7 Ups & 8 Downs From One Year Of Bray Wyatt’s Fiend In WWE
2. Royal Rumble's Strap Match
Reborn baby Daniel Bryan and Bray's 'Fiend' had an underrated collision at January's Royal Rumble. Their 'Strap Match' was an improvement on their scrap at the prior November's Survivor Series for several reasons. Its success owed a lot to the match stipulation, but WWE also moved away from that pesky red lighting that had blighted several Wyatt bouts.
Thank God for that.
As mentioned before, Bray hasn't had many standout matches during his run as the 'Fiend'. Often, he relies on stalling tactics, cinematic flavouring or splashes of horror to try and pad out his performances, but the Rumble was a worthwhile exception. It was more of a traditional, big time title match than anything else he's done.
It's just a pity that WWE transitioned out of this fine fare into that squash disaster against Goldberg at Super ShowDown. It also must be said that Wyatt vs. Bryan didn't need the Universal Title to make it watchable. They could've feuded for other reasons.