How WWE Can Reinvigorate Bray Wyatt

Since debuting on Raw as the leader of the Wyatt family on July 8th, 2013 Bray Wyatt has had some real ups and downs. Wyatt has always been strong on the mic and has managed to make most of the rubbish WWE writes for him sound interesting. He’s also very solid in the ring. He’s no AJ Styles, but he can still put on great performances if given the chance.

WWE clearly also believe in Bray Wyatt, as at back to back WrestleMania’s he faced John Cena at WrestleMania 30 and then Undertaker the next year at 31. Cena and Undertaker are two of the top stars to ever work for WWE, so for the company to decide Wyatt would face both of them in the space of two years shows they do think he have something.

However, despite WWE seeing something in Wyatt, he’s never really been “the guy”. He constantly loses feuds. Including both of the above-mentioned Mania matches. Also, despite being such a captivating character, Wyatt has only held Singles Championship gold once. Bray won the WWE Championship earlier this year at Elimination Chamber. But instead of being granted the long title run he deserved he lost the Championship less than two months later at WrestleMania in a ridiculous, boring match in which bugs were projected onto the ring.

Wyatt has been mistreated throughout his entire WWE main roster run and while the fans still seem interested in him, something doesn’t change soon Wyatt may lose the support of the fans. Here is how WWE can prevent that.

 

Let him recruit followers (and keep them)

A major trait of Bray Wyatt’s’ character is that he is a cult leader trying to recruit followers. However, at the moment Bray has zero. Also, when he does recruit them, they all turn on him. The three followers Bray has recruited on the main roster have been Daniel Bryan, who turned on him, Braun Strowman, who left the family when he got drafted to Raw, and most recently Randy Orton, who tricked Bray into thinking he been recruited before turning on him and taking the WWE Championship from him at Mania this year.

So, if WWE wants to make Bray Wyatt the star he can be, all they have to do is let him actually recruit followers and keep them instead of having them turn on him. A name that springs to mind is Nia Jax, a strong powerhouse who could hold the Raw Women’s Championship for a long time as a part of the Wyatt family. Big Cass could also join. A cult or stable needs a big monster and Bray could get Cass to be his, especially since Cass just split up with Enzo. And while WWE may want to push him as a singles star there are already too many top guys on Raw. Instead, Cass could join the Wyatt family and hold some Championship gold with the Wyatt’s. Possibly the tag titles as he and Enzo never won them, which Cass seemed upset about.

If Bray was able to recruit these two followers, or some other Superstars, and not have them turn on him it would make his character more believable. People would become more invested in a new look Wyatt family.

 

Back up his words

As well as being a cult leader Bray Wyatt also gives long speeches about how he is a god; how he is going to save everyone and how he is going to destroy anyone he feuds with. Wyatt has been giving these speeches for a while now, and the problem is not the delivery or anything to do with Bray. It’s the fact that 90% of the time he doesn’t back it up.

A recent perfect example of this was on the Raw after Extreme Rules this year. Bray main evented the PPV with Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe and Finn Balor in a match to decide who would face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at Great Balls of Fire. Bray did not win that match. What he did do though was come out the next night on Raw and cut a long promo on how he was going to take revenge on every single other person in that match.

Roman Reigns, a competitor in that match, then interrupted Bray because, you know, it’s his yard. The two then proceeded to have a match, and guess what? Bray Wyatt lost. This just shows WWE is setting Bray up to fail. They tell him to go out and say he’s going to crush everyone from the fatal five way, and then he falls at the first hurdle. This is just one of many times this has happened to Bray Wyatt and all it does is make him look weak and the fans stop believing him. If he never backs up what he says, why should they care what he says?

This problem is not even hard to fix. Just let Bray Wyatt actually back up what he says for a while and people will eat it up. After moving to Raw in the Superstar Shake-up in April, the “eater of worlds” is now in the perfect feud to do this. Wyatt has just started a feud with Seth Rollins. The pair have recently started a new storyline where Bray has promised he’s “gonna save you, Seth”.

Seth Rollins is clearly seen as a top guy in WWE and the fans also see him as a top star. So, this would be the perfect start for WWE to let Bray Wyatt back up his words. Let him save Seth, or at the very least at least let him win the feud. This will show that Bray does not just talk rubbish, and that he can actually win a big match. Do this and the fans will get behind Wyatt more than ever.

 

Turn him babyface

A simple way Bray Wyatt’s character can be reinvigorated is by turning him babyface. Wyatt has always been presented as a heel in WWE so a babyface turn would give the character some fresh new life.

There has been one episode of Raw in which Bray was face, and it was really entertaining, even with Roman Reigns in the segment. On April 16th, 2016 Bray Wyatt was forced to team up with Roman Reigns against Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio, who were a part of the League of Nations stable. Because Sheamus and Del Rio were the clear heels and WWE think Roman is a babyface Bray Wyatt was wrestling as a face that night. Despite being on a team with Roman, Bray actually got over as a face. The crowd were into the makeshift tag team and Wyatt himself seemed to enjoy it. One image that sticks in many people’s minds is the finish of the match, when Bray has Del Rio pinned and shoots his hands at an oncoming Sheamus, who Roman then spears to make sure Bray pins Del Rio for the win. It made for a cool visual and gave a glimpse of what Bray would be like as a face.

If Wyatt turned face he could, instead of trying to beat all the favourites, change his character slightly and go after all the heels as a sort of champion of the people. The fans would definitely get behind this as they already, for the most part, like Bray Wyatt. As demonstrated by his entrance, which still makes everyone in arenas everywhere turns their phone flashlights on to be ‘fireflies’.