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The Fiend made quite the entrance last night at SummerSlam - but perhaps the one element that stole the show was the lantern.
Now, the prop was made so well that there was no doubt in anyone's mind about what the lantern represented - Bray Wyatt's previous character, complete with his trademark beard and one red dreadlock, beheaded with its mouth stretched and eyes sewn shut. In fact, it was so gruesome that WWE had to edit the lantern out of the YouTube clip.
What was the inspiration behind the lantern?
Now, this is merely speculation, but I believe, symbolically, the lantern recalls Wyatt's original days of walking to the ring with a lantern, but having The Eater of Worlds' severed head as the lantern signals the death of the previous character and a completely new, fresh start for The Fiend.
The stitches of the eyes, though, may very well have been influenced by "Man In The Box" by Alice In Chains, where the character in the video has his eyes sewn shut.
Feed my eyes, can you sew them shut?
You can read more about that and other hidden gems from The Fiend's entrance here.
But who created the lantern?
Well, Jason Baker of Tom Savini Studios tweeted out a photo of the lantern, stating that he and Ell Farrington created the mask.
Who created The Fiend's mask?
The creation of the lantern goes hand-in-hand with the mask and the puppets.
The mask is based on a Kyle Scarborough design and was created at the studio of horror SFX legend Tom Savini by Jason Baker and Ell Farrington - who also created the latest Slipknot masks and several other SFX pieces for horror movies.
This proves, if nothing else, that either Bray Wyatt, WWE, or both are backing The Fiend character heavily by getting such high profile people involved in the making of props. This comes as is no surprise, because Bray Wyatt seems to have been planning this character since 2015, having described the character in this clip from four years ago.
