How WWE can make a success of the Erick Rowan spider storyline going forward [Opinion]

The views expressed in this article reflect that of the writer and not Sportskeeda Wrestling.

I know, I know. You most likely read that headline and thought, "This guy has no clue what he's talking about, there is NO WAY WWE can fix this, but let's click on the article to see what he's saying."

Last week, the Erick Rowan cage reveal, in my opinion, was possibly THE worst pay-off in wrestling history - but not all hope is lost. The most beautiful thing about wrestling and, in particular, how thick and fast the content comes, is that everything can change and bad decisions can be forgotten.

However, this isn't an article pitching that we forget about the spider completely. I genuinely do think there is a way WWE could make a success of the Erick Rowan "spider in the cage" storyline.

Firstly, we need to acknowledge why the pay-off was received so negatively in the first place. If a monumental amount of people are left to speculate on something for four months, the pay-off will almost never be as good as many of the ideas - not least when there are restrictions in place, such as something having to fit inside a cage. Also, you'd have to speculate that WWE may not have known the endpoint when giving Rowan a cage to take to ringside.

But here we are. It's happened, and rather than get upset over an animatronic spider, let's look at how WWE can make this a success.

While No Way Jose saw a spider when looking into the cage, he's the only person whose insight into the cage has been explicitly shown.

What if the cage actually contains an illusion of the viewer's worst fears?

Sure, we don't know if No Way Jose is an arachnophobe, but let's just say that at least his character is. Maybe No Way Jose saw a giant spider because he's terrified of spiders - and that spider was less terrifying to us as viewers because we don't share the same fear.

What if everyone who's gazed into the cage has saw something completely different, that reflects their own worst fears back at them?

Going forward, Erick Rowan, utilizing the cage, could have the ability to conjure up his opponent's worst fears via the cage, and use that as the weakness to defeat them - and the reason he's only lost to Aleister Black since having the cage could be that Black is fearless.

Everyone loves mystery, even if the pay-off is slightly underwhelming. The journey to get there can still be exciting. What if Rowan's cage contains something different every week?

I know what Einstein said about the definition of insanity, but with the mass backlash surrounding the reveal of the spider, not having said spider as a permanent fixture may just be the best way forward for Erick Rowan...