The Ringer: All Posts by Tom Beasley2021-05-20T06:30:00-04:00https://www.theringer.com/authors/tom-beasley/rss2021-05-20T06:30:00-04:002021-05-20T06:30:00-04:00Is Orange Cassidy Too Funny to Be Champion?
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<p>Is AEW star Orange Cassidy too funny to be world champion? We’ll find out next Sunday.</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap" id="CMu5GH">As the Pixies track “Where Is My Mind?” rang out around Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida, on April 28, the fans in attendance went wild. Lying flat on the mat was the renowned luchador Penta El Zero Miedo, while the man who had just bested him—with the help of a microphone to the face—was a scruffy-looking slacker wearing jeans named Orange Cassidy. He had spent a sizable portion of the match with his hands in his pockets. This is a crucial part of his shtick. He also wears sunglasses in the ring and his offense is that of someone play-fighting as a wrestler. He’s too cool for wrestling. Throughout the 17 years of his career, he has been loudly dismissed (even by his fans) as a comedy sideshow unfit for the upper echelons of professional wrestling. And now, against all odds, he had secured one of the biggest victories of his career, putting him in pole position to challenge for the most prestigious championship in his organization. At the <em>Double or Nothing</em> event on May 30, Cassidy will get in the ring with two of the world’s greatest wrestlers—the vicious PAC and multi-company champion Kenny Omega—with a glittering title belt just one pinfall away.</p>
<p id="pCbY4M">It’s clear that All Elite Wrestling (AEW), the upstart pro wrestling league founded by wrestlers including Omega and Cody Rhodes and Jaguars co-owner Tony Khan, has big plans for Orange Cassidy. At a time when wrestling’s peculiar entertainment qualities have made it more of a punch line than a beloved mainstream art form, many are turning to the serious side of the game, emphasizing otherworldly athleticism (or physical pain and suffering) over trumped up (fake) story lines. But Cassidy zagged, turning “funny” into a niche. The lackadaisical offense that has handed him the moniker “The King of Sloth Style” is both delightfully postmodern and a throwback to the crowd-pleasing clowns of the earliest days of televised wrestling. But in a time when fans are smart to the inner workings of the wrestling world, is throwback comedy still a sure path to fan adoration and financial success? Is this a bubble on the verge of bursting into a sticky mess of rotting citrus? After all, this is the first time Cassidy’s cult popularity has been placed in front of an international TV audience.</p>
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<p id="2yhlRU">Cassidy’s style is effectively a melding of classic pro wrestling clown work—which dates back as far as wrestling itself—with the more self-aware winks and nods that have become the hallmark of AEW’s top stars. The character is a jaded millennial caricature, billed from “wherever” at a weight of “whatever.” He has no respect for the pageantry and the sporting spectacle of traditional “wrasslin” and, instead, beguiles his opponents by just how little he appears to care. Cassidy described the character<a href="https://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/29511370/orange-cassidy-unlikely-breakout-star-2020-barely-even-trying"> to ESPN in 2020</a> as “a giant middle finger to professional wrestling” and said in<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thVHAHJ1Mig"> a YouTube documentary by Kenny Johnson</a> that the character’s motivation is that he’s “a wrestler who doesn’t wanna wrestle; whatever he can do just to get by is what he’s gonna do.” His hands in his pockets, he is just as likely to deliver a comically weak array of kicks as he is to unleash a sudden, explosive burst of speed. Yet even though he doesn’t always try very hard, when he does, he’s a legitimate savant.</p>
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<p id="iZZaWb">Cassidy’s AEW coworker Colt Cabana has been injecting comedy into the wrestling world throughout his decade-plus career on the independent circuit and has crossed paths with Cassidy several times. “I’ve been in there with many comedy wrestlers,” he says. “But when I was in there with Orange Cassidy—especially our first match, which was at this weird flea market mall—it was really something else. As we were talking about the match, I found myself just laughing out loud and then, during the match, I found myself laughing out loud. If that can happen to me—someone who’s jaded and has been around—then I know it’s a real thing and I know he’s good at what he does.”</p>
<p id="9WD5Yv">Laughter is one thing, but big-time success for comedy acts is a rarity. Though he’s been massively popular since joining his new company, the first real glimmers of Cassidy as a potential main-eventer came in February 2020 at the <em>Revolution</em> pay-per-view, nine months after his AEW debut. His loose style found its perfect foil in the hyperaggressive seriousness of the aforementioned PAC—a vicious man with no time for shenanigans. The match was a master class, as Cassidy sought to confuse and irritate PAC with his comic timing and speed, before fighting back with a surprising surge of babyface fire. He ended up losing, although any skeptics in the audience will have left with little doubt as to why Cassidy is so beloved and why AEW seems to value him so greatly. Cassidy and PAC clashed once again on the May 12 episode of <em>AEW Dynamite</em>, with honors shared on this occasion as both men were counted out, earning them a triple-threat title match.</p>
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<p id="1ACZUr">Since that match, Cassidy has continued to climb the card. He’s wildly popular with the AEW fan base and frequently ranks among the company’s<a href="https://cultaholic.com/posts/cody-rhodes-reveals-how-aew-evaluate-the-popularity-of-their-roster-members"> top merchandise earners</a>. Cassidy spent most of last summer embroiled in a rivalry with former champion Chris Jericho, which delicately walked the line between sublime and ridiculous. Yes, it culminated in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOSOGoUWTG4">slapstick spectacle</a> based on enormous quantities of mimosa, but it was a fiery feud driven by personal issues that burned hotter than the tangerine hue of Jericho’s juice-stained suit jacket. There was room for Cassidy the clown, along with the opportunity to expand his repertoire beyond a handful of repeated comedy skits. Those routines worked on the indie circuit, where he played to different audiences every weekend, but it’s difficult to maintain that level of success when just shy of a million viewers are watching him week in and week out.</p>
<p id="z95qNT">“Wrestling acts are a lot like stand-up comedy,” grappling historian Bradley Craig says. “If you only have one joke to tell, your act gets pretty stale.”</p>
