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April of 2019 will go down in the history of professional wrestling as the time when the world audience was introduced to a phenomenon known as The Fiend. Since its debut, WWE Superstar Bray Wyatt’s latest repackaging has continued to shock the world with not only the tremendous character work of the former Eater of Worlds himself but also with its splendid booking, great public recognition, and almost never-seen-before amount of creative control generously granted to a performer.
With his recent Universal Championship push and overall company’s acknowledgment, The Fiend’s success lays now more than ever on the fans’ reaction and support. It is safe to say, that back in this year’s spring, the wrestling community was not expecting Bray Wyatt’s return to strike that big. Even after that, during the whole time span of The Fiend’s exceptional character development, the wrestling audience was pretty cautious and wary about it turning to some questionable booking routes and losing some of its fire eventually.
Credit where credit is due, WWE still didn't show us any signs of slowing returned Bray Wyatt's push down or devaluing his momentum. However, with such worries on one side and the astonishing amount of hype surrounding our possible future Universal Champion on another, it is almost impossible to get even a slightly objective perception of his new gimmick and its use in the company. To get a fresh and original perspective on that matter, I suggest that we take a look back on some mistakes and questionable decisions made by WWE regarding The Fiend’s presentation since its debut.
Disclaimer: The views of the author do not necessarily represent that of Sportskeeda
#6 First post-WrestleMania vignettes
Most of the wrestling fans, if asked, how Bray Wyatt has originally made his return to WWE television this year, sometimes struggle to remember those quite unique teaser-videos, that were shown to us on RAW and SmackDown after WrestleMania 35. It is notable, how the first look of what was about to become one of the most significant and successful repackaging in WWE history is still neglected by so many. I believe there is a couple of logical reasons for it.
First of all, the idea of some sort of 'creepy' puppets appearing in separate vignettes on the main roster TV leaves a couple of questions itself. In our days, it is very hard to make this gimmick not look childish. The fact, that its follow-up in a form of 'Firefly Fun House' series was pictured in a slightly different mood didn't help these vignettes' presentation either. Unfortunately, it was hard to take them somewhat seriously.
Post-WrestleMania RAW and SmackDown episodes are WWE’s time for returns, call-ups, and debuts. It has been like this for several years now. For the first half of this decade, it has meant, that we were annually treated with a couple of very exciting quality shows with pleasant surprises and some great angles and matches to hold up the bar. These days, unfortunately, all of the numerous comebacks and roster moves following WrestleMania are more or less expected and get smaller amounts of attention. It is not surprising, that those little vignettes about Bray Wyatt’s return felt a little lost in a shuffle.
One more disappointing thing about these short videos was the fact, that we all knew, what were they hinting all along. Bray’s voice behind the buzzard’s laugh revealed it all. Maybe this way of cryptically giving an audience a clue for some wrestler’s upcoming return would have worked better in the pre-Internet era. In our case, however, Wyatt’s voice ruined a significant portion of intrigue.
#5 Firefly Fun House puppets appearing at the WWE backstage
Wrestling community can remember how the original Firefly Fun House series ended on a big crescendo with what seemed like The Fiend finally entering our realm. Since this momentous segment took place on the last episode of RAW before the Stomping Grounds 2019, it left many fans speculating about Bray Wyatt’s appearance on the PPV itself.
Not only we did not see it happening then, but Bray Wyatt stopped appearing on WWE television programming for the next three weeks totally.
The former Eater of Worlds left his Firefly Fun House puppets to enter our reality instead of him. For several following weeks, WWE audience could spot some of the familiar characters, such as Ramblin’ Rabbit and Huskus the Pig Boy, appearing backstage on RAW and SmackDown Live without any specific context or explanation.
Considering the fact, that fans were anticipating one of the company’s possible greatest in-ring return for Bray Wyatt at that time, it felt very anticlimactic to get then just little hints of it. After the Firefly Fun House series culminated in such big fashion, creative hesitated to capitalize on the huge Fiend's momentum in a way they should have.
Many fans have even tried to find some sort of pattern in puppets’ backstage appearances, but these speculations led to nothing of importance eventually.
#4 SummerSlam 2019 follow-up
Bray Wyatt had arguably one of, if not the best, return match in WWE history at SummerSlam 2019 against Finn Bálor.
The Fiend’s entrance on itself drew so much attention, it’s still widely regarded as the most exciting thing, that happened on that show. There, we got an opportunity to see, how Wyatt’s new persona is going to be portraited in the ring, to capture a glimpse of totally renewed chemistry between him and his former rival in the face of Bálor. The match itself was booked and performed brilliantly, leaving wrestling fans in absolute awe not only during The Biggest Party Of The Summer, but also in weeks to come.
