Sheamus vs. Bray Wyatt: WWE’s Next Great Feud?

Daniel Bryan is headed for a major rematch with Bray Wyatt for the WWE Universal Championship at The Royal Rumble on January 26. Bryan won the opportunity on the December 27 edition of Friday Night SmackDown and now the rejuvenated Yes man will wage war with the clown king of chaos once again.

But when it comes to war, there’s perhaps no one better than The Celtic Warrior. Sheamus is on his way back to the blue brand and from all indications, he’s returning as a heel. Fans expect it, the company is promoting it and everyone knows it’s probably going to happen. But what if he comes back as a babyface and challenges Wyatt for SmackDown’s top prize?

It seems like a paint-by-numbers scenario. Sheamus is a good heel and he always has been. He’s good at what he does and he’s very comfortable wearing the black hat. Fans never had a reason to love him over the past few years, even though he and Cesaro were among WWE’s top tandems in terms of popularity as The Bar. 

Check out Sheamus’s latest promo!

Sheamus is mean, he’s nasty and when he’s on his game, he’s thoroughly despicable. When fans try to categorize which Superstar is best in what role, Sheamus likely ends up in the rule-breaker column every time. But isn’t that the problem?

More often than not, WWE takes the safe route. Sheamus is better as heel most of the time, so why not use him as such? Why force him onto fans as a babyface when it’s never really worked before and most of the time, they turn on him anyway? However, no one can deny that at one time, Sheamus was one of the best babyfaces on the roster.

He was over with the crowd and they loved him. He was tough, he was brave and he never backed down. Sheamus was everything that a pro wrestling hero should be and more. But, as is often the case in WWE, his booking fell flat and he turned heel once again. He ultimately ended up in the tag team division, where he and Cesaro made serious noise as a featured duo. 

So, it’s possible that he could return to that babyface character. He’s proven he can get over in that role and fans will respond. While it’s definitely easier to throw him back in as an antagonist, the fact is that it’s the easy way out for WWE. Sheamus is yet another cookie cutter heel who wants to beat people up and that kind of guy can be randomly inserted into any feud with any protagonist on the roster. 

Check out The Bar after wining the Raw Tag Team Championships!

But if WWE were to go a different route, then Sheamus could become the hottest face on SmackDown. It’s a widely held belief in fan circles that WWE loves him and believes in him. He is a four-time world champion after all. So why use him in such a generic role when he could be shot back into the main event scene like never before?

The babyface Sheamus who was tough as nails and just wanted to fight, would never run from a guy dressed as a demon clown. Sheamus would see right through that and he wouldn’t be intimidated by it at all. He would target The Fiend as a bully and make it his mission to take Bray Wyatt down. If Sheamus came to Daniel Bryan’s aid at The Royal Rumble and then squared off with Wyatt, the crowd would surely respond.

But perhaps they would respond more if Sheamus won the Rumble. It’s not out of the question, even though Sheamus is just now returning to action. In fact, WWE loves to insert big names into that spot at random, when the fans least expect it. Sheamus could be the next man in that spot and he could win the 2020 Royal Rumble. He did it before, back in 2012 and he could do it again. Why not go that route on January 26?

Relive Sheamus’s face turn against Mark Henry!

However if WWE did choose to book Sheamus in this fashion, then the entire thing could backfire. As much as he would surely step up and deliver the absolute best he has, Sheamus could still be booed out of the building. If so, then Bray Wyatt would suddenly become the babyface and WWE would have a double turn on its hands. While that’s not unfamiliar territory for the company, it’s not something that WWE typically handles all that well.

WWE wants to control the narrative and that’s understandable. This means that if the company wants Sheamus to be a face, then they will push as hard as they can to force the fans to accept him. If that happens, then they will hate Sheamus as much as they once hated Roman Reigns. The crowd already wants to cheer Bray Wyatt and all they need is a reason to do it. WWE could give them that reason and if it happens, then all of this would be for nothing.

But fans have never truly responded to Sheamus as a viable, legitimate heel. Sheamus has endured go-away heat for much of his WWE run and there’s no reason to believe that will change now. If he’s booked in the right way, under the right circumstances, then he could be accepted as the company’s next big hero. 

Of course, WWE will go the route it has chosen. If that route means that Sheamus is an evil heel once again, then fans will have to deal with it. He will come back and slide in where he left off and make little to no impact. But if it goes differently, then the entire complexion of Friday Night SmackDown could change in the New Year. What happens next remans to be seen.