WWE has masterfully pulled off the return of Bray Wyatt, building up interest with the “White Rabbit” teases and then paying them off at the end of Extreme Rules. But that was the easy part, relatively speaking. Pro wrestling is the ultimate “what have you done for me lately?” business, and even Wyatt’s monster buzz can fade pretty quickly if he isn’t given something compelling to do.
That something is the part the Vince McMahon-led WWE wasn’t always great at figuring out. Whether it was in his original “Eater of Worlds” incarnation or later as The Fiend, Wyatt proved his ability to reinvent himself and hook fans repeatedly. Yet as Deadspin points out in an excellent look back at his previous run, that didn’t always lead to memorable matches, and Wyatt’s title runs were largely forgettable.
That said, the medium and long term prognosis for Wyatt isn’t something WWE should even be concerned with for the moment. The big question is simple: Who will Wyatt work with in his very first program? Because it’s an enormous opportunity for the company to elevate someone, the kind that don’t come around all that often.
It can’t, or at least shouldn’t, be just anyone. Seth Rollins said in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani that he found it hard to wrap his mind around what a great match with The Fiend should be. If Rollins, a master of his craft, can’t always figure it out, that should illustrate how tricky it really is. Wyatt certainly seems like he’ll still have supernatural elements to his character, and not every wrestler can believably be inserted into that world.
That would suggest a seasoned veteran to be opposite Wyatt. If Cody Rhodes were healthy, he’d be perfect: someone who has been around the game, and whose grounded nature would play off Wyatt’s weirder side as a perfect contrast. Kevin Owens seems like another great choice for similar reasons.
On the other hand, WWE could roll the dice with an up and comer and take advantage of the insane interest in what Wyatt is doing right now. There may never be a higher profile spot for a Wyatt opponent, unless he gets a chance to main event WrestleMania down the road. Imagine the rub someone like Montez Ford would get (or his partner, Angelo Dawkins, for that matter) if he was put into the first White Rabbit program. Even though he’d be expected to lose — there’s no way Wyatt is coming out on the losing end of his comeback feud — it would provide a credibility for a singles push for Ford that would be hard to manufacture any other way.
An old adage, perhaps first uttered by Oscar Wilde or Will Rogers, says you never get a second chance to make a first impression (shoutout to Head & Shoulders for that one too). It doesn’t entirely hold true in wrestling, since every big comeback can essentially serve as a do-over. But in Wyatt’s case, the fan reaction was never really in doubt. What matters now is that WWE has just one shot to pick the perfect person to work opposite him, knowing it can catapult that opponent to the next level of their own career.
Let’s hope it chooses wisely.