Why Bray Wyatt hit his peak in WWE and it was time to move on

We’re all still in shock over the release of Bray Wyatt, so this title is probably too early and way too deep for some to read this. Believe me, I’m not here to deal with any wounds you might have or to point fingers and laugh.

In fact, it is quite the opposite.

Windham Rotunda is a very talented cat who often made chicken salad out of other stuff. Mickie James’ tweet says all about his creativity, vision and gifts as a professional wrestler. That same tweet paints a clear picture of the natural conflict between Windham and WWE. As a flavor inspired by Max Cady or Fiend, Wyatt has always been a bit complex by WWE standards.

Rotunda reached her prime in WWE because her characters are too complex for a company that paints almost exclusively in black and white.

As said in this space before, the Attitude Era is an anomaly. WWE loves its simplicity. Its heroes and almost superheroes are often quite boring because of it, but that’s the style. Simple is an easy sell for a business that often finds itself going out of its way to get beyond the carpet. Most important, Vince mcmahon understand easily.

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Conspiracy theorist Sami Zayn doesn’t take a lot of brainpower to process. The same goes for a conceited Carmela, an aspiring Hollywood Miz or the arrogant queen of Charlotte Flair. Even Roman Reigns, who receives the most compelling and complex stories of recent times, lives in the easy-to-understand build of a Mafia boss. More importantly, despite the missionary style reflections every now and then, these villains rarely do anything that will get the crowd to cheer them on.

And then there’s Bray Wyatt.

Everything about Bray’s presentation, in any incarnation, is worth applauding. The music, the walk to the ring, even the outfits. Man has done more for rocking chairs than a generation of grandmothers could ever have dreamed of. That, plus the specific set of moves and micro dope skills made it easy to research. This is why times like the one below this sentence have happened.

Even with weak comparisons to Mankind or The Undertaker, there was no one like Bray Wyatt in WWE history. On the one hand, he’s a cult leader with a semi-supernatural connection who dresses and talks like he’s come straight out of the Bayou. On the flip side, he’s a fun version of Mr. Rogers suffering from a demonic episode of Divided Personality Disorder as the Fiend lurks beneath the surface. Bray Wyatt was WWE’s most cinematic character, with horror movie iconography. You would think that a company that claims its only competition is Hollywood and that sleep would hang on to Rotunda for those reasons alone. And yet, here we are.

It’s also not about winning or losing, as Wyatt was always going to lose matches. He’s the villain, and in WWE that’s what most villains do. Despite the fact that fans always responded to him and he moved the product around like his last name was Barksdale, it was never in the cards for him to triumph over everyone. And this is where the problem lies.

We rarely, if ever, have such a dynamic heel that it’s disappointing when he loses. Wyatt was too quirky for WWE. Even when he laughed maniacally or twirled his mustache, he took a meta-approach.

Bray Wyatt was the wrestling villain who knew all the tropes of wrestling villains, which is not normal for WWE heels. They are always the punchlines for bad jokes and often look silly in one way or another. The Fiend or head of the Wyatt family has always felt out of touch with the larger corporate narrative, so typical WWE Universe tricks had no effect on a guy living in his own. reality. Wyatt wasn’t a “cool heel,” but he was above the elements of the WWE soap opera and overcomplicating the plot. Like I said, Vince understands simple but struggles with incongruous.

Legend has it that humanity’s interview with Jim Ross unlocked this character for Vinnie Mac. This multi-part segment spawned Mankind’s feud with the Undertaker, and you know how his story unfolds from there. But the WWE of 2021 is not the WWF of 1997. And unfortunately for Bray there was no similar wrestler he could fight with like Mankind had the Phenom and vice versa. Humanity and Taker were natural complements to each other and lived on the same plane of existence. Bray has always been an island for itself. The bigger and more polite the WWE was, the smaller its pitch got.

Sure, he sometimes drank from the keg of fame, but it was always the only possible end to this chapter of his career. WWE never understood it despite the bags invested in its development and the commas in its bank account. Some breakups are for the best and this is a case where both parties involved have to break up, sulk their grief into a pint of ice cream, and listen to Brownstone’s “Grapevyne”.

Windham Rotunda was and still is ahead of the game. The first business that catches up with him, even a little, will be all the better.

And U.S. too.