According to PWInsider.com, Wyatt was warming up in the ring when he suffered what appeared to be an ankle sprain. He was then taken backstage in a cart. There are no further updates at this time but it does not appear that he will miss the show.
bray
Bray Wyatt, God Complexes and (Breakable) Glass Ceilings
http://placetobenation.com/bray-wyatt-god-complexes-and-breakable-glass-ceilings/
Here’s the thing: I hate the headline, but Brad and Justin at P2B decided to keep it. So depending on how you feel about it, I’m either throwing them or myself under the bus. Because I came up with it, and then I thought it was terrible.
But they’re probably right. I suck at headlines, so if I ever wrote a decent one I probably would think it’s awful. Anyway, I’ve had a busy as hell summer so this is the first thing I’ve written in probably two or three months. Hope everyone likes it.
The Odd Couple: Why Bray and Bo Dallas Should be Paired Up as a New Tag Team
Like those who work in a circus or live entertainment environment,
WWE has a long-standing tradition of having wrestlers who are related to
one another (or, in some cases, just unrelated duos they want to bill
as siblings) wrestle as tag team partners. The Usos (part of the Anoi’i
Family which has featured talent such as The Rock and Roman Reigns), The
Rhodes Brothers and The Bella Twins all come to mind. After watching
last night’s Money In The Bank opening monologue (and seeing Bray go
nowhere), I figured now would be a good time as any to have one of the
most unusual, yet interesting true life sibling pairings to date debut:
Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas.
I know what you’re thinking: Danielle, can I have a cookie? Sure, go ‘head.
Otherwise,
you’re thinking that Dallas and Wyatt couldn’t have gimmicks further
apart and that’s true. On one hand, you have Bray Wyatt, a southern
redneck radical cult leader who lives in darkness and preaches to the
“lost” (and also walks around like a spider when he should be wrestling)
and on the other, Bo Dallas who seems to think he’s the official
Motivational Speaker for the Earth. Bray has a gimmick that works, fans
love him and sing along with him to “He’s Got the Whole World in His
Hands” while Bo gets laughed at, booed and ignored.
However,
there’s a huge difference between someone whose gimmick works as a heel
and someone whom the audience wishes would get on a bus and leave the
WWE forever. Right now, Bo is obviously the latter, dismissed for coming
off as a complete wuss.
The problem is that the average wrestling fan doesn’t know Dallas’s history.
Spoiler Alert: he isn’t a slouch.
Bo wrestled
under his real name, Bo Rotunda before he came to WWE. If the name
sounds familiar, it’s because he’s part of the Windham/Rotunda wrestling
dynasty.
When he was younger, Rotunda won the FCW
Florida Heavyweight Championship three times. He was the first NXT
wrestler to win a spot in the 2013 WWE Royal Rumble by beating Luke
Harper and Leo Kruger (the latter currently rebranded in the WWE as Adam
Rose) at the Royal Rumble Fan Fest. Bo Dallas lasted a very respectable
20 minutes — even besting Intercontinental Champion, Bad News Barrett
(the latter coming back into the ring and eliminated Rotunda sparking a
fued and a title match for the Intercontinental Championship belt which
Barrett retained). Bo held the NXT Championship for 280 days after
defeating Big E.
Bo actually has an interesting
history with Bray in both leagues. He’s wrestled with Bray Wyatt as Bo
Rotundo and Duke Rotundo to win the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship
twice. (They also wrestled together as Bo Rotundo and Husky Harris
previously). Yet, in NXT, when “Duke” changed his name to “Bray” and set
up “The Wyatt Family”, Bo was actually given the opportunity to join
them. He refused. In response, Bray ruined Bo’s triple threat match
against Conor O’Brian and Corey Graves, leading to a later match between
Bo and Bray. Bo ended up winning that night.
Of course, NXT is not WWE and rarely do the two occupy the same universe or have a parallel continuity.
Right
now, Bo remains undefeated in WWE, albeit against wrestlers that aren’t
taken as seriously as competitors including R-Truth, Fandango and Titus
O’Neil.
I’d love to see Dallas confronted with his
“past” or, in other words, some of the guys he faced from NXT. It’s not
like the Bo Dallas character has been re-branded the way Isaac Yankem
became Kane. He uses the same name and a silly “Bolieve” gimmick. He’s
not motivating anyone with it, he’s getting heat for it, much as he did
for his last few months in NXT (where he didn’t even try to be Tony
Robbins).
Most importantly, it’s time to have him join
his brother as tag team partner. Last night, they wasted a great
opportunity to get that started. As you may recall, Daniel Bryan came
into the ring to report on his injuries (which had excellent potential
for a Barrett joke) but Bo Dallas interrupted the segment so that he
could condescend and tell Bryan he was “climbing the ladder of life”.
Daniel Bryan humiliated Bo by referring to him as a “Bo-ner”. It was
amazing watching Dallas’s face fall as he realized he was being told
off.
It may have been almost imperceptive, but part of Dallas died right there.
Cut
to the backstage area and Bo walking with his head down, looking
dejected…right past Bray Wyatt who is sitting in his rocking chair in a
dark room, slightly lit, waiting for his big Ladder Match. He slowly
realizes who just walked past the doorway, gets up and watches as Bo
walks. The camera goes back to Bray as he grins. Sheep mask.
Then we go deeper into it on RAW. You can even start a “universe” with RAW and NXT sharing the same space.
This
time is different, though. Bo is starting to realize that his message
and inspiration is falling on deaf ears. Instead of being accepted as
somebody who pushes people to be great, he’s been humiliated, booed and
gotten so little back for such great effort. He realizes that it’s time
for him to accept the invitation. At first, he’ll try to resist, but it
makes a lot of sense. Bray is more over than Bo who realizes that he may
never get over at this rate but, together, they’re an interesting pair.
Bo could be spouting out demotivational thoughts. Might be a little
Sandow-ish and on the comedy side, but you insert a bit of darker humor
to it, it works. He can pop out at the end of matches (both ones he’s in
and ones he’s not) and tell people that they couldn’t win a match
against a first grader and to hang up their costumes.
Bray
could even distance himself even more from Luke and Erick (already
sporting a different theme than the usual Wyatt family’s “Run and
Hide”) to the point where Bray and Bo could fight Luke and Erick. That
match might set a WWE record for most amount of cheating and
interference, actually.
As a new powerful heel
wrestler, it will be great to see him take on and create some
long-standing feuds with previous NXT opponents either in singles
matches or as part of a tag team with Bray. The possibilities are almost
endless. Daniel Bryan got it half right last night: it was time for a
Bo to leave, but, NOT Bo the wrestler.
It’s time for
the end of Bo-lieve gimmick — and the beginning of a darker, more
cynical Bo Dallas, which fits in perfectly with his brother, Bray.
Bo and Bray
A thought while watching Bo Dallas wrap up his NXT run.
Could we see him bring the Bo-lievers gimmick up with him and have it (intentionally) fail miserably… Only to see him 'saved' by brother Bray and make Bo Wyatt the 4th man?
Would also set up a new 'leader' if the time ever comes to turn Bray face.
Bray Wyatt
“HUSKY HARRIS!” chants at Bray Wyatt question
Bray Wyatt
Thank you!