How The WWE Keeps Ruining Bray Wyatt

Bray Wyatt started off in the WWE as a fat joke. Dubbed "Husky Harris," he had the gimmick equivalent of a "Kick Me" sign on his back. As Cageside Seats describes, Husky Harris was "The Sherman tank with the Ferrari engine." He received a much-needed makeover as Bray Wyatt, who would write of his new character, "And from the ashes a butterfly was born."

As the so-called "Eater of Worlds," Wyatt would have the whole world eating out of his hands, portraying a cult leader who played maniacal mind games with the WWE's biggest names. But as Bleacher Report recounts, Wyatt lost rivalry after rivalry when the stakes were highest and the lights were brightest, effectively making him the Icarus of promising villains. 

On April 22, 2019, exactly 7 years to the day that the Bray Wyatt character wrestled his first match, a brand new Wyatt was born. This time a butterfly didn't rise from the ashes, but rather a "Firefly Funhouse," a kids' show hosted by the new incarnation of Wyatt. The New York Post likened the show to "a twisted "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." Joined by a cast of messed-up puppets, Wyatt oozed the enthusiasm of a Pee-wee Herman that murdered people and fed their corpses to that toothy talking chair, Chairy.

Eventually, Wyatt unveiled his alter ego, the Fiend and as Wyatt would say, "Yowie- wowie!" It was everything you would want in a nightmare. He had a spectacularly evil clown mask and seemingly supernatural powers. Like an athletic Pennywise, the Fiend had the "It" factor that every star radiates. Like a malicious shadow, he struck under the cover of darkness, amassing a star-studded list of victims that included Kurt Angle and hardcore icon Mick Foley. He also laid waste to WWE Universal champion Seth Rollins, setting the stage for a title match at Hell in the Cell. All the WWE had to do was not drop the ball again.

The 2019 Hell in the Cell pay-per-view promised to be a night to remember. Fans were hungry to see the Fiend Bray Wyatt win the Universal championship from Seth Rollins. Instead, they received the visual equivalent of a root canal. Per Bleacher Report, Rollins delivered finisher after finisher to no avail before busting out a barrage of weapons. Despite this being a no-DQ contest known for brutality, the ref stopped the match and halted Wyatt's momentum. "The [crowd showered] the show in boos and [chanted] for [the WWE's] biggest competitor, All Elite Wrestling, as it went off the air." And once more the WWE became the Lucy to Bray Wyatt's Charlie Brown, not only dropping the ball but yanking it away just before Wyatt could finally succeed.