10 Things Nobody Has Told You About Wrestling Yet
2. Supernatural Wrestling Doesn't Work In WWE
Supernatural wrestling doesn't work in the context of WWE and almost invariably fails as a result.
The Undertaker character was at its worst when WWE indulged the nonsensical supernatural element. The real magic resided in what was essentially parlour trick as metaphor. Many of his stunts were pulled to get his menace and intimidation over. The more hokey it all was, the worse it was.
Apply critical thought to the Fiend.
The Fiend was a near-indestructible entity, an alter-ego of the man Bray Wyatt. Unless you were Goldberg, it was almost impossible to weaken him. This person or thing was even set on fire, and lay there ostensibly dead, only to return from beyond the grave.
This sort of storytelling is perfectly acceptable in its own context. There is an entire, wildly popular pop culture genre devoted to it. The issue with a character like the Fiend is that other characters have to exist, uneasily, in the same context. That - and the thought of him learning an Irish whip in wrestling school and even going to wrestling school - is the key problem.
A character like the Fiend completely destroys our perception of the natural world, but virtually everybody else on the roster has to ignore it and pretend that they aren't in a horror film, that they haven't just witnessed magick unfold in front of their eyes. Imagine no-selling an alien invasion of earth. It wouldn't happen.
Your mind would be irrevocably altered - unless, of course, you're working Elias in seg seven and, in a good mood, feel like poking fun at him with some sh*te joke or other.
Supernatural wrestling is preposterous in and of itself and becomes even stupider when you consider its total lack of effect on every other character.