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<p class="p--has-dropcap" id="poSteg">Cassidy is part of a long tradition of comedy wrestlers—performers who understand that evoking laughter is an important tool in the utility belt to get an audience on their side. </p>
<p id="F2jnZS">Of course, there are many parallels between professional wrestling and the world of traditional clowning. WWE megastar <a href="https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2015/12/becky-lynch-on-going-to-clown-college-604686/">Becky Lynch</a> actually trained as a clown and attributes her in-ring charisma to time spent learning how to carry out violent slapstick while wearing a red nose and oversized shoes. Vivian Gladwell, founder of clown training company Nose to Nose, says the deep connection between a clown and the audience also applies to comedic wrestlers. “It’s a dialogue between the performer and the audience, whereas you expect less of that when you go to a theater. The more you go toward this dialogue, the more improvised it becomes and the more playful and funny it can become. The first thing about comedy is that you have this deep connection and conversation with the audience.”</p>
<p id="10Bgau">Much of that connection, Gladwell suggests, comes from the clown’s willingness to take a beating in order to ultimately emerge victorious. He says: “In wrestling, the hero has to go through a pretty terrible beat-up. The audience has to feel they are going to lose before they can win. If you learn about clowning, you know that. In order to make a good story, you have to become the victim before you can be the hero. The underdog. It’s big stuff. It’s not subtle. It’s big emotions and it can be very dark and very cruel.”</p>
<p id="3Oa3RB">Pro wrestling is an athletic endeavor, of course, but it’s also about personality. Crowds will overlook someone being second best physically if they genuinely want that person to emerge victorious. Nowhere is this more evident than in the success of Scottish wrestler Grado—a man whose gimmick is essentially that of an enthusiastic fan. He’s an everyman who has somehow earned his spot in the ring and has a chance to live his dream as a result.</p>
<p id="hoUS7n">Unlike many performers who focus on comedy, Grado has consistently appeared in main events and won world championships. He is a former heavyweight champion in the Scottish company Insane Championship Wrestling and also emerged from the 2016 reboot special for U.K. grappling showcase <em>World of Sport</em> as that brand’s champion, holding the title until he was dethroned in the opening episode of the short-lived series, which aired in 2018. He has also appeared in the States, both for Impact Wrestling and in smaller independents.</p>
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<p id="3nL6FN">Grado is the latest example of comedy wrestling in Britain, which, as with so much of wrestling’s best elements, dates back to the dominance of joint promotions and the original incarnation of <em>World of Sport</em> in U.K. culture during the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, some of the most memorable comic performers in wrestling history made their name, including Jackie “Mr TV” Pallo, the athletic Vic Faulkner, fighting ballet dancer Ricki Starr, and the bruising but hilarious Les Kellett. Even more technically minded performers like Johnny Saint and Steve Grey often deployed moments of levity in the ring, with Saint frequently rolling himself into a ball and offering a hand to his unsuspecting foe, who would inevitably take it and find themselves immediately ensnared within a serious predicament. Delighted crowds lapped it up.</p>
<p id="obNITa">Colt Cabana says: “Vic Faulkner would wrestle like it was a fun, friendly competition. It always seemed like he wanted to win, but he was having fun and enjoying himself. A Michael Jordan or a LeBron are the best, but they’re enjoying themselves. We see these pictures of Michael Jordan with his tongue out or shrugging. We know this is the ultimate competition, but you see this competitor also having fun. That’s where I take a lot of my influence from and the justification for what I do. We’re having fun while doing what we’re great at and also we’re so good at what we’re doing that we’re able to have fun while we’re doing it. That was really hammered home for me by watching <em>World of Sport</em>.”</p>
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<p id="N47ATb">It’s Kellett, though, who perhaps exerts the greatest influence on the in-ring comedians of today, with the likes of Cabana citing the Brit as a major inspiration. Born in the predominantly working class Yorkshire city of Bradford, Kellett worked as an engineer in the merchant navy before making the jump to professional wrestling. He was a bona fide fighter, notoriously feared by those backstage as one of the toughest competitors in any given locker room. In the ring, though, he was a smiling babyface who took great pleasure in frustrating heels with his immense gift for comic timing. Craig says: “His gimmick was a blue-collar tough guy, and the comedy that he would employ would be to do with the use of his force. He would, for example, engage in a knuckle lock and then put them in some sort of compromising position where they were forced to simulate the tango.” Much as Orange Cassidy is capable of side-stepping or ducking at just the right moment, trying to get hold of Kellett was like attempting to catch smoke. He would feign a punch-drunk stupor, only to move at just the right time and ensnare his irate opponent in a technically proficient pinning predicament. In his recent clash with PAC, Cassidy’s decision to slowly roll the full length of the ring to avoid an aerial attack was straight from the Kellett playbook.</p>
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<p id="QkjzKR">“Les Kellett is obviously my favorite because he understands comedy and comedic timing so well,” says Cabana. “He was brilliant for what he was trying to do. Do I think he was the best wrestler ever technically? No. Did he make me laugh the most? Probably, yes.”</p>
<p id="WTc4Zx">One of Kellett’s most memorable performances was<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXhMHHR4s1k"> in a contest with Leon Arras</a>, filmed in Gravesend, England, in 1974. The match is renowned to this day as one of the funniest wrestling bouts ever fought, with Arras’s arrogance constantly met with a smile and a show of strength by the mischievous Kellett. Notably, Arras was no comedic slouch himself and, after carving out a career in the ring, he made the move to television and cinema using his real name: Brian Glover. In Britain, he’s more well known for his comic standout role as the sports teacher in the Ken Loach drama <em>Kes</em> than he is for his antics in the squared circle.</p>
