10 Wrestlers Scarier Than The Fiend
Hey - you wanna see something really scary?
You're meant to be afraid of the Fiend. This is the key emotion the supernatural character should invoke.
The Fiend is not scary.
He was scary, at SummerSlam. The presentation was blinding. Literally; this was such a fantastic entrance - the mutated sinister metal remix of his theme, the symbolism of his daft old head dead in a lantern - that it obscured the evidence of a fairly hammy in-ring performance. The Fiend at one point snapped Finn Bálor's neck, and it wasn't the finish. The Fiend internally decapitated Finn Bálor, and it wasn't the finish. And, if he didn't internally decapitate Bálor, then the move was a hollow horror movie cliché that meant nothing - a not ideal microcosm of what the character actually is.
In subsequent appearances even outside of the Hell In A Cell sh*t-show, the Fiend was not scary. WWE went full panto ham with the presentation, with the "He's behind you!" attack of Jerry Lawler, and Seth Rollins' tearful fear was such poor acting that it threw the farce into sharp relief. A few growled "Let me ins" in the Firefly Fun House - he was nice a second ago! - is not scary.
Hey - you wanna see something really scary?
10. Jake Roberts
A signature prop is a fairly ambitious concept, and yields very mixed results.
Stan Hansen's bull rope worked because he was such an awesome, convincing brawler that it was as if he'd just rocked out of the saloon full of liquor, piss and vinegar. Triple H's sledgehammer meanwhile was dumb, because why would he need it, and where would he find it? Tables and chairs look like they might serve a use in assembling a ring - they are somewhat organic to the environment - but a sledgehammer?
Tellingly, the Fiend has already abandoned what may have become his bespoke prop: the comedy oversized mallet seen at Hell In A Cell. It was the opposite of scary. It was "f*cking stupid". Say he successfully struck Seth Rollins with it. What then? It wouldn't have looked like a brutal act of violence. It was ACME bullsh*t that stepped well beyond the audacious horror-comedy leanings of the character. He might as well use Rambin' Rambit as Mr. Socko for the Mandible assist.
Jake Roberts was a terrifying performer without his signature prop - a disquieting, malevolent presence - but the cobra he unleashed in the early '90s was actual, fabled nightmare fuel. The thing was so erratic in its deadly movement that, for the young fans watching, it looked capable of lunging forth from the TV screen.