Rightfully so, the entire WWE Universe expected some kind of a captivating follow-up to this on next week’s RAW or even SmackDown Live. A beginning of a new feud, any significant angle, even a small reference to Finn Balor’s state after their match - many options would have worked to help keep Bray Wyatt’s enormous momentum and popularity going. Unfortunately, since his re-debut on SummerSlam 2019, WWE didn't even mention The Fiend and Firefly Fun House for an entire week.
On the 19th of August, on the episode of RAW, The Fiend made his appearance attacking Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler right before his King’s Court segment. While the attack was staged and performed masterfully as always, it fell in the template of his other legends assaults and led to nothing significant in the end.
On the next edition of RAW, we’ve been shown a little video-package, that highlighted some of the previous Firefly Fun House series moments without any prominent narrative or purpose.
One way to call this approach to The Fiend’s presentation would be ‘keeping its plate spinning’, but after a closer look, it clearly indicates, that creative just didn’t know, what to do with Bray Wyatt at that exact point in time.
Also, it should seem as given, that Wyatt’s new sensational gimmick is not a thing, with which just ‘keeping the plate spinning’ will be in any way enough to present it properly.
#3 An abrupt World Championship push
What followed after those weeks of The Fiend's scarse booking, however, shocked the pro-wrestling world in big fashion.
On RAW, September 2, 2019, WWE aired a brand new episode of Firefly Fun House, in which Bray Wyatt pretty unexpectedly addressed current, at that time, Universal Championship storyline between Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman. He also indirectly challenged one of them to a match at Hell in a Cell.
Rumors about a potential Rollins-Fiend/Strowman-Fiend program taking place after Clash of Champions 2019 have already been circulating throughout the wrestling community at this point. Since Golden 1 Center - the venue, in which WWE will hold this year’s Hell in a Cell - have advertised that kind of Universal Title match on Twitter on the 28th of August, fans kept on fantasizing about Wyatt entering a World Title picture just two months after his in-ring re-debut.
‘Card subject to change’, as they often say - such announcements on part of stages, which WWE put their events on, usually, are not very likely to come to fruition. Yet even then, many pro-wrestling fans and journalists figured, that pushing The Fiend straight to the Universal Title picture might be a bit too soon for that time. Many of us wanted to see Bray getting even more momentum in a couple of miscellaneous feuds before entering such an important storyline.
With Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend Bray Wyatt match being officially announced on the episode of RAW, September 16, 2019, the WWE Universe’s attitude towards this feud changed only slightly. Many of us still think of it as a hurried decision.
#2 Firefly Fun House set’s latest decorations
When the ‘Firefly Fun House’ series made its debut on WWE television, the first things to capture the audience’s attention were, unsurprisingly, sublime scripting and Bray Wyatt’s fantastic character work.
A visual of a kids' TV show set is not very familiar for the wrestling fans. It became one of the reasons, why the Firefly Fun House segments have felt so different and unique on RAW and SmackDown’s broadcast.
It should be noted, that even when it’s not obvious, the set itself helps this gimmick create a unique atmosphere about it. Decorations for the first nine ‘original’ episodes of Firefly Fun House looked pretty thought-out and inspired. Filled with lots of small objects and tiny details even in the background, that set ticked all of the boxes for providing a viewer with great immersion in ‘wacky’, yet terrifying world of Bray Wyatt.
Months after the series’ debut, WWE still airs new Fun House episodes on a weekly basis. However, for the last several weeks the show’s set has faced some drastic changes. Most of the time now, it barely has any decorations and furniture. The background looks much simple than before.
Some may say, that these changes are intended and may symbolize some part of Bray Wyatt’s character’s development, yet none other signs of Firefly Fun House world’s self-destruction were distinctly shown.
September 2, 2019 edition of RAW held another 'Fun House' segment, at the end of which Bray Wyatt’s face quite awkwardly visually transformed into The Fiend’s mask and back. It may serve as another example of his new character being presented poorly on the production level.
#1 Bray Wyatt’s voice from behind the mask
We’re finishing this list on, I would say, the most subjective of its points.
When the WWE audience was first introduced to The Fiend on one of the nine original Firefly Fun House series, his voice has been revealed as well. Fortunately for Bray Wyatt, those lines have received some audio distortion and pitch changes on the editing part of his new in-ring persona’s TV debut. It helped him picture The Fiend as, in my opinion, a way more terrifying and mysterious character.
Starting from the conclusion of Firefly Fun House’s original set of nine episodes, Bray Wyatt continued to regularly scream and talk, while in his Fiend form, by himself. That is where the issue lies: former Eater of Worlds has a pretty high-pitched and soft voice. In no way will it suit the character of The Fiend.
Realizing that, Wyatt constantly and intentionally tries (even to this day) to make his speech, his screams, and roars sound deeper, rougher, even scarier when he performs as his new in-ring alter-ego. Many fans will agree, that it doesn’t work the way it should and only ruins the suspension of disbelief - Bray’s efforts are too evident.
A silent version of the Fiend would seem much more intimidating and that is just one of many logical solutions to come out of this situation.
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