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<p id="eKFzip">For Cabana, Les Kellett’s selective approach to who he would battle was as much a part of securing his legacy as were his own comedic antics. “It takes two. Leon Arras is just as brilliant as Les Kellett. Kellett knew that. He knew the opponents to pick. And I know that, too, as a wrestler. There’s a lot of times where promoters think, ‘Oh, these two guys are funny, let’s put them together and it’ll be funny.’ I’ll do it, but in the back of my head I’m like, ‘This is the wrong person to put me with because there’s no straight man.’ A lot of the time, when I get put with another funny person, I become the straight man because I’m the only one who realizes they need a straight man. It can’t be two goofs going against each other because it cancels itself out.”</p>
<p id="DADlt2">Gladwell adds that this is another principle that wrestling borrows from clowning, referring to the notion of “polarity” between clowns and the authority figures they ridicule. “In clowning, your power doesn’t necessarily come from you. It comes from the way your partners play with you. In other words, the performance is basically a collaboration rather than ‘I am the biggest and the strongest.’ It’s a collaborative art and you agree to play those roles. We call it the principle of polarity. You have to go either very strong or very weak. A lot of comedy is based on pushing extreme polarities like that.”</p>
<p id="Ar36zw">This has certainly proved true for Cassidy, whose best moments come against opponents who are at least partially linked to the bread-and-butter toughness of more straight-faced wrestling. PAC’s arrogance against a clownish competitor is straight from the Arras school, while Cody Rhodes was effectively <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inweNeOB4SE">fighting for the purity of grappling</a> in his contests with the slovenly Cassidy over the TNT Championship. It’s no coincidence that one of their bouts was sold on the basis of Rhdoes forcing Cassidy to actually lock up with his opponent for once. Even Jericho—a man known for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s83qeS54K0s">embracing comedy</a> at times—amped up the more serious side of his heel persona to serve as a foil for Cassidy’s more ridiculous antics.</p>
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<p class="p--has-dropcap" id="xhkk17">There’s certainly an art to being funny in a wrestling ring. This difficulty is perhaps not grasped by those who decry comedy as something likely to “expose the business” or as somehow lesser than high-end grappling or the pure brutality of something like the exploding <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we0ka401c-A">barbed wire death match</a> that AEW recently put on between Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega. There’s a fine balance to be struck between moments of humor and the necessary suspension of disbelief that makes wrestling work. Even a comedy performer has to look like they’re trying to win the match. Cabana describes his own style, to that point, as “justified comedy.”</p>
<p id="I2Y7eo">“You have to be good at the wrestling, so that the comedy on top of the wrestling is good,” says Cabana. “Comedy isn’t taught in wrestling school, so you either have a natural gift of comedic timing or you have gone and studied comedy and have brought it to wrestling. … You have to be able to walk before you can run and put the bricks before you can build the mansion. … Orange has a wonderful base of wrestling. He has been trained so great and has been wrestling as a wrestlers’ wrestler for so long.”</p>
<p id="ocWHYX">Often, comedic wrestlers deploy their gags and slapstick pratfalls in an attempt to befuddle their opponents, creating openings for them to pursue offense or secure a swift victory. The pirouettes and fleet-footed dance steps of Ricki Starr were never going to directly beat his opponents, but they did ensure that he had his foes off-balance and unsure what to expect. “It was comedy, but it didn’t cross into farce too much,” says Craig. “The idea was that he was using some kind of subversive technique to beguile his opponent, then unleash his attack. It became not too incredible for the audience to believe in it.”</p>
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<p id="GiIFjl">For some performers, though, the comedy is in the way they twist the wrestling arts to fit their own ends. New Japan Pro-Wrestling has more of a reputation for aping legitimate sport than the soap-opera-inspired world of WWE and the other big American promotions, but it’s also home to the dastardly antics of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQe2RMx0ccM">Toru Yano</a>—perhaps the most successful comedic heel in modern professional wrestling. Yano has never quite ascended to the company’s main-event level—though he was crowned the inaugural King of Pro-Wrestling in the summer of 2020—but he’s a consistent cog in the NJPW machine, and one for whom fans have a great deal of affection, despite his status as a perennial villain. Yano’s matches are not the 45-minute classics put on by the likes of Tetsuya Naito or Kazuchika Okada, but they’re hugely entertaining as Yano finds every technique possible to hit a low blow or remove a turnbuckle pad in search of a grubby victory. In 2019, he dealt Jon Moxley his first defeat in NJPW when he taped the American brawler’s leg to young lion Shota Umino, resulting in a count-out.</p>
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<p id="CVkIph">Yano has traditionally been deployed as comic relief amid the packed, high-octane cards that have made New Japan’s name in recent years as the place to go for sports-focused wrestling. His character somewhat subverts the received wisdom that comedy gimmicks have to evolve and change to maintain staying power, which is a testament to his wide array of tricks and traps. While comedy babyfaces are almost always the purveyors of jokes, Yano’s heel alignment means he’s often the butt of them. His failures are as funny as his successes. His techniques are as old as the hills, but his presentation makes him one of the great comedians of a very modern era.</p>
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<p class="p--has-dropcap" id="Si6Pzy">Comedy in wrestling has become even more prominent in recent years, reflecting an increasingly savvy audience with a desire to peek behind the curtain at the inner workings of the business. AEW’s stars have been at the vanguard of this movement, with the likes of Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks imbuing their characters with comedy both in the ring and online through their popular <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2V6TA0OqHr9BojcHz9az-w"><em>Being the Elite</em></a> YouTube show. “AEW was born out of tongue-in-cheek and a nod to the clichés of wrestling,” says Cabana. “The Bucks are so good at that, making fun of the tropes. It’s something that really got me over at a time when no one was doing that. The company was born off of winking to the audience. It’s amazing that they’re staying true to that, which I love.”</p>
