Bray Wyatt arguably had the best pre-debut vignettes in WWE history. He is possibly the best man on the roster at cutting promos (this side of Paul Heyman of course). Hes also put on some good, to great matches since his call back up to the main roster. So why does he mean so little right now? One thing that definitely didnt help him was a feud with John Cena. On paper, it must have sounded like a great plan. Give an aging Cena, the companys top babyface, a chance to help get a younger heel over. Bray gets more exposure, and Cena gets a fresh feud. Its a tried and true formula. But the way the angle played out only pushed Bray down in the card, and has left him largely directionless. Eventually he had to be taken off TV just to give fans some time away and for his character to be retooled. When you battle Cena, theres nowhere else to go but down. There arent enough over babyfaces in the company that can make the following feud feel anything but a downer. A better scenario would have been for Bray to first feud with talent like Sheamus and Ziggler, and win clean. Then he could have moved onto to legend type stars like Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam. Again, he would go over and fans are left wondering who can stop him. Then he takes on Cena. Instead, hes working his way backward. After Cena got the best of him, he moved onto Chris Jericho and lost the first fight! Sure, he got him in the end, but neither the feud or the matches were good enough to really benefit him. Hopefully the time away will help Bray in the short and long term, but he should never have had to leave had he been booked more consistently. Bray may talk of being a world eater, but instead, he and his Family have just been eating too many pinfalls.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
