What Does Bray Wyatt’s Superhuman Performance at ‘Hell in a Cell’ Mean for His WWE Career?

Bray Wyatt took the beating of a lifetime from Seth Rollins at WWE Hell in a Cell. The main event saw the Universal Championship up for grabs in what can only be described as an assault at the hands of The Beastslayer. 

Rollins threw everything he had at The Fiend. Multiple Curbstomps, tables, ladders, steel chairs, a sledgehammer and even a toolbox, were used on Wyatt, who kept coming back for more. It was an epic moment and a superhuman effort from the most popular Superstar in the company. But to say it was too much is perhaps the understatement of the year.

It’s almost as if WWE cannot find a happy medium. It happens all the time and it’s happened so often that fans have actually come to expect it. Either WWE doesn’t do enough for a talent, or too much is done. A guy is either drowning in mediocrity or he’s being pushed to the moon. This is precisely what’s happened to Bray Wyatt.

There seems to be no good reason for it, but it’s happening all the same. Bray Wyatt, who has never really been given his due in terms of main event stardom, is now an impervious demonic monster who took a sledgehammer to the head and shook it off. He’s never been able to stay above 500 in the win/loss column for his career, but now he’s unstoppable. So what changed?

Watch Bray Wyatt take a beating from Seth Rollins!

Why did WWE suddenly decide to switch gears with Bray and kick him into overdrive? The fans saw his potential for greatness from day one and many of them believed he was more than capable of becoming a top guy. He had mic skills, he could work and he fully embraced his character like no one else on the roster. 

Wyatt was positioned to do big things almost from the moment he arrived on Monday Night Raw. The audience bought in and supported that, as well as supported him. Fans saw something in Bray and they knew it was only a matter of time until WWE moved forward with him. But that never seemed to happen.

Wyatt had impressive moments along the way. He faced legends of the company, including Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker. Bray had a run with the WWE Championship of course and he worked alongside Matt Hardy as The Deleters of Worlds. On paper, all of that added up to what appeared to be a successful career. However for the majority of fans who followed Wyatt through his journey, the consensus seemed to be that he was underused and under appreciated.

Bray proved himself time and again. But Vince McMahon’s company was happy to keep him at a certain level and that’s where he remained for the most part. Fans often wondered why WWE didn’t use Bray and that sentiment has been echoed many times over the past few years. But now WWE is on the same page as the audience and finally, Wyatt is moving forward.

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This is the part where the company would likely tell that audience to be happy with the fact that Bray Wyatt is indeed headed in the right direction. Why complain with how it’s done, as long as it’s done? Fans are quick to remind each other that WWE never listens. Now they evidently are, so why lose sleep over it?

But the fact is that yes, it’s too much. It’s one thing if Bray kicks out of a single Curbstomp. Rollins needed more than one to beat Brock Lesnar, after all. But Wyatt took nine Curbstomps, a Pedigree, assault with weapons and none of it gave Seth the win. Bray would not stay down and Rollins was ultimately disqualified because he would not stop.

WWE made a statement with this match and that statement was clear: Bray Wyatt is not of this world. He’s remarkably resilient, supernaturally strong and unbelievably unstoppable. Nothing can beat him and nothing can even slow him down. After his performance inside Hell in a Cell, it’s not a stretch to say that The Fiend is the most dangerous, most invincible Superstar in the history of the company. 

Bray Wyatt took more damage in one night than anyone in recent memory. The Undertaker and Kane in their primes perhaps never endured the same violence in one match yet continued to get back up. Mick Foley is possibly the only Superstar of the modern era to take more punishment in one match than Bray Wyatt.

The biggest difference of course is that Bray took wrestling moves in his match with Seth Rollins. The Curbstomp, while potentially devastating, was performed correctly and safely. The weapons used against Bray were very real, but were obviously not used to intentionally harm him. All of this happened during the course of the match and there’s been no word that Wyatt is actually injured.

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But in storyline terms, Bray took a massive amount of physical damage, including finishing moves that have beaten other top stars. But none of it worked on Wyatt. So what happens now? Is Bray Wyatt never going to lose again? Will he go undefeated from this point on, whether he becomes Universal champion or not?

Better yet, what happens when Seth Rollins hits the Curbstomp on his next opponent? If he gets the pin because of it, what does that say about the man that takes it? Does that make him look weak? Does Seth now look like the weakest champion in the company and even worse, the weakest Superstar in the company?

Or does Bray Wyatt now look like a monster of biblical proportions, a creature that cannot be stopped no matter what happens? Is that what WWE is going for? If not, then how can he believably lose another match after taking the worst beating fans have seen in years?

There’s no question in the minds of many fans that Bray Wyatt is finally getting his big break. WWE is now committed to him and his character, in a way that they’ve never done before. Yes, he’s earned the opportunity and yes, he will absolutely make the best of it. But in the end, it’s likely not a sustainable direction for his character. 

Maybe Bray Wyatt will indeed become one of the top stars in WWE as a result of this. Or maybe WWE will once again change his direction and leave him in the shadows one more time. Only time will tell.

 

Tom Clark can regularly be seen on Wrestling Rumors. His podcast, Tom Clark’s Main Event, is available on iTunes,YouTube, iHeart Radio, boinkstudios.com and live every Friday at 12pm EST on Wrestling Rumors Facebook Live