<p id="iDRZfn">AEW is in an interesting position when it comes to comedy. One of the key selling points of the brand ahead of its debut on television was the idea of tossing “sports entertainment” aside in favor of a more legitimate presentation.<a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/all-elite-wrestling-tnt-aew-1203207820/"> Cody Rhodes said in May 2019</a> that he wanted the show to be “the sports-centric alternative in the pro wrestling world” while boss<a href="https://www.sescoops.com/tony-khan-says-aew-will-have-a-serious-sports-based-product/"> Tony Khan teased</a> “a serious, sport-based product.” To some extent that has come to pass, with win-loss records displayed during wrestler entrances and the system of competitor rankings occasionally, but certainly not always, feeding into who receives a title shot. Given the prominence of the sports-based approach in the prerelease spiel, AEW has received some justified criticism about its more outlandish segments, such as the return to TV of Matt Hardy’s “Broken” persona—complete with drones, dilapidated boats, and reincarnating lakes—and the musical interlude of the divisive Le Dinner Debonair.</p>
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<p id="Gi4cKW">It’s easy to see why fans tuning in to see something based on real sports might be turned off by gimmick matches and song-and-dance numbers, but it’s equally tempting to overstate these criticisms. Wrestling is, at its heart, a variety show, with room for everything. The best wrestling cards contain eye-catching athletic moves, technically proficient grappling, slapstick comedy, and out-there oddity. However, AEW has largely maintained a very legitimate feel in its main-event picture, regardless of the variety on display in the undercard. Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, and Kenny Omega have kept things fairly serious during their reigns as AEW World Champion, fighting in feuds based on personal issues. Moxley’s intense rivalry with Eddie Kingston was driven by a palpable sense of hatred and culminated at the <em>Full Gear</em> pay-per-view in a bloody fight for physical dominance, while Moxley and Omega’s aforementioned death match was one of the most violent matches a mainstream promotion has aired in many years.</p>
<p id="ZSMCnn">The eternal snarky comment of the non-wrestling fan is, “You know that stuff’s fake, don’t you?” On some level, it’s what all of modern pro wrestling struggles against. Often the means of answering that question has come from violence, from blood, as if to defiantly shout, “Oh yeah, you think THIS is fake?” through a dripping crimson mask. But Cassidy knowingly takes it as far in the other direction as he can shuffle. “If you think I don’t know this isn’t real,” he seems to be saying, “then what does that say about you?” </p>
<p id="7bgKGH">So where does Orange Cassidy go from here? He has climbed the mountain to a title match, but it’s difficult to imagine him, in his current form, managing to dethrone Kenny Omega and reach the pinnacle of the business. Cassidy is someone who’s clearly on the way up the card, but risks slamming into a glass ceiling—presumably with an over-the-top comedic sound effect as he does so—and subsequently tumbling back into undercard purgatory.</p>
<p id="2Lmiv9">Craig says: “I think that Orange Cassidy absolutely needs to evolve, but he needs to stay true to the character. We’re in a completely new era for wrestlers. AEW is able to take in so many wrestlers without force-feeding the generic stereotype of what made a wrestler in terms of the mainstream. A person Orange Cassidy’s size would not have been a star in the WWF in 2001. He might have been a manager or in some sort of novelty match. For Orange Cassidy to make it as a sustainable main-eventer, he will have to add quite a significant amount of depth.”</p>
<p id="wHMC4g">The signs are there that Cassidy is doing exactly that. He showed serious babyface fire in the feud with Jericho, and his clashes with Rhodes last year were light on the sort of shtick that has been his bread and butter for years. Cabana points out that the basic dynamic of a fun-loving babyface attempting to overcome the fun-hating heel works in the undercard, but that wrestling comedians often naturally strip away aspects of the gimmick when they’re working on a bigger stage.</p>
<p id="cl9OpL">“That’s the weird thing about comedy wrestling. Comedy wrestlers can be main-eventers but, when that main event comes, it won’t really have any comedy in it,” he says. “Comedy is the device that the wrestler used to get over. You look at Jericho and Orange and, yeah, the aspects of the mimosa can give you a chuckle, but the broader aspect was a serious match of trying to win and not trying to lose. That comes down to knowing the basic formula of wrestling.”</p>
<p id="l5WwEt">Wherever Orange Cassidy goes next, his combination of the physical comedy of Les Kellett with the postmodern stylings of the Young Bucks has certainly left a mark on modern pro wrestling. As wrestling audiences become smarter and more knowledgeable as to the inner workings of the business, the notion of a performer willing to play with that knowledge and use it to create an entirely different art form is potentially compelling. Whether it will carry him to championship gold at <em>Double or Nothing</em> remains to be seen, but Cassidy’s rise has certainly been one of the most intriguing Cinderella stories in recent wrestling memory.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="UipV8I">As far as Cabana’s concerned, the sky’s the limit for the King of Sloth Style. “There are only so many masters at [comedy wrestling], but there are a lot of imitators. And I do think Orange Cassidy is a master of it.”</p>
<p id="oFHt2F"><em>Tom Beasley is a U.K.-based film and entertainment journalist. He’s a lover of horror, musicals, and wrestling—but not usually at the same time.</em></p>
https://www.theringer.com/2021/5/20/22444583/orange-cassidy-aew-double-or-nothing-comedy-wrestlingTom Beasley2020-04-03T11:54:12-04:002020-04-03T11:54:12-04:00‘WrestleMania 36’: Let’s Get Weird
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<p>This weekend’s ‘WrestleMania 36’ is pretaped, audience-free, and two nights long. It’s going to be the strangest ‘WrestleMania’ ever. It could also be great.</p> <p id="DEfFqB">WWE is the last man standing. Sporting and entertainment events all over the planet have fallen like dominoes in the wake of the dreadful and terrifying coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe. None of this, however, has stopped Vince McMahon from marching defiantly toward <em>WrestleMania</em>—the jewel in his company’s annual calendar. If the world right now is like the beginning of <em>28 Days Later ...</em>, <em>WrestleMania</em> is Cillian Murphy’s character, stumbling through an eerily quiet world unaware that everything else has changed irreversibly.</p>
<p id="tgIQvw">But WWE is aware of what’s happening, and it’s leaning into it in a unique way by turning this <em>WrestleMania</em> into a strange sandbox for the creative staff’s oddest ideas. This year’s Showcase of the Immortals has the feel of a brainstorming session in which every unhinged notion scrawled in Sharpie on the conference room flipboard has been thrown into a turkey baster and spewed out as a bizarre entertainment homunculus. And yet, it’s exactly that which makes it a must-watch spectacular.</p>
