With The Undertaker's inevitable retirement looming ever nearer, and his sibling-cum-spinoff Kane currently in a suit and tie, WWE needs a new form of darkness to fill the void that these two will eventually leave behind. Attempts have been made in the past, ranging from unsuccessful (Mordecai) to utterly nonsensical (The Boogeyman) but with the Bray Wyatt character, they have finally hit it out of the park. The persona adopted by Windham Rotunda is Max Cady, Charles Manson and Raven all rolled into one, evolving gradually from a Louisiana swamp style gentleman in FCW to the utter lunatic he is today. On the microphone, he is absolutely outstanding; with his promos in FCW and NXT, he was almost like a preacher of some cult church. He can sometimes border on Ultimate Warrior-style nonsense, but he says it all with such conviction that you believe he IS the character, not someone reading lines. For a time, naysayers would comment that his in-ring work would be his ultimate failing. The way his character nuances affect the way he moves can be perceived by some as sloppy, and the fact that he always had his Family at ringside (totally necessary to the persona, though) made his matches somewhat predictable. Bray silenced all the doubters at The Royal Rumble with his match against Daniel Bryan. They went back and forth, he looked like a violent torturer in the ring. He wasn't sloppy, he was vicious! On top of that, their match was the first time I've heard a "HOLY S**T!" chant at a WWE show in years. Bray Wyatt and his Family will be around for a long time, and will come to be known as a force to be reckoned with. Will they make money for the machine? I think so, they already have a number of cool t-shirts (Never underestimate the marketability of a cool t-shirt. Or to put it another way, Dolph Ziggler's shirts are pink. No wonder nobody buys them) and have you seen how many sheep masks and fedoras are in the audience lately? At 26 years old, time is definitely on Bray's side
Stephen Maher has been a rock star, a bouncer, a banker and a busker on various streets in various countries. He's hung out with Robert Plant, he was at Nelson Mandela's birthday and he's swapped stories with prostitutes and crack addicts. He once performed at a Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras by accident. These days, he passes the time by writing about music, wrestling, games and other forms of nerdery. And he rarely drinks the blood of the innocent.
