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Bray Wyatt returned to the main roster as The Fiend earlier this year and while fans originally had their reservations about the character, he soon became a cult hero of sorts. In fact, in the short time that Wyatt's new character has been around, he has managed to go undefeated, create a sinister lore around him and has become the Universal Champion.
Beyond all that, his Firefly Fun House segments have become must watch television and fans continuously run to the internet to speculate on clues that he has left throughout his social media. If nothing else, WWE has created a juggernaut with The Fiend character, which begs the question of how he stacks up to the company's original creation of Wyatt.
With that being said and The Fiend quickly becoming one of the most popular Superstars in WWE, here are 5 reasons why The Fiend character is better than the original Bray Wyatt. As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to tell us what you think of the character comparison.
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#5 The Firefly Funhouse
While the idea of a kids show in WWE seemed absolutely insane and out of touch at the beginning, the company quickly turned The Firefly Fun House into their most entertaining weekly segment. Of course a lot of that has to do with the complete immersion and energy that Bray Wyatt has been putting into his new character. Hints that were strategically placed in most episodess that have led to things that have happened later on TV have also been another great element.
If nothing else, WWE has put a lot of work into the symbolism used throughout the show and utilized it to flesh out the character more. They have also used the show to help play mind games with Wyatt's opponents, which has been both very disturbing to watch and fun way to see what the company is hinting at next.
WWE sometimes struggled with the implementation of Wyatt's mind games during the period of the original character (especially near the end) and it just looked out of place. With that being said, WWE creating an official lore around Wyatt's new character has definitely helped in offering an explanation for how the mind games work and what the character is capable of.
#4 Breaking the fourth wall
What is reality, especially in the world of professional wrestling?
That is the question that Bray Wyatt's new character forces the WWE Universe to ask themselves on a weekly basis and it's actually working in the company's favor! Beyond that, the character is actually succeeding in keeping fans on their toes and making them genuinely interested in what happens next.
Keep in mind, this is all during a period of time where the narrative that wrestling is fake is gospel with the excepion of young kids. Fans in their teens and older often claim that that supernatural gimmicks don't seem feasible in the more "realistic" climate of WWE's current era. It's another reason The Fiend character is so unbelievably brilliant! Interestingly enough though, this may be a very important reason as to why Wyatt's former character didn't work as well, especially toward the end.
The original Wyatt character was portrayed as a cult leader, a human being with the ability to talk just about anyone into doing just about anything. Over time, the company tried to implement a supernatural element into the character. That course of action didn't work out very well due to the fact that the company had already fleshed out Wyatt's character as human, which made his new apparent otherworldly powers seem out of place. The Undertaker was always portrayed as being undead and made him increasingly supernatural gradually over time, which is why it worked.
With that being said, Wyatt's new character, along with his new show, allows the company to create reality bending content in its own little bubble while keeping it separate from most of the product. It also allows them to blur the lines between reality and fiction, which can make even the most internet savvy fan wonder what is going on.
One perfect example of this was during an October episode of The Firefly Fun House, during which Wyatt addressed internet rumors about him facing either Bruan Strowman or Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell. WWE even had a devil version of Vince McMahon come in and scold him for speaking the terms he was using.
This is the kind of reality-bending content that turned The Fiend into such a fan favorite and could be what ends up making him one WWE's greatest creations of all time.
#3 Less talking
Bray Wyatt mesmerized the WWE Universe with his promos when he first came to the main roster, but who would have thought that would eventually work against him? In fact, who would have ever guessed it would become one of the things that hurt his original gimmick the most?
Yes, Wyatt's character talked a good game and was able to entrance fans and other Superstars with his use of symbolism, but that would be weakened over time when he would lose a feud or ultimately fail to do what he set out to do. The way his storylines were handled made it difficult for fans to appreciate his words once they realized they were essentially meaningless.
All that changed, however, with The Fiend gimmick. Wyatt isn't as talkative as he once was and his what he said is pointed, never rambling. That makes the words he does say matter a whole lot more. Furthermore, WWE's new strategy of having Wyatt talk less seems to always leave the fans wanting more and scurrying to the internet to speculate about what his latest promo meant.
Compare that to Wyatt's old character, who seemed to reiterate the same thing in a different way every time he got on the microphone and you start to see how much different and refreshing the new character is.
#2 Better execution of mind games
Remember Bray Wyatt's WWE title match at WrestleMania 33?
You know, the match where everyone thought that WWE lost their mind by projecting images of worms and other disturbing images onto the ring canvas? The company ultimately played this off as mind games by Wyatt in an attempt to distract his opponent, Randy Orton, but they offered no real explanation of how it happened.
There were a lot of other problems with the match, especially, in the eyes on many members of the WWE Universe, with Wyatt walking in as champion and losing the belt to Orton after only a short title reign, but WWE's execution of Wyatt's mind games have often been very confusing and inconsistent.
Fortunately for WWE, all that would change with the creation of The Fiend and The Firefly Fun House. Above all else, it essentially gave Wyatt a mechanism to implement his mind games on opponents and keep his supernatural character in check. They also have created a variety of unique ways to do this and that is one of the best parts about his persona.
From Daniel Bryan's "Yes!" chant being used against him by the cast of The Firefly Fun House, to how WWE hinted at Wyatt trying to force Rollins into becoming a more sinister character, WWE has found a way to make The Fiend work in ways that the original character often couldn't.
#1 The company appears to be 100% behind him
Compared to The Shield and other popular factions that were around at the time, Bray Wyatt and his Family often looked weak up against the other groups of their time. In fact, WWE ended Wyatt's undefeated streak relatively early into his main roster run and did little with him after the fact to make up for it.
For example, Wyatt ended up feuding with John Cena leading up to WrestleMania XX and while many fans were holding out hope that Wyatt would get the win that could catapult him to even higher stardom, he ultimately fell victim to the many that many online fans dubbed "Super Cena". Unfortunately for Wyatt, things would only get worse at Extreme Rules where he won a cage match, but only after a timely (and somewhat confusing) distraction by creepy singing kids.
While Wyatt did end up winning the match, he did so in one of the most bizarre ways possible and it wasn't the victory over Cena that he needed. Beyond that, the way the character proceeded beyond Cena didn't really help either and essentially made Wyatt a less believable force that would often be foiled by his foe.
And that's a big reason why The Fiend character has been so enjoyable for so many fans. It's the fact that WWE is actually going out of their way to protect The Fiend and even going so far as to make him virtually indestructible. If nothing else, WWE took their time fleshing out this character and protecting him, which has resulted in him being a much more successful creation than the original Wyatt character.
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