The second that Bray Wyatt plunged into the icy depths of the Lake of Reincarnation, we wondered what would emerge. However, we’re going to have to wait to see what creature lurks in its depths. With Bray doing his impression of an 80s movie monster and ‘noping’ the hell on outta there, Matt declared an end to the ‘Great War’. Come to think of it, he didn’t seem too surprised that Bray’s carcass was missing. Did he expect the body to dissolve? Oh, God! Did Matt put acid in the Lake of Reincarnation?! Or maybe that ‘Dip’ stuff from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? since Matt and Bray are basically living cartoons.
Well, barring Woken Matt committing homicide in the most horrific way possible (outside of death by Cher album), Bray Wyatt must come back as… something. When Wyatt wants to go, he is one of the best in-ring psychologists in the WWE. He can make a match sinister with a look or just the way he moves around the ring. His mic work can be captivating and the cult leader gimmick was diabolically effective. Now, he’s wasted as a jobber to the upper card. Bray should have been the heir to ‘Taker’s spooky character throne. Now, rebuilding his credibility will be harder than teaching Professor X to River Dance.
In kayfabe, Matt and Bray’s soul have been at war for ages. If Bray is potentially the Ying to Matt’s Yang, then what effect will the Lake have on such a dark soul? How they repackage Bray after the Lake of Reincarnation could go several ways. Since we have no facts on the matter, however, we’ll do the responsible thing: speculate wildly.
1. Brother Lawrence or Brother Windham
Essentially, this would be a (br)woken version of Bray Wyatt much like Jeff’s Brother Nero, but there are two ways this could potentially go. First, Bray is basically like Jeff with the white out contacts and becomes a member of the Hardy Clan. Second, the lake washes his soul clean, but he keeps the preacher thing going. This time he denounces Abigail as wicked and preaches salvation. Like a combo of Brother Love and Mordecai, but tolerable… somehow. I hope it’s not the latter. This may not be surprising but pacifists make lousy fighting characters. You can only tell the peaceful guy forced to fight thing once then you’ve got nowhere to go. You’re pigeonholed into a constant morality struggle about fighting and… and… damn it’s as tedious to write about as to watch. A Woken Bray could work and it’s one of the more likely options, but it depends on how they present it. As to the name, Lawrence is Bray’s middle name, but his first name, Windham, sounds cooler.
2. IRS Jr.
Irwin R. Schyster, for those of you young ‘uns (seriously, I’m old, my editors are younger) was a member of Money Inc. with Ted DiBiase in the 90s. On top of being a former WWE Tag Team Champion, IRS is also the father of Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas (and a road so you’d figure his kids would get better booking). Seeing Bray reprise his father’s character would be hilarious for a moment but gone are the days where WWE superstars needed day jobs. So, if this is what comes out of the lake, they better throw him back in like the ‘Three-Count’ version of Gregory Helms.
3. Husky Harris
Please, no. What a name. Was Freddie Fatass taken? The pecs wrapping around his back coupled with a face that looks more at home on a neckbeard than a wrestler makes this persona hard to root for.
4. Sister Abigail
Please, no. Kill it with fire… again. Even the actual universe wanted so bad for this storyline to end that it struck Bray with illness before the match against Finn Bálor could happen.
5. Papa Bludgeon
Luke Harper has been pretty vocal about wanting to do something separate from Bray and go his own way. His black-shirted singles push, however, was DOA and he’s now back to being paired with Rowan again in a gimmick straight from the 80s. Somehow, this whole thing is working though, and maybe adding Bray could inject life back into him as well. Essentially, this is a reborn and much more violent Wyatt/Bludgeon Family. This could lead to some cool scenes of the Bludgeon’s retrieving a reincarnated, more evil Bray from the lake. With his “children” back Bray can attempt to lay siege to the compound again. This can lead to more Deletion specials and perhaps a program between the Woken Hardy Boyz and the Bludgeon family over the WWE Raw or SmackDown Tag Team Championships. I know they’re on different shows, but the shake-up is coming so all booking bets are off.
6. More Sinister/”Super Shredder” Bray
Let’s say the Lake of Reincarnation doesn’t necessarily cleanse a soul but rebirths it based on the characteristics it already possesses (ok, I know I might be looking to deep into something this bizarre, but at least someone is trying to make sense of this weirdness). If that’s the case, and Bray is an old dark soul, or some kinda demi-god/demon, what effect will the lake have on him? It may bring him back as something even more terrifying and dangerous. Even if this is the way they go, however, they’ll still have him ‘job out’ to the upper card within a few weeks. I sort of thought this was what we’d get when he rubbed Abigail’s ashes on himself. Instead, it apparently gave him the powers of a high school AV club. This is one of the options I’m hoping for, but only if it comes with a monster push. Maybe super Bray comes back at WrestleMania as Braun’s tag team partner.
7. Stripped of Powers
So maybe the lake cleanses him of Abigail’s taint. You could play this a couple of ways. Perhaps, this breaks his sanity and he basically becomes a feral madman. Perhaps he’s obsessed with regaining his powers. This could lead to some interesting stories as Bray desperately clings to his fraying sanity while trying to sacrifice anyone he can to regain Abigail’s grace. Or Bray could just come back as a normal guy.
Normal, human Bray would basically be his version of the ‘American Badass’. All the spooky stuff is gone and Bray just plays an exaggerated version of himself. This could be tolerable, but that’s pretty much what we’re getting now sans rambling speeches about being a god who can’t win a damn wrestling match. It’d just be Rob Zombie looking Bray walking to the ring without a lantern and acting moody. Think Raven with longer dreads and less stringent eating habits.
8. Original Bray
They return to form and revisit the Cape Fear/House of a 1000 Corpses character he started with. They’d have to rebuild the cult, but there are plenty of wayward souls that wouldn’t be out of place next to Bray. The members of Sanity or Aleister Black are a few who could be his evil followers as they transition into the main roster. It really doesn’t matter who you put with him, but he needs followers for this to work. Also, let him actually convert a wrestler or two. Don’t just tease it like they did Daniel Bryan.
9. Whole New Character
They kill off Bray in the Lake and Windam Rotunda creates a whole new character. What that could possibly be, who knows. Bray was his/Dan Spivey’s baby. Also, as stated above, Rob Zombie Wyatt is basically, an extension of who he is. So if he goes with the tried and true “play yourself turned up to 11,” it’ll basically be the same stuff, different day. Therefore, this character will have to be a pretty big departure to make people forget Bray. It’d be his Dude Love. It’s not like he hasn’t done this before. Except for a few smirking smarks who think they’re much more clever and funny than they are, we’ve all let the Husky Harris thing go. This new character will have to be as far away from Bray as Bray was from Husky to get us to forget and move on. I think Bray can be salvaged, though, and I hope this isn’t the route they go.
10. More of the Same
Given what we’ve seen with Dolph Ziggler this build up to a whole lotta nothing could be in Bray’s future. The worst possible thing that could happen at this point would be for Bray to come back and keep calling himself a ‘god’ while losing to anyone tougher than Baron Corbin. Bray is awesome, he’s my favorite active wrestler, but this version is deader than Road Dogg’s concept of a Win-Loss record.
How do you think Bray should emerge from his recent ‘Deletion’? Do you think anything will actually change? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter here.
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