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<p id="waLNkw">Nobody knows how <em>WrestleMania</em> is going to pan out. WWE is trying a selection of mad ideas, from the cinematic approach to several matches to the embrace of the long-mooted idea of spreading the show over two nights. Rather than resting on its laurels and trundling down the path of least resistance, WWE has spun the wheel into a handbrake turn and steered directly into the weirdness. This could very well be a trainwreck on par with the furry freak show of Tom Hooper’s <em>Cats</em>, but it could just as easily be the most entertaining <em>WrestleMania</em> in years.</p>
<p id="vjuCIz">Most importantly, it doesn’t actually matter. Nobody expects anything from this <em>WrestleMania </em>and there’s very little competition for a televised event on this scale, so WWE can’t really lose.</p>
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<p id="meRFUM">In a world of uncertainty, WWE has been something of a constant—albeit a zany, unpredictable one. For several weeks, the company has been airing all of its weekly TV broadcasts from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, with no audience and a scaled-down apparatus. Some of those broadcasts emanated live from the facility, while the more recent ones have been prerecorded, just as <em>WrestleMania</em> has been ahead of its airing on the WWE Network on April 4 and 5.</p>
<p id="41vh5I">There’s no denying the weirdness this has brought about, with performers doing their thing in front of rows and rows of empty chairs. The novelty of this was undeniably intriguing in the first few weeks, with a particularly impressive promo segment between John Cena and Bray Wyatt—in his sweater-wearing, Mr. Rogers guise—<a href="https://twitter.com/meakoopa/status/1239131459572596736">compared on social media to the unique tension of a Samuel Beckett play</a>. For the most gifted actors on the WWE roster, the ability to perform without an audience has amplified their talents and given their promos an added intensity. Even the matches, initially at least, had an oddball luster that made them a morbid joy to watch, even if silence after a big move always feels like underselling the talent on show.</p>
<p id="op5loV">As the weeks have gone by, WWE has visibly fallen out of love with this style and leaned more on traditional interview pretapes and reruns of old matches. There was also a segment in which<a href="https://twitter.com/steveaustinBSR/status/1239763159562571776"> Byron Saxton got kicked directly in the testicles by Stone Cold Steve Austin</a>, but that was just tough to watch. In the past few episodes alone, fans have been asked to sit through replays of this year’s <em>Royal Rumble</em> match, the immensely tedious Roman Reigns vs. Triple H main event from <em>WrestleMania 32</em>, and the excellent triple threat world title bout between Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, and John Cena from the 2015 edition of <em>Royal Rumble</em>. It’s reasonable programming, but a telling addition for a usually live “sports” broadcast—especially one whose fans largely have access to these matches on the WWE Network.</p>
<p id="jJwD8n">Crucially, though, those matches are not what <em>WrestleMania</em> is going to be. This year’s Showcase of the Immortals has, as far as we know, already been prerecorded—there is now a “stay-at-home” order in place in the Orange County, Florida, area—and it’s fair to say there are some left-field ideas afoot. At least four of the matches have some form of stipulation, with two of those being match variants that have never been seen before. AJ Styles and the Undertaker will compete in a “Boneyard” match, while John Cena and Bray Wyatt, assuming the former accepts Wyatt’s challenge, will have a “Firefly Fun House” match.</p>
<p id="tHPrdR">The company has been<a href="https://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/wrestlemania-36/article/wrestlemania-36-two-night-wwe-network-rob-gronkowski-host"> teasing “multiple locations”</a> for its <em>WrestleMania</em> card and the word “cinematic” has been thrown around on the dirt sheets in relation to several matches, including the Cena va. Wyatt contest. Their bout has been billed as a rematch of their impressive clash back at <em>WrestleMania XXX</em>, in which they were unsurprisingly drowned out by the combined volume of Brock Lesnar ending the Undertaker’s undefeated streak and Daniel Bryan finally climbing the mountain to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion. For some fans, the prospect of pretaped and cinematically edited matches may induce shudders at the memory of the infamous “House of Horrors” match between Wyatt and Randy Orton in April 2017 or WWE’s divisive attempt to channel the cult popularity of Matt Hardy—again involving Bray Wyatt—for 2018’s “Ultimate Deletion” match on <em>Raw</em>.</p>
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<p id="Ttd8Tz">There is, however, a crucial difference between what WWE was doing then and what it is doing now. The “House of Horrors” match was hamstrung by a baffling stipulation that meant it had to end back in the arena, rendering the 15-minute prefilmed element of the contest somewhat irrelevant and feeling more than a little superfluous. “Ultimate Deletion,” meanwhile, suffered from being a watered-down rehash of something that Hardy had previously done over in TNA—like your dad sending a Rickroll link a decade after the rest of the world stopped finding it funny.</p>
<p id="x64xpj">This time around, all bets are off—and the sky is the limit. There isn’t going to be anything conventional about <em>WrestleMania</em> this year and so, if WWE has any wisdom, it will push things as far as it possibly can. Already, the suggestion is that<a href="https://wrestletalk.com/news/exclusive-bray-wyatts-wrestlemania-pitch-revealed/"> both halves of Bray Wyatt’s personality—Fiend and Mr. Rogers—could appear in the match</a> via the miracles of editing, in a sort of souped-up take on<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk-LeFpw8Wc"> Mick Foley’s busy night at the 1998 <em>Royal Rumble</em></a>. Wyatt is a man of many ideas and, given that Cena is now an accomplished actor, the possibilities for the match are pretty much endless. These two men have been given the opportunity to take a swing, and they’ll certainly be willing to embrace it.</p>
<p id="OI5a1e">Meanwhile, the prospect of editing could turn Undertaker’s clash with AJ Styles into one of the Phenom’s most enjoyable matches in years. Fans have become sadly accustomed to seeing the Deadman meander around the ring as a shell of his former glory, whether it was in his saddening <em>WrestleMania 33</em> main event battle with Roman Reigns or his excruciating tussle with Goldberg at last year’s <em>Super ShowDown</em> in Saudi Arabia. The latter, particularly, was like trying to watch two concussed refrigerators dance the entirety of <em>Swan Lake</em>. AJ Styles might be able to convincingly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGq7yEObltc">wrestle a broom</a>, but nobody wants that broom to be a 55-year-old future Hall of Famer.</p>
