How The Fiend Saved Bray Wyatt
Scripted promos are a plague on modern WWE programming. A problem since Stephanie McMahon's promotion to the top of WWE's creative pile in 2002, they, amongst other factors, have contributed to a roster of stifled, clipped-winged wrestlers who share the same droning, flavourless voice. Sure, they're a popular target, but their role in WWE's artistic demise can't be understated.
It's no coincidence that WWE's most compelling talkers are those with greater freedom of expression - men and women like Becky Lynch and Samoa Joe. Bray and his Firefly Fun House fell into this category.
June brought news that Wyatt, not WWE's colossal crew of sitcom and reality TV writers, was writing the Fun House himself. The puppets, the call-backs to his old self, the not-so-subtle chainsaw/cardboard cutout allegory, The Fiend's mask: each had started as ideas in the performer's head. That's why it never lulled, and why the WWE locker-room emptied to watch each new Fun House segment as it aired.
It was a very un-WWE move from a control-obsessed company who rarely relinquish their iron grip. They should be applauded for it. Had the writers or - gasp - Vince himself taken control, history suggests that things might not have gone so well for Wyatt and his new alter ego, The Fiend, who'd probably be singing nursery rhymes to Kayla Braxton by now.
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