Is The Fiend Being Toned Down By WWE?

Some would say that there hasn’t been many introductions to a character that have taken the breath of the audience such as how Bray Wyatt’s ‘The Fiend’ character. Coming out to a brand new theme song performed by punk band Code Orange, a lantern looking identical to Bray Wyatt’s face, and an attire based from a horror movie carnival, the months of build truly paid off. The praises have been sung by fans and fellow wrestlers alike, but could we see a change coming to the character already?

Various rumors have stated that Wyatt’s character change wasn’t as popular with top advertisers of WWE. Many of them apparently fear that The Fiend was too intense for the younger viewers, and they would like for him to tone some of the more horrifying theatrics down. One of the rumored ideas was to get rid of the head lantern.

Another idea could be waiting to put Wyatt on television later into the show so that the younger audience could already be tuned out. The plan should honestly be to keep the character off television sporadically to ensure The Fiend remains a fresh character and never knowing when he will appear again. It was really a surprise to not see Wyatt on the Raw or Smackdown after SummerSlam and this was supposedly the issue behind the absence.

WWE has really turned into a PG product over the last decade, but this is still a show made up of people hurting each other and with that comes a lot of violence and adult-like sequences. It isn’t a cartoon, but should be a setting where everyone can enjoy the product. Millions of men, women, and children alike watch WWE yearly and they have seen things such as Brock Lesnar busting people open, The Boogeyman eating worms by the handful, and a variety of curse words.

This idea of Wyatt’s has become one of the most popular characters in all of professional wrestling in just a short time. Neither of the alter egos were ever looked at as family friendly and the fanfare has arguably been more than any superstar in recent memory.

A few small tweaks could be afforded, but changing the entire character would be a bad move seeing how much attention and love the fans are already giving it off of one appearance. Whether it is The Firefly Funhouse version of Bray Wyatt or The Fiend, there has to be more from this character, and politics and advertisers shouldn’t play a role in changing a character that has had so much thought and creativity put into it.