<p id="o9yz4M">Undertaker is a performer who relies upon mystique more than in-ring performance. Charitably, Mark Calaway is at least a decade past his athletic best, while his 42-year-old opponent appears, somehow, to be right in the midst of his prime. A stipulation—particularly an overcranked one—will conceal Taker’s flaws and accentuate the character we all consider to be one of the most iconic wrestling gimmicks of all time. Styles has<a href="https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2020/3/28/21198056/aj-styles-undertaker-what-is-boneyard-match-wrestlemania-36"> heavily insinuated that the “Boneyard” match stipulation is essentially just a reworked version of a “Buried Alive” match</a>. The list of classic bouts in this arena is short—there have been only five of them, period—but the chance to shoot the action creatively and achieve new things with editing could help to smooth off the goofiness that has historically made these matches tricky to get behind. If it’s allowed to feel like a horror movie rather than just a pile of mud on the edge of the stage, it could be the perfect venue for the Deadman.</p>
<p id="yPyfcF">Those two matches offer the most eye-catching opportunities for creativity, but there’s also plenty of room for innovation elsewhere on the card. Last week’s <em>SmackDown</em>, for example, featured a spot in which<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hszNyqeaM_g"> Baron Corbin appeared to send Elias tumbling at least 20 feet to the arena floor</a> in scenes reminiscent of<a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/641490-wwes-pushed-to-punished-edition-three-muhammad-hassn"> Undertaker’s apparent murder of Muhammad Hassan in 2005</a> or<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9LrlblZeCY"> Big Show’s devastating chokeslam of Kurt Angle</a>, which confined him to a wheelchair (in story line) for several weeks. Even within the confines of the wrestling ring, a pretaped <em>WrestleMania</em> allows for plenty of unorthodox chaos like this.</p>
<p id="pIbgT7">But, with all of that said, a key question remains in the air. Will anybody watch the show?</p>
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<p id="jCi9F4"><em>WrestleMania</em> is always a fairly unusual prospect for British wrestling fans like myself. On the one hand, there’s nothing like watching its drama unfold live but, on the other, it airs on this side of the Atlantic in the early hours of Monday morning. Added to that, there’s the fact that Vince McMahon’s ongoing distaste for brevity has increasingly bloated the show to the point that the final bell often rings just a few hours before we need to start our journey to work.</p>
<p id="27fQ8v">With that in mind, this year’s <em>WrestleMania</em> would seem to be rather missable for Brits. It has all been pretaped and so it seems likely that the results will surface in some dark corner of the internet before the weekend. There’s also the fact that the spark of a live show will be missing, with every shock moment and big move echoing around an empty gymnasium rather than reverberating through the pulsating energy of tens of thousands of inebriated, excited superfans.</p>
<p id="c0bE2h"><em>WrestleMania</em> may be assisted, though, by the way the spread of COVID-19 has changed the way we all work. Suddenly, many workplaces have closed down—leaving people either unemployed or furloughed at home—while other people are working from home for the first time, not needing to commute long distances and possibly even organizing their own flexible schedule. Kids, too, might be allowed the incredibly rare chance to stay up late in the absence of school the next day. And the event is split over two nights—Saturday and Sunday—to break things up. With that in mind, the prospect of two late nights in front of the WWE Network is entirely attainable. It’s doubly so given that, rather than one monster time commitment—last year’s <em>WrestleMania</em> ran to more than five hours, including the preshow—this year’s event is split into two, slightly more palatable parts.</p>
<p id="DILC5H">This <em>WrestleMania</em> also occupies the rarefied position of being the only new sporting event to take place in months. British sports fans have had to deal with the postponement of Premier League football—or soccer, I suppose; whatever, guys—the coitus interruptus of the ongoing Six Nations rugby, a canceled cricket tour of Sri Lanka, and the delayed start of the Formula One season—not to mention all of the similar delays affecting sports in the U.S. Wrestling is, effectively, the final fix available for sport addicts. Never underestimate the boredom of British men when they can’t go to the pub or complain about the many misfortunes of Spurs.</p>
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<p id="Z8TBdK">It’ll be interesting to see how this unique <em>WrestleMania</em> event will play out. It will certainly lack some of the pageantry and pizzazz of previous years, but the stage is set for WWE to fill that gap with creative steam—free of the restrictions necessarily imposed on a show that has to appeal to absolutely everyone, while keeping the dozens of corporate forces involved equally happy. By using largely its own venue and keeping everything small, WWE is essentially making <em>WrestleMania</em> just for itself. The leash is off, so the company should just embrace the ability to run freely and try all of the ideas that would usually be considered too risky. There’s a built-in excuse if everything goes pear-shaped.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="4KdGHQ">There are, admittedly, questions to be asked about whether it’s responsible for WWE to be pushing ahead with <em>WrestleMania</em> in the wake of the current crisis. The company has, however,<a href="https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/coronavirus-wwe-stephanie-mcmahon-1203544889/"> done its best to protect its employees</a>—notably, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/roman-reigns-out-wrestlemania-36-coronavirus-health-concerns-1494688">Roman Reigns has stepped aside</a>, likely because of concerns about his compromised immune system—while still setting the stage for an interesting, star-studded event. Now, all that remains is to see what the simmering cauldron of ideas has produced. Genuinely, there could be anything in store—and that, in an art form that is so often predictable, is worth its weight in gold. Or toilet paper. Or whatever the currency is at this stage of the apocalypse.</p>
<p id="951eaq"><a href="https://twitter.com/TomJBeasley?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor"><em>Tom Beasley</em></a><em> is a U.K.-based film and entertainment journalist. He’s a lover of horror, musicals, and wrestling—but not usually at the same time.</em></p>
https://www.theringer.com/2020/4/3/21206831/wwe-wrestlemania-36-preview-undertaker-john-cena-bray-wyattTom Beasley2019-09-17T06:00:00-04:002019-09-17T06:00:00-04:00Bray Wyatt Is Turning WWE Into a Horror Movie. Thank God.
