It has been a couple of weeks since Hell In The Cell where the WWE made, probably, their most confusing booking decision in quite a while.
Yes I’m talking about the ‘no contest’ finish to the main event. Most people are still seething about this, and in the following weeks the booking has been anything but stellar.
Repetitive attacks and Seth Rollins visiting the Firefly Funhouse to ‘Burn It Down’ has left a sour taste in many a mouth. The Fiend has been damaged, there is no doubt about that. He can be saved though. Here, we look at five different booking decisions that the WWE can make to salvage The Fiend.
5. Have Him Destroy Seth Rollins
Simple one here. At Hell In The Cell, Seth Rollins delivered Curb Stomp after Curb Stomp after Curb Stomp to The Fiend, yet he kept rising. Nothing could keep him on his back to the point a ‘No Contest’ was called due to his inability to defend himself.
Come Crown Jewel, it’s time to repay the favour. We know that this time, the match needs to end in pin fall or submission. This gives the perfect opportunity for him to return a receipt. This means he needs to completely destroy Seth Rollins. This needs to be so brutal that The Saudi Arabian government will consider banning future events.
Any move that Rollins tried, I want countered. The Fiend needs to be faster, smarter and stronger in every way possible. Anything less than this will mean the aura surrounding The Fiend will be damaged further to the point of no return. Sure, this leaves the possibility of having the two world titles on Smackdown, but further points will help remedy this …
4. Keep The Fiend Away From The Title Picture
In simple terms, The Fiend DOES NOT need the title. The same as Andre The Giant in the 80s, he should be looked at as an attraction. If the character draws the numbers without the title, then why waste this important storytelling on him. The title should be used to elevate the wrestler to upmost importance in the eyes of the viewer. Without even having a match, The Fiend garnered interest not seen since the pipe bomb days. Excitement levels were fever pitch.
Yet, with most things, WWE felt the need to shoehorn him into the title picture. There was no rhyme or reason for this. They should have waited, in my eyes, until at least Summerslam 2020 to have him in a title match. This would have allowed two different things to happen. One, we could have built up an all-conquering champion in the vein of Kofi Kingston (until Lensar appeared from nowhere) this year. Two, The Fiend would have been able to appear live on Pay-Per-View ONLY to keep the mystique of the character and truly create a monster for the next number of years.
3. Create An Inner Conflict For The Audience
Up until this point, you may have noticed I have only referred to The Fiend. This is because he needs to be a completely separate character to Bray Wyatt. In the same way Mick Foley kept his three personas separate in the minds of the audience, this is how Bray Wyatt and The Fiend should be kept aswell. This isn’t Bray Wyatt in a scary mask ala Finn Balor and the Demon so there’s scope to create the sense of a proper inner turmoil with the wrestler himself.
There was an ever-so-slight glimpse of this against Finn Balor, yet this was fleeting. This trait needs to be explored more, to make a truly compelling character. Have The Fiend decimate his opposition, only for Bray Wyatt to manifest and show remorse, allowing the opponent to take advantage. Just imagine Festus but handled with class, allowing a slow built to a satisfying payoff.
2. Funhouse Bray Wyatt Wrestles
Moving on from the previous point, if we want to have Bray Wyatt appear every week live, let’s have Firefly Funhouse Bray Wyatt wrestle. Let him grapple in his Mr Rogers get up. There’s an argument that has appeared many times about Finn Balor that, when wrestling as the Demon, he should wrestle with a completely different set of moves. It’s too late for Balor to do this, but let’s apply this logic to Wyatt now.
We want the Fiend, but let’s build up anticipation even more with Wyatt wrestling as the kind version of himself. Is he as aggressive? No. Does he have the intensity? No. What this does though is with every match that he wrestles, the blow off that we get will be intensified due to the want that has been built upon. Remember how excited we were to see The Fiend appear for the first time to wrestle his first match? Let’s build that up again with the use of the kinder, more sensitive Bray Wyatt given to us week on week.
1. Firefly Fun House LIVE
As of writing this, Smackdown announced that the Firefly Funhouse would be appearing on Smackdown this coming week. We heard the rumours that Fox wants the Fiend, but not the Funhouse, so in what capacity we get this is yet to be seen. If a number of the points above aren’t realized, then let’s have the Funhouse set up on the stage at Smackdown.
A live, interactive version would be amazing. Why interactive? I want ‘audience members’ to get invited on stage. Obviously, these would be plants with the bare minimum in acting talent (This is the WWE afterall) but the buzz of watching it live would hark memories back to that of the 90’s of after school TV with Pat Sharp or SM:TV Live with Ant, Dec and Cat Deleey. Doesn’t mean much to our American readers, but it would create something we haven’t seen before in the WWE.
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