Has Reddit Solved Bray Wyatt's WWE Promo Mystery?
The 5-year-old riddle might have been figured out.
There aren't too many positives to be taken from Monday night Raw at present, but Bray Wyatt's irreverent, twisted, quasi-kids show Firefly Fun House is definitely one of them.
Since his return to TV after WrestleMania 35 The Eater of Worlds' ironic Mr Rogers' parody has been a welcome change for both his character and the show as a whole. It's reignited interest in a wrestler that many previously thought had passed the point of no return with the company, and fans are now waiting to see how these segments transition into a feud.
The first major clues regarding where this is heading thought haven't come through the show itself, rather Bray Wyatt has teased on twitter that there's actually a larger mystery at play. Specifically, a series of promos he cut in 2015 contained a number of hidden meanings which, when deciphered, will entitle someone to a prize.
This could, of course, all merely be misdirection on his part, and in the current context of WWE's creative writing exploits it does seem unlikely that there's such a nuanced, long-term idea bubbling under the radar for 4 years that's now ready to be paid off. Despite this though, Reddit user FemaleSmark believes that she's begun to crack the code.
Following the series of 3 clues that Wyatt has posted on Twitter - "Treat it more as a poem than statement", "It begins with a question, answered vaguely several lines later", and "Limbo" - they've narrowed the opening promos down to a run of three recorded on the February 16th episode of Raw in 2015. Wyatt, at the time, was in the process of building towards his WrestleMania match with the Undertaker.
"What happened to you was such a tragedy. What happened to you still stirs a rage deep down inside of me And makes me wanna do horrible things. Haha... And now look at you, you’re an empty shell.. And any fear that I once had of you has turned into nothing more than putrid, hateful pity. It’s coming."
"His hands may have created this world, but mine will destroy it. Limbo is no place for a soul like yours. I'm waiting for you..."
"What shakes the heart of a man that can never truly die? I believe I’ve found the answer! The answer lives within me. The answer is the creature that lives behind my eyes. The answer is Bray Wyatt. Look around you, man. There’s nowhere left to go. The angel with the burnt wings cometh. Its time. Find me. Find me... Or I'll find you"
From there every episode of both SmackDown Live and Raw until March 9th contained some form of Bray Wyatt promo. Scouring through them for clues a number of other users believe they have identified the erroneous lines of dialogue that, when reassembled, make up the secret message.
To confound matters Wyatt then acknowledged a 4th clue over the weekend, confirming that a January 29th promo was also included in the run, before then adding a 5th clue that the lines from each promo are to be taken in order as well as... well, read for yourself.
Quite what the hell this will reveal, if indeed it reveals anything at all, is open to interpretation but it's a timely reminder of how Wyatt is willing to go the extra mile in his character work. The Wyatt Family was haphazardly booked for years, and his initially promising singles push was killed by WWE's refusal to ever actually allow him to win a feud, but hopefully this new gimmick will be given the space it needs to breathe.
What this eventually leads to though is anyone's guess, but with the promos in question relating squarely to The Undertaker, his name is being bandied about as a probable (albeit incredibly unlikely) opponent. The inclusion of the line "do I have everybody's attention now?" also setting a number of people off down the usual CM Punk Return Confirmed avenue. Answers on a postcard.
The full thread (along with any number of probable guesses) can be found here.