10 Things Only '90s Wrestling Fans Will Understand
3. What The Word 'Over' Really Means
People think the Fiend is a star.
Are you joking?
Look at the numbers. They have spiralled with the Fiend as a featured character on WWE programming. I know some of you are thick, but "down" is worse than "up".
But but merch!
The money is drawn by the same intensely dedicated people, all of whom are the type to Photoshop insert blonde women's wrestler with black hair because they want so desperately to make Sister Abigail A Thing.
The Fiend isn't star. Before the "PC Era," he generated a noise pitched somewhere between mystified silence (TLC 2019) and intense, prolonged boos (Hell In A Cell 2019). There's something modern WWE fans aren't aware of, and it's very easy to learn - just the one syllable! - and it's called a "pop". The Fiend hasn't once worked a match of any measurable length throughout which fans have been super into it for the duration. Wearing a cool mask and telling the most easily eviscerated long-term story in all of wrestling isn't the stardust left behind the trail of a genius.
Nobody ever went apesh*t for a Fiend match. Nobody is scared of the scary Fiend character. He isn't over.
If he was over, people would be in thrall to his work, and not pointing out that the last time he "came into contact" with Braun Strowman, Strowman "changed" into a dancer two months later on SmackDown.