Historically, the WWE have built their greatest storylines around deep-seated rivalries that define a generation. When you have a meeting of two great wrestling minds, both culturally and temporally relevant to the era in which they compete, it engages the entire viewing audience, who essentially are asked to choose a side. That being said, the WWE’s ‘new era’ hasn’t yet found its signature rivalry, and this might be one of the many factors that have diminished the product over recent years.
Anyone with a basic grasp on WWE folklore will be able to pick out some of the great feuds over the company’s history. The 80’s had Hogan and Piper, and later Hogan vs. Andre. The mid to early 90’s were very much built around Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, a storyline that transcended kayfabe animosity, often culminating in backstage altercations, concluding with the Montreal Screwjob.
In the Attitude Era we were able to witness two of WWE’s greatest performers in Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock go at it. Between the two of them, they managed to compete against each other in three Wrestlemanias and had countless other matches and memorable moments. And just to prove how important the Attitude Era was for the company, Stone Cold also featured in various segments with his other great rival, Mr McMahon.
Even during the recent PG era, a time in which viewership had plummeted, and the overall feel of the product turned more 'family friendly', we still had John Cena and Randy Orton to choose from. As a result of Cena spending the majority of his career as the top babyface of the company, Orton was always somebody fans could gravitate to if they wanted an alternative. They may not have produced the magic of some of the aforementioned feuds, but when you think PG era WWE, you often think of these two first.
Wrestling needs rivalries like this. We have grown accustomed to the roller coaster of WWE kayfabe storytelling, where guys can seemingly forget all about the damage somebody has put them through just because they happened to turn face. Tag teams come together and break up all the time, and even backstage, we hear all about the professional and personal jealousy and backbiting that goes on. But in the midst of it all, there should always be two guys that gravitate towards each other, because this is where the real money tends to come from.
Watching RAW this past Monday, it became apparent that the two men who should be fulfilling these roles were the two men standing across the ring from each other to open the show. Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt ought to be the New Era’s so-called ‘money feud’ that gets people emotionally invested and serves as a licence to print mega bucks when it comes to Wrestlemania or Summerslam.
This is not to say that they are the company’s greatest performers, as that comes down to subjective opinion. But the fact of the matter is, Roman Reigns will be WWE's top guy for some time, barring any serious injuries, so if there's going to be a main New Era feud, Reigns is inevitably going to be a part of it. It might sound like typical WWE propaganda, but whatever your feelings about Roman Reigns, there aren't many people on the roster that evoke his level of response.
Whether you're a Reigns hater, or if you love the guy, the fact is that you care about what happens to him. Some fans despise Roman so much that somebody like Braun Strowman can become a top main eventer just by feuding with him.
This is why, in theory, Bray Wyatt is the perfect opponent for Roman Reigns. Bray is hovering around that grey area at the moment, with a lot of fans wanting to cheer for him but having to act like a heel. This places both men in that strange middle of the road scenario where fans tend to just pick the side they like, regardless of the heel/face dynamic, and cheer and boo accordingly.
If the new era's main rivalry was between Roman and Finn Balor, or Roman and Seth Rollins, for example, you wouldn't have that the same level of opposing reactions from the fans. All the Roman haters will be cheering for Finn or Seth, and all the younger, babyface loving fans wouldn't know what to do. There is always going to be enough people to boo Bray Wyatt as a heel, and these same people will tend to cheer for Roman.
Also, Bray is an interesting character, despite his rather disappointing career so far. He breaks away from WWE's current need to portray themselves like the UFC, with 'true to life’ competitors, and less than interesting personalities and gimmicks. Bray can hold the attention of an audience through his mic work in a way that very few people can anymore.
Therefore the rivalry between the two men wouldn't just be about matches and wins and losses, they would be able to incorporate different elements, perhaps have some backstage segments similar to the ones in the Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton feud this year - although maybe not as cheesy.
And think of the history that has gone by between these two already. In many people's minds, the seeds of the new era were planted when The Shield and The Wyatt Family made their debuts. Roman and Bray were always treated as the de-facto leaders of the two stables, but they rarely faced each other one on one during that time.
It was like the WWE were cleverly holding them back so that they could set them at each other once the two stables split apart. So, all the story elements are there already, both men joining at similar times, both leading their own stables, both responsible for ushering in a new era. It's little things like that which form the foundations of historic feuds.
So why hasn't all this developed yet? I'd say the primary reason is the appalling job the WWE have done with Bray Wyatt. If they'd have built Bray up in a similar fashion to the early days of The Undertaker - this dark, demented character that wins matches by getting in your head - he would be one of the most important characters in the wrestling world right now.
In fact, you can probably pin the beginning of this to Wrestlemania 30, where Bray failed to defeat John Cena, even though at times it looked like the WWE were going to do the unthinkable and have their PG Era top babyface lose. The storyline leading up to that match was perfect, with Bray threatening to get into Cena's head and make him act like a bad guy, despite his best instincts.
If the WWE would have just pulled the trigger here, this would have given Bray an in-built reason to be winning more matches. If he can defeat Cena in that fashion, then logically he can do it to anyone.
Instead, his win/loss record is nowhere near the level of a typical main event star. We just don't take Bray as seriously as we used to, because we assume he's going to eventually lose every rivalry he's in. If the WWE want to start working towards cementing this as the era’s most important rivalry, a lot of work needs to be done on Bray Wyatt. He needs to win a couple of feuds that we wouldn’t have expected him to, using the exact same tactics he used against Cena.
Imagine if Bray were to do a similar thing to Brock Lesnar or Triple H down the line, get them so worked up that they ended up making a mistake and losing their championships. This would allow fans to take him more seriously, and view him as an actual threat to Roman.
This would hopefully allow the two to go on and main event a Wrestlemania – something John Cena and Randy Orton never did, surprisingly – and collectively define what it means to be a WWE superstar today. It’s still a possibility, and the WWE should really consider how to make it work.
