WrestleMania 36: Why The Fiend has to defeat John Cena (Opinion)

At WrestleMania 36, 16-time world champion, John Cena, is set to go one on one against arguably the company's biggest star over the past 12 months, The Fiend Bray Wyatt.

The match may seem like a regular WrestleMania bout between two Superstars who are huge draws for WWE, but the result of this feud may have a long-term impact on the overall landscape of the company. Moreover, it may decide the fate of The Fiend as a credible character in WWE.

The two superstars squared off at WrestleMania 30 when Cena emerged victoriously

A noteworthy part of this ongoing storyline is the history shared between these two individuals. At WrestleMania 30, John Cena, a well-established Superstar by that time, went up against the up-and-coming Bray Wyatt and emerged victoriously.

Consequently, this adversely impacted the credibility of Bray Wyatt's character. Over the next few years, he was involved in a series of storylines, but always ended up, eventually, losing. This downfall has been brought up time and again in the build-up of this current storyline. Although the feud took place six years ago, the circumstances remain the same for Bray Wyatt in the present day.

With the advent of the character, The Fiend, Wyatt established himself as one of the most feared personas in the history of WWE. Upon capturing the WWE Universal Championship at Crown Jewel 2019, he seemed set to take the title all the way to WrestleMania 36.

However, at Super ShowDown 2020, Goldberg defeated Bray Wyatt to win the WWE Universal Championship. The mystique around the Fiend character was severely hampered as the former defeated the latter without much struggle.

Another loss at WrestleMania 36 would be a deja vu for Bray Wyatt, and it might get challenging for WWE to build him back up as a main event player with the same level of fan involvement.

John Cena, on the contrary, is at such a juncture in his career that he can withstand a loss at WrestleMania 36 without hurting his legacy. Furthermore, in response to the allegations about "burying" upcoming talent in the past like Bray Wyatt, he had put forward examples of the times when he was able to take losses. Therefore, this time around, winning may hurt his legacy much more than losing.