How The Fiend Saved Bray Wyatt

August saw Pro Wrestling Sheet's Ryan Satin break the news that WWE held off on having The Fiend appear on the post-SummerSlam Raw and SmackDown because they want the character to feel special. They want the audience to never know when he's going to strike.

This should be music to many a fan's ears. In today's WWE, gimmicks like Wyatt's always succumb to the grind and churn of weekly television. Overexposure is an aura-diminishing pox that makes even the most intriguing characters boring and mundane (see: Shinsuke Nakamura, Asuka, etc.). A performer can't feel "special" when you see them every single week, without fail, and the report suggests the promotion finally understand this.

Once more: very un-WWE.

And yet WWE's wild Sports Entertainment universe is the only place a character like this can exist.

The Fiend is the best kind of wrestling pantomime act and has more in common with a horror movie villain or a comic book character than a traditional wrestler. NJPW's sports-centric product can't produce content like this, and whether or not AEW's can remains to be seen. WWE have failed at this countless times before, of course, but perhaps using uncharacteristic traits to get The Fiend over will be a lesson to them.

Perhaps they'll now use the lessons learned in reviving Bray Wyatt's career and apply them elsewhere. His story shows that no matter how buried or diminished someone might be, there's always a way out. This was no accident, either. WWE didn't stumble upon this. In collaboration with Bray, they've plotted a meticulous path from the abyss to greatness, and while none of it is rocket science, credit is due.

Now think what the same approach could do for an Asuka, Nakamura, Drew McIntyre, or anyone else in WWE's undermined middle tier.