Hey, Scott. I’m actually a fan of yours writing this all the way from China (where I’m now teaching English). That’s irrelevant, but I wanted to mention it.
Okay, is there any heel character that better captures WWE’s aimless booking than Bray Wyatt? The formula for him never seems to change.
Step 1 – Bray cuts a series of really vague, borderline incoherent promos backstage for a few weeks uttering some meandering bullshit about topics like pain and hopelessness.
Step 2 – Bray interferes in a match and attacks a random babyface, thus revealing who his random target was all along.
Step 3 – Bray cuts more nonsensical promos to "explain" why he targeted said babyface, with the motivation always including no more than random tangents about nihilism , etcetera that lack any substantial content and which could apply equally to any character on the roster.
Step 4 – Bray finally loses to the babyface and quietly moves on by repeating the first step.
Even better, all of his opponents have gone on to do really well for themselves after feuding with him! Bryan, Cena, and even Ryback all went on to become champions after feuding with Bray, and Undertaker and Ambrose were both unaffected by him afterwards too. He’s totally useless and ineffectual.
Yeah, Bray is a really a guy who could have benefited from going to another territory for six months if this was still 1985. I know we talk about how overexposed that Cena has become, but Bray is a guy where the curtain has already been pulled back multiple times and we know there’s nothing back there. He’s 1995 Undertaker wrestling IRS over and over, which is an OK position but it’s never going to be a top one. The Wyatt Family was a main event act, Bray is just a guy.