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<p>Will<strong> </strong>Bray Wyatt (finally) take over WWE?</p> <p id="EmV6s1">We’ve been here a million times before. <em>Bray Wyatt is back. Bray Wyatt is awesome. At this very moment, Bray Wyatt is the most exciting character in WWE.</em> Wyatt has spent much of his career at the center of a maelstrom of hyperbole. While few would say that he set the world alight as Nexus member Husky Harris, fans and critics alike have predicted transcendent success roughly every six months since the moment that Hawaiian-shirted cult leader Bray Wyatt appeared in 2012.</p>
<p id="W41ELC">His latest incarnation, however, feels legitimately special. Starting in April, Wyatt donned a cardigan to deliver cryptic promos from within the children’s TV paradise of the “Firefly Fun House,” before revealing his alter ego—the Fiend. According to the Mr. Rogers half of Wyatt’s persona, the Fiend is a manifestation of his darker, more sinister urges—the Green Goblin to his Norman Osborn. In the midst of a WWE product often criticized for pandering to PG, child-friendly audiences, the new Bray Wyatt is edgy, dangerous and, most importantly, unique.</p>
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<p id="BowxPu">On Sunday night, in the dying moments of the <em>Clash of Champions</em> pay-per-view, Wyatt made his presence felt by laying out Seth Rollins after his grueling Universal Championship bout against Braun Strowman. The show’s final scene was of the Fiend unleashing an animalistic roar as he choked the life out of the champion amid blinking strobe lights. He now seems on a collision course with Rollins for a contest within the historically violent confines of <em>Hell in a Cell</em> at the next pay-per-view. As main event arrivals go, Wyatt’s was a clear statement of twisted intent.</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">See you in Hell, <a href="https://twitter.com/WWERollins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WWERollins</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWEClash?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWEClash</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheFiend?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TheFiend</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HIAC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HIAC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WWEBrayWyatt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WWEBrayWyatt</a> <a href="https://t.co/gfn9JG0x8s">pic.twitter.com/gfn9JG0x8s</a></p>— WWE (@WWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1173423848223436800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a>
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<p id="93sS2b">WWE is often accused of holding back performers and characters at the expense of pet projects like Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, or Triple H’s never-ending farewell tour of 30-minute rest hold extravaganzas. It cannot be accused of doing that to Wyatt. When the Fiend debuted inside the ring at <em>SummerSlam</em>, his opponent was only a footnote in what proved to be a searing debut for Wyatt.</p>
<p id="lqWVeE">His entrance was a creepy, elaborate example of wrestling at its most theatrical. The Fiend emerged in darkness, carrying a lantern seemingly constructed from the severed head of his previous character and accompanied by a metal-inflected remix of his theme music.</p>
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<p id="B5inph">In the ring, Wyatt was a formidable beast. He dominated Finn Bálor, despite the Irish superstar’s slippery athleticism. The Fiend unveiled a succession of devastating new moves, including a neck snap that was almost certainly the closest thing to a Michael Myers kill we’ve seen in a WWE ring since the advent of the PG rating. He finished Bálor off by choking him out in the Mandible Claw, with the referee counting the pinfall on a limp Bálor while the Fiend’s fingers were still clawing at the back of his throat. Throughout the match, Wyatt seemed to visibly struggle with the Fiend, as if trying to break free from the devilish force, in a far more compelling inner battle than he ever managed when WWE briefly flirted with introducing Sister Abigail as an in-ring character.</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">L E T . H I M . I N .<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheFiend?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TheFiend</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WWEBrayWyatt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WWEBrayWyatt</a> is here... and, well... <br><br>Yowie Wowie. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SummerSlam?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SummerSlam</a> <a href="https://t.co/sVk2g4G7V5">pic.twitter.com/sVk2g4G7V5</a></p>— WWE (@WWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1160733748914081792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2019</a>
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<p id="XXXyFy">As opposed to Wyatt’s numerous previous “reboots,” which amounted to little more than shading along the margins, the debut of the Fiend felt like a clear statement as to the kind of character Bray Wyatt is going to be, as well as the direction WWE is looking to follow. Vince McMahon’s quasi monopoly will face the existential threat of the more adult-skewed All Elite Wrestling when that company begins its weekly television project on TNT in October—the same week that WWE <em>SmackDown</em> makes its lucrative move to Fox Sports. Wyatt, with his dismembered body parts and slasher villain moveset, is a character ripped from an era less concerned with what the marketing folk at Snickers think of the show’s content. If a new wrestling war is afoot, he could provide an edge.</p>
<div class="c-float-left"><aside id="V4iuh7"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"The Return of Blood to the Wrestling Ring","url":"https://www.theringer.com/2019/9/17/20869423/aew-wwe-blood-wrestling-blading-hardway"},{"title":"Major League Wrestling Is No Minor Promotion","url":"https://www.theringer.com/2019/9/17/20864851/mlw-major-league-wrestling-court-bauer"}]}'></div></aside></div>
<p id="HfI9Nn">The tension between PG and TV-14 content has been a constant sticking point for the Wyatt character since he first appeared. Supernatural performers, and their associated horror movie iconography, are fraught with difficulty in an environment constantly worried about sending too much of a shiver down the spine of besuited boardroom execs. It’s the difference between the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IhGnaVTgUk">macabre heyday of the Undertaker</a> in the Attitude Era and a character like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gikX7jQY2s">the Boogeyman</a>, who arrived in the final few years before the PG Era officially took hold. Boogeyman was fun, but he was too silly to ever feel like a threat. It is this curse that has afflicted Wyatt, with his bag of tricks often skewing the wrong side of goofy. His match with Randy Orton at <em>WrestleMania 33</em>—which featured images of maggots and other assorted spooky things projected onto the ring canvas—was named Worst Match of the Year by Dave Meltzer of the <em>Wrestling Observer Newsletter</em>, and his House of Horrors contest with Orton several weeks later was also panned for its cartoonish absurdity.</p>
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<p id="TWSewc">Much as Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine never truly sparkled on the big screen until the R-rated <em>Logan</em> allowed him to hack and slash his way through bad guys, Wyatt is packing a set of blades he hasn’t been allowed to unsheath. The Fiend looks as if it might be his <em>Logan</em>, and certainly the “Firefly Fun House” hasn’t shied away from genuinely unsettling images—or <a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZoR0c8ryAsA/maxresdefault.jpg">chain saws</a>.</p>
