normal" Bray Wyatt is frightened of The Fiend. You could write a whole thesis dissertation on how each of the Fun House puppets are an aspect of Wyatt's personality - and how Ramblin' Rabbit is the "good guy" side of Wyatt being suppressed by these evil forces within him.

If they go this route, it hopefully doesn't end up with Wyatt vs a guy with his build wearing The Fiend mask. Otherwise, it just turns into Superman III, and as much fun as it was to see a whiskey drinking Man of Steel, that would just be silly.

On the other hand, if there's anyone who can make that kind of story work, it's Bray. As long as they trust him to do it right.

#1 Challenge Brock Lesnar

It's not as if these two haven't gone toe to toe before....

Now, this one is tricky, because there are so many variables here. Does The Fiend go after Lesnar because he's WWE Champion? If so, that means that Drew McIntyre doesn't go over at WrestleMania - which is unlikely but, then again, we were all sure that Roman Reigns was going to beat him at WrestleMania 34, so... yeah...

That's not to say that Lesnar needs to be champion in order to have The Fiend come after him. In fact, it's probably better if he's not. While it was great to see Wyatt a world champion once again, holding the belt painted the character into a corner, leading to articles like this to have to be written. It would actually be better if Lesnar wasn't champion.

Consider this. The Fiend is coming off this loss at Super ShowDown and then... well, whatever he does at WrestleMania is irrelevant. He still has something to prove and needs to put fear back into the WWE roster. Who better to go after then The Beast?

The Beast vs The Fiend.

The thing is, The Fiend doesn't even have to win any of these matches. Sure, Lesnar F5s Wyatt, like, six times and manages to get a pinfall victory. Five seconds later, The Fiend is back on his feet and Mandible Claw-ing the bejesus out of the former UFC champion. It's just another example of how wins and loses don't mean anything to this monster - only causing destruction and fear.

So, there you have it. Whatever they decide to do, what's important is the story they tell. The Fiend is the kind of character that you can do just about anything with. Let's see what they actually do.