How The Fiend Saved Bray Wyatt

Wyatt's hiatus was weird.

Removed from television when Hardy was injured, Bray's own absence was never explained. The following months were rife with speculation. Was he injured, holidaying, or in hot water? When would he return? Was he being repackaged? Reforming The Wyatt Family? Leaving wrestling, temporarily, to start a real-life family with JoJo Offerman?

Wrestling media was flooded with reports, but nobody had the answers. Nothing was concrete. Brief returns to the live event circuit in November and December brought further spikes in coverage, but eventually, inevitably, talk of what was going on with Wyatt died down.

The Firefly Fun House first aired in April 2019. The first time the new Bray was seen in the flesh was when he leapt from shadows to attack Finn Bálor in July. Given that his previous live televised appearance was in August 2018, that means almost a full year had passed.

As weird as it was, that the former Husky Harris went missing for so damn long is among the key reasons his return has gone so well. WWE gave us a chance to miss Wyatt by keeping him away from television between Aug '18 and Jul '19. Such a lengthy absence was necessary for the heart to grow fonder, given how diminished the character and, indeed, performer, had become. Whether this was by design or a happy accident doesn't matter: it worked.

So too did the decision to put the paintbrush back in the artist's hands.

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