<p id="j32Krq">It helps that Wyatt’s latest character reinvention has coincided with an apparent sea change in WWE’s approach to its PG rating.<a href="https://www.thewrap.com/vince-mcmahon-wwe-content-pg-attitude-era-gory-crap-aew/"> Vince McMahon’s now infamous recent remarks</a> distancing his company from the “blood and guts” of AEW look ironic and short-sighted in the face of several brutal angles, not least the assault from then Universal Champion Brock Lesnar that left Rollins <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgi52Nh8zBo">spitting stage blood</a> from his mouth while screaming in agony, just weeks before their <em>SummerSlam</em> clash. There has also been an uptick in adult themes—the 24/7 Championship division is largely geared around both Mike Kanellis’s and Drake Maverick’s lack of sexual success—and commentator Corey Graves audibly yelled “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vnctCJLh5E">holy shit</a>” after the explosive conclusion to a match between Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley on <em>Raw </em>in July. The show airs on a delay of several seconds, so the decision to leave the profanity uncensored was a clear creative choice.</p>
<p id="ttXeD6">Whether as a result of general ratings panic behind the scenes at WWE, or due to AEW’s willingness to embrace the art form’s Grand Guignol side, the biggest player in global wrestling is seemingly leaving its merchandise-loving kiddie-core crowd behind in favor of the loyal, lucrative hardcore fans. These are the people who have been with wrestling for their whole lives. They have a thirst for the bloody, the grotesque, and the adult. With the Fiend now firmly ensconced within the <em>Raw</em> main event picture, this could be a show precision-tooled for that audience.</p>
<p id="ujxglM">Wyatt himself is already benefiting from the apparent relaxation of the PG restrictions. His severed head entrance would have been unthinkable a year ago, but reports suggest that the lantern will be a major element of the gimmick going forward and will even form part of his Mattel action figure. The immediately memorable Fiend mask was designed<a href="https://twitter.com/THETomSavini/status/1137823776484274176"> with the help of horror movie effects icon Tom Savini</a>, marking a statement of macabre intent. His moveset, too, is also a shade more brutal than PG would seem to allow, with his neck snap a clear sign that WWE is less worried about imitable behavior than they were when they forced Seth Rollins to stop using the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMntHpPtnrs">Curb Stomp</a>” – another decision that has since been reversed.</p>
<p id="OxczPv">Whether all of this adds up to an opportunity for Wyatt to finally reach the potential he has always boasted isn’t clear, but the possibility feels more real than ever.</p>
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<p id="QoWIHy">WWE has repeatedly tried to force Wyatt into the Undertaker mold without laying the necessary groundwork, and when the company lacks the freewheeling madness of the Attitude Era, it’s an open question as to whether it’s even possible.</p>
<p id="tWK4ZC">Wyatt’s only world title reign disintegrated amid the aforementioned fairground theatrics against Orton, and WWE seems incapable of positioning an occult-infused character as anything other than a replacement for Taker, with Bálor—by virtue of his demonic alter ego—and now NXT standout Aleister Black subject to similarly iffy, uncertain booking. Illness saved fans from a potentially damning Demon Bálor vs. Sister Abigail match at <em>TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs </em>in 2017 and, while many heads were scratched at Bálor leaving his Demon persona in the locker room for this year’s <em>SummerSlam</em>, the decision to avoid an overdose of the kooky allowed Wyatt to shine alone.</p>
<p id="8R9BF6">The problem for WWE is that Bray Wyatt is not the new Undertaker, in the same way that neither Finn Bálor nor Aleister Black is the successor to the Deadman. All four wrestlers in that sentence are discrete, idiosyncratic performers whose characters are vastly different from one another, united only by their horror-inflected iconography and affection for the mysterious. WWE’s desire to reach into the past and redo what worked before, whether it’s building up Roman Reigns in John Cena’s image or rehiring ’90s figures Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff to run their flagship television show, does a disservice to the roster of today—arguably the most talented of all time.</p>
<p id="71Zws1">Wyatt is at the zenith of that roster, with verbal skills to spare, intense in-ring ability, and an overflowing résumé of ideas. His outside-the-ring close friend (and former Wyatt Family minion) Braun Strowman has<a href="https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2019/08/braun-strowman-says-firefly-funhouse-is-all-bray-wyatt-idea-658521/"> stated that the “Firefly Fun House” concept was entirely born of Wyatt’s making</a>, and “Fun House” director Jason Baker<a href="https://wrestlingreality.libsyn.com/wwe-interview-with-firefly-funhouse-director"> praised the performer</a> for sitting on “the razor’s edge between genius and insanity.” At a time when <em>Raw</em> often feels like an exercise in recycling, the Fiend is a square peg who couldn’t be further from the round holes of the company’s prescriptive storytelling. He’s the sort of buzzy performer anyone could build a roster around, with viral potential—a crucial quality in the social-media-dominated wrestling landscape—and a gimmick that makes it impossible to change the channel.</p>
<p id="XQPOpn">But as with any popular performer, there’s the problem of overexposure, saturation, and prolonging the hype. WWE has been relatively judicious so far in keeping the Fiend off TV unless it has something for him to do. And when you have an act this hot, most veterans would agree that you HAVE to put him in the main event. </p>
<p id="pRV6sG">But with his uneven past, it’s easy to see a problem with the notion of Wyatt being thrust directly into the main event picture on the back of one, admittedly standout, match. The Fiend is composed largely of mystique—an aura of terror that will disappear pretty abruptly if he takes part in a 50-50 feud with Rollins between now and <em>Royal Rumble</em> in January. Conversely, if Wyatt is to win the Universal Championship in a similar steamroller display of power, he risks being turned into an overplayed commodity—the WWE equivalent of an Ariana Grande record. Everyone loves the Fiend today, but could the character survive 15 minutes of scene-setting microphone time at the beginning of each week’s <em>Raw</em>? The “Firefly Fun House” is not built to become “Miz TV” or Chris Jericho’s “Highlight Reel.” Or, frankly, the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb-ksQW87yc">Funeral Parlor</a>.”</p>
<p id="q0Rjwn">The banana skins are there, and there’s every risk of WWE slipping on them right into another House of Horrors match. In the meantime, though, fans of Wyatt have every right to be excited. He’s the hottest act on the roster, the most talked about man in sports entertainment, and a guy who can attract a “holy shit” chant just for his entrance.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="AJPWJu">He’s so good it’s scary.</p>
<p id="ux0AlP"><a href="https://twitter.com/TomJBeasley?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor"><em>Tom Beasley</em></a><em> is a U.K.-based film and entertainment journalist. He’s a lover of horror, musicals, and wrestling—but not usually at the same time.</em></p>
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https://www.theringer.com/2019/9/17/20869445/wwe-bray-wyatt-fiend-clash-of-championsTom Beasley