10 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE SummerSlam 2019

3. Bray Nails ‘The Fiend’s’ Debut

Finn Balor Bray Wyatt
WWE.com

You might not have been able to tell, but a lot was riding on Bray Wyatt debuting his Fiend character in his first match back at SummerSlam.

Wyatt has gotten the chance to reinvent himself, and this new character was doing quite well in vignettes for months, but if he couldn’t translate it in the ring, then he’d be dead in the water.

However, Bray nailed it, with an over-the-top, creepy entrance that featured Fiend holding a lantern that actually was a model of the former Wyatt’s head. *Shiver* The remix of his entrance music was well done as well. Everything about the presentation was spot-on.

The match itself was fine, as Wyatt smartly didn’t wrestle exactly like his former self, adding some different mannerisms to the repertoire. He caught Finn Balor’s attempted Coup de Grace with a Mandible Claw, which gave him the convincing victory.

Overall, this was a pretty effective debut for the new character. It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep it up over time.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.