Opinion: The Fiend's move to RAW is a much-needed revamp and could have Hell in a Cell implications
On the second night of the WWE Draft, The Fiend was the overall No. 1 pick as he was drafted to Monday Night RAW. Not only does this offer a much-needed revamp for the character, who had been losing steam since his defeat to Goldberg earlier this year, but it could also have implications on the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view.
Firstly, The Fiend's move to RAW gives him new and interesting faces to feud with. On Friday Night SmackDown, The Fiend feuded with a then-babyface The Miz and Daniel Bryan, before dropping the WWE Universal Championship to Goldberg.
After his mini-feud with John Cena heading into WrestleMania 36, he feuded with Braun Strowman over the spring and summer. Those were the top babyfaces on SmackDown that he could have feuded with, sans Roman Reigns. Now that he is on RAW, he can feud with guys like Drew McIntyre, Keith Lee, and others.
Speaking of Reigns, The Fiend's move to RAW also delays their inevitable match. If you flashback to last year’s draft, once The Fiend won the Universal Championship and moved to SmackDown, the question was when his feud with Reigns would kick off.
The fear that fans had was that Reigns would defeat the Fiend and send him out of the main event picture. Now that they are on separate brands and Reigns is a heel, fans won't have to worry about that. Also, since the Fiend has already tasted defeat, it wouldn't be as big of an issue if Reigns picked up the win in the future as it would have a year ago.
Another aspect of his move to RAW is The Fiend’s pairing with Alexa Bliss. As mentioned earlier, after The Fiend lost to Goldberg earlier this year, he lost a bit of his mystique and aurora that he had prior to the match.
His feuds with Cena and Strowman were fairly good, but they were still lacking something. Now with Bliss seemingly in his corner and their story yet to be truly told, it gives The Fiend some of the intrigue that he had lost beforehand.
Could The Fiend be eyeing Randy Orton?
As for the implications this could have on the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, Bray Wyatt has prior history with Randy Orton. If you think back to late 2016 to early 2017, Orton destroyed The Wyatt Family from within and defeated Wyatt at WrestleMania for the WWE Championship.
The Fiend never forgets, but the one complication for this is that Orton and Wyatt's evil alter-ego are both heels at the moment. There had been rumors of WWE wanting to make the Fiend a top babyface though, and Wyatt would be in the right to screw Orton out of the title.
However, if WWE wants to go in the other direction and have Orton win the championship at Hell in a Cell, The Fiend would be a perfect first feud for "The Viper". He could even be the perfect guy to take the title off of Orton in the future.
So, while The Fiend may have lost the intrigue and aurora that he had a year ago, the move over to the red brand and his pairing with Alexa Bliss is just what he needs to take his character to the next level.