5 reasons why The Fiend didn't appear on SmackDown this week

#1 Is The Fiend weakening?

Is this WWE's way of weakening The Fiend?

What if what happened at WWE TLC weakened The Fiend?

While that might seem absolutely ridiculous to think about, especially since the character has proven himself impervious to pain, it becomes a little more likely when you consider the situation. In fact, if you consider the fact that The Fiend's zombie red light wasn't on when Daniel Bryan returned and hit Wyatt with the running knee, you start to see a different picture being painted.

With that in mind and The Fiend nor Bray Wyatt appearing at all during Friday's episode of SmackDown, what if Bryan's running knee weakened the character? Furthermore, what if Bryan being dragged into the underworld a couple of weeks ago gave him powers that would help him combat that of The Fiend?

Not only would that go a long way in explaining why The Fiend would be so vunerable to a running knee strike, it also explains why he would be absent from programming as well. Maybe it's just WWE's way of acknowledging that The Fiend character has been weakened in some way and Bryan is so far the only one to know how.

Whether that turns out to be it or not remains to be seen, but it's an interesting theory and would go along with the idea of a showdown with The Fiend changing you.