Bray Wyatt

So, when the Bray Wyatt character started, it was one of my favorite characters. Everything was so cool and different about him, from his interviews, to the way he wrestled, even to the way he dressed. But I agree with a lot of people, somewhere his character got boring and stale. So, in everyones opinion, where did the character go off the tracks? And what would you do to make his character interesting again? Would you consider taking him off tv for awhile and completely change his character? Or do you still think theres life in this character and you would just change a few things? Was there an event or match where you saw this character “jump the shark” or was it just a gradual thing? Would like to know everyones thought on this…

As Wai said before, you have to join the action to the words. If Bray wasn’t just “words” but was also actually evil, then it would work. They should show him going to the wrestlers houses and do creepy stuff. There is so much they can do (same goes for Woken Matt) but they don’t care.

Initially, I think it was the Wrestlemania XXX loss in a crappy match to John Cena. I don’t just mean this in the Reddit “LOL Cena Wins” way. Moreso that loss started a series of feuds where he would get beat, win in a goofy way (like the voice box singing kid in the cage match with Cena) and then get beat again.

Then there was the face turn (2016?) that looked like it was going to get over huge right before he got injured.

Maybe I shouldn’t, but I still believe in the character. I just have no idea where it can go or where it needs to go from here.

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If it were me I would have him perhaps hijack a title like the intercontinental belt and have Harper and Rowan fend off the champ essentially stealing it and working a feud with a baby face who was in possession of it.
(I know it would really upset Bludgeon Brothers fans…)

There was a lot of merit in how Raven conducted himself in WCW and ECW, hardly ever fighting and always sneaking in to hit a few shots after his goons were done. So the feud would be completely steam rolled by Bray essentially destroying the champion and building up his stable again.

Added to that I think less is more, so I’d actually have Bray do less talking (If have him talk at all)
I detest hokey mumbo jumbo in wrestling, has it ever worked? Thinking back to late 90’s Undertaker I’d have to say no, the best version of Taker for me was Zombie Taker from the early 90’s, formidable and silent.

I think he jumped the shark when he produced a “ghost” during the Ambrose/Rollins hell in a cell. All his feuds fall flat in one way or another. I loved the gimmick and still had hope last year when he won the WWE title but I think one of the things that hurts him so much is the fact he loses almost every feud, it became hard to think this guy was a threat of any kind.

For me it was last year’s wrestlemania with the mat projections in the match between him and Randy. He’s had a lot of ups and downs prior to that but that felt pretty standard for most upper-midcard players. Because of his gimmick it was always easy to “heat him up” for a big feud. And I really liked his team with Randy. It got over with fans even though the betrayal was inevitable.

But for the match to be such a mess, it completely ruined the character for me and now I’m worried about him ever being in a big spot and WWE being stupid enough to try it again.

He can certainly be saved but it would require a pretty significant gimmick change. Like Mick Foley going from Dude Love to Mankind to Cactus Jack to Mick Foley, Raw Commissioner. It wouldn’t be impossible for a character like Bray to be be switched up but I don’t know if the fans would even accept it at this point. He still occasionally gets Husky Harris chants from the trolls in the audience.

Bray never wins. Ever.

That’s his biggest problem. I can take the long, rambling promo’s and the occasional mumbo jumbo shenanigans if the character behind it all is backing it up with wins. Bray hasn’t ever done that. Worse, when he does win it’s ALWAYS down to something dopey that you just can’t take seriously.

I think he can be salvaged but they really have to take him seriously to do it and they need to be aware that a little spooky is all well and good but that can’t be all he is, or else we’ll all just give up on him again.

He keeps giving me hope though. He get’s destroyed for months and then he tags with Reigns and teases a face turn… before getting injured and ignoring that moment when he returns. He lingers in the mid-card doing nothing and then he entices Randy Orton into the fold and wins the tag and world titles and becomes relevant for five minutes until Orton takes the belt in a dogshit match filled with whacky nonsense, which he still hasn’t recovered from.

Fingers crossed the next time I feel hopeful for Bray it doesn’t prove false.

He has a great entrance, a cool but nonsensical rap…but when the bell rings…he doesn’t connect.

Simple as that.

You know. …for guys who supposedly can’t work like Reigns or Miz…they don’t have that problem.

Isn’t wins or losses or storylines…it’s having a crowd sit on their hands after the bell rings. It’s been said about hundreds of pro wrestlers on the millions of podcasts and shoot interviews out there.

When he first arrived, no one was sitting on their hands though. If he wasn’t so toothless people might still be invested.

First official match was an inferno match…if a crowd couldn’t get into a potential burning and flames shooting out…somethings wrong.

All previous inferno matches did not have that problem

We’re watching different Inferno Matches because I’ve never seen one that the crowd is all that into before.

Kane/Taker, Kane/Triple H and Kane/MVP

i feel there a couple of things that did hurt him. First i feel the whole ‘‘new face of darkness’’ feud he had with undertaker only to loss a nothing match at mania didn’t help him, then having the wyatt family disband, reunited, disband again then reunite again only to disband again didn’T help matter. The fact that he loss every single big mania matches he had or basically every big feud he had didn’T help either.

The fact is, it’s been the same shit for so long that it got predictable and fans stop caring. As to what would make the character interesting again, Right now, i don’t know, my only idea would be to put him and Woken Matt Hardy together as a tag team and let them be creative with they’re characters. These 2 characters would fit well together as a tag team and it would probably help both guys out in the long run.

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It’s been said before that his promos no longer make sense and I still remember this promo he did in FCW. This is what made the character a must see when he started.

I also distinctly remember the children’s choir angle he did with John Cena in 2014 and it came off as legit creepy. There has always been something there with the guy and when used correctly it can work but it just keeps falling apart.

It doesn’t help that he’s not actually very good.

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Eccentric characters only have so much shelf life. Dude hasn’t changed in 5 years. Same beard, same ring gear, same moves, same promos, always a heel.

  1. He has lost pretty much all of his major feuds;
  2. When he finally won the title, he then immediately lost it in one of the worst title matches in Wrestlemania history.
  3. His promos started off really impressive, but have never developed. No he just comes out, talks a bunch of gibberish for 20 minutes to build up a match that nobody wants to watch because…
  4. He is not just not very good;
  5. Even worse than not being that good a wrestler, he is had a few injuries over the years and is now less impressive as an in ring performer than he used to be;
  6. Finally his storylines are generally just silly, and not even an entertaining silly, but a ‘I can’t believe they are expecting us to take this character seriously’ silly.

I think that Bray Wyatt’s career peaked with the Daniel Bryan feud in 2013-2014.

Maniacal, sociopath, cult leader comes down to the ring. Hey kids, hold up your phones as fireflies and hum along to his song ! Bit of disconnect already there.

I dig most of Bray’s big moves. Sister Abagail looks awesome. His running cross shoulder block is devastating. Uranage is delightful. He’s way too good at filibustering on his promos.

Music is for a face. I’d make him more of a leader, a religious leader, a prophet, and have him try to ‘recruit’ the audience members into following his path. Call them Brayniacs.

One of my biggest issues, was no one ever joining the Wyatt Family. This guy is supposed to be some sort of cult leader, yet he is only able to get 2 guys to join him. I get that you cant just take a bunch of big names and change up their gimmicks, but it was an easy way to do something, with some that “creative had nothing for.”

It could have had a Ravens Flock type feel and then from there…actually have him win some matches.

Biggest disconnects is the crowds not giving a shit about his matches after they blow their load on his entrance.