How The Fiend Saved Bray Wyatt

Nailing the Firefly Fun House was the first part of the masterplan. As always, an effective follow-up was imperative and again, WWE and Wyatt knocked it out of the park, bridging the gap between pre-taped segments and live appearances with unexpected nuance.

The 8 July episode of Monday Night Raw brought the first puppet sighting. Ricochet was walking backstage when Huskus the Pig was caught lurking behind a shipping crate. Its appearance went unnoticed by the announcers but viral after the show, with hordes of eagle-eyed fans reporting the sighting on social media, and this continued over the coming weeks, with Abby the Witch and Mercy the Buzzard joining their porcine pal.

One might typically expect WWE to beat the audience over the head with such things, but not this time. In throwing the puppets onto Raw and SmackDown without acknowledgement, WWE, in a refreshing move, put trust in their audience. They wanted you to notice these things for yourself. The Subtlety Hammer was left in the toolbox and the new Wyatt's mystique was maintained through restraint, care, and faith.

Again, very un-WWE.

But this format always had a finite shelf-life. The true test of Bray and The Fiend's viability would come when he started making regular televised appearances and after downing Bálor in July, Wyatt's in-ring return was set...

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