WWE SmackDown Smacks and Downs: Bray Wyatt fiends with no crowd

Smack: the promo of Bray Wyatt

Wyatt’s promo ability was never in doubt; the question was always if he could move beyond what sometimes became the rambly cult leader archetype.

His “Firefly Fun House” segments (particularly the early ones) have been revelations as he channeled his creativity into this dual identity Mr. Rogers/Jigsaw hybrid.

As Wyatt, his struggle has always been straddling the line between being the stereotypical child pandering kids TV show host and actually pandering to the audience. Well, without a physical audience to pander to, his promo last night felt even more effective.

He starts off praising Cena for his accomplishments in and out of WWE (“You got beautiful girlfriends on tap” made me laugh). He then moves into reverse psychology and hits Cena with the line of the night: “You don’t really think that we think that you care about the future, do you?”

Again, laughter.

Without the audience, though, everything Wyatt said (even in laughter) had an even more menacing feel to it; it’s like every line was delivered with a side of malice.

Wordplay is also fun, and discussing attention, Wyatt told Cena, “You fiend for it.” See what he did there?

How he turned The Fiend from what most of us see as a violent figure into his savior is perfect for a heel as it makes complete sense in how Wyatt’s explained The Fiend’s existence. It also helps that after last week’s character developing “Fun House,” Wyatt continued to tie the thread between losing to Cena six years ago and the emergence of The Fiend last summer.

By the way, did y’all notice when Wyatt wiped his forehead and he noticed how much he was sweating? I laughed again.