Why there was never going to be a satisfactory end to The Fiend's Universal Championship reign? (Opinion)
Goldberg defeating 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt for the Universal Championship at WWE Super ShowDown on Thursday took the wrestling community by storm. The reception to the match and the event, overall, has been overtly negative. As expected, there were a plethora of articles written about the company's abject failure to build new stars. Many felt that the company had compromised The Fiend's momentum by having him lose to one of the most dominant superstars that the business has ever seen.
There is no denying the fact that Bray Wyatt's return as 'The Fiend' and his 'Firefly Funhouse' segments have been one of the best things on WWE TV in recent years. Wyatt's creativity and his penchant for pushing the envelope when it comes to his character work should be applauded. But, the problem with 'The Fiend' was always going to be how it would translate in the ring and that has unfortunately been the biggest issue with the character.
As brilliant as Bray Wyatt is, he is not a very dynamic in-ring performer. He has a very limited move set and in today's era that's dominated by work rate, it was difficult for him to stand out based on in-ring prowess.
The red light during his matches was not liked by all. The biggest problem, however, was him being booked as the unstoppable monster. The Hell In a Cell match against Seth Rollins saw Wyatt kick out of multiple Curbstomps, which ended up putting him in a much stronger light. Having a red-hot Wyatt going up against a babyface champion like Rollins was unwise on multiple levels. The match against Wyatt at Hell in a Cell was essentially the final nail in the coffin for Rollins as a top babyface as he had to face a major burnt of criticism.
Them giving in to the fan pressure and putting the title on Wyatt was another misstep. Once you build someone up as unstoppable, how do you beat him? The harsh truth is that the company, through its booking, created a scenario where there was never going to be a satisfactory end to The Fiend's title reign.
Anyone going up against Wyatt was going to get a negative reaction after eventually putting him down. The fan perception of Wyatt being this brutal monster was WWE's own doing and no matter how hard they tried, there was always be going to be a huge backlash when the plug was pulled on The Fiend's title reign.
Despite being one of the over characters in the business, 'The Fiend' didn't have a lot of good storylines. Sure, he did become the company's top merch seller but it came at the time when the company's merch sale is said to be at lowest. Roman Reigns had become the top merch seller for the company for the past few years but did that make any difference in how the fans perceived him?
Hence, Goldberg vs Reigns was the safer route to go. Barring the matches against Daniel Bryan, The Fiend's title reign which, to be quite honest, was lukewarm at best.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article belong to the writer and doesn't necessarily represent Sportskeeda's stand.