What's the reason behind The Fiend's new custom WWE Universal Championship? (Opinion)
Ahead of last night's episode of WWE SmackDown, Bray Wyatt had teased revealing a new "face" in the Firefly Fun House. Well, that turned out to be more surpising, and a little more literal, than most of the WWE Universe had initially thought.
That new face? Well, while many thought Liv Morgan may join Wyatt, it literally was the face of The Fiend on a custom WWE Universal Championship.
Why did The Fiend reveal a new custom Championship?
Okay, didn't Bray Wyatt JUST reveal a new title recently?! Yes, shortly after winning the WWE Universal Championship from Seth Rollins at WWE Crown Jewel, Wyatt traded in the big red belt for the big blue belt, seemingly making the title more appropriate for SmackDown - the brand Bray Wyatt will be appearing on going forward.
However, there was one problem with this. With Wyatt's alter-ego, The Fiend, being immersed in red light, not just for his entrance but the duration of his matches, having a bright blue belt just seemed to look rather disjointed, and almost distract from the character.
Now, one suggestion that I had previously floated was that Bray Wyatt should wear the blue Universal Championship, but that The Fiend should actually wear the red one - which would further deepen the story of Bray Wyatt believing that The Fiend is a completely separate entity.
However, WWE have gone one step further than this, and actually given The Fiend a custom Universal Championship. This was something else I suggested at the same time as suggesting the belt may turn blue shortly before that happened on the Dropkick DiSKussions WWE News Round-up shortly after Crown Jewel, which you can hear below - from around eight minutes in.
Why not just get rid of the red light?
Well, that would probably be a popular suggestion, but I believe the red light may actually have significance in the storyline - ether due to the simple suggestion that The Fiend takes his opponents to hell every time he competes, or even possibly The Fiend drawing his power from the red light - as suggested by Sportskeeda's own Rich Ucchino.
Another suggestion would have been my previous one of having Bray Wyatt use the blue belt, and The Fiend use the red, but WWE have seemingly gone one step further than this. It looks like Bray Wyatt will continue to use the new blue WWE Universal Championship and only The Fiend will have his very own custom version, which was strongly hinted at during the below episode of Firefly Fun House - where we still see Bray holding the blue title after The Fiend's cameo appearance.
Moving forward...
Much like The Fiend's red lighting treatment, the new custom Championship seems to have split the WWE Universe, but one thing seems certain after the unveiling of The Fiend's new belt - Bray Wyatt will not be losing the WWE Universal Championship any time soon.
WWE is heavily invested in Bray Wyatt, so much so that they've now given him TWO new Universal Championship belts - one to move the character to SmackDown as a champion, and the other to show that they're most definitely going all in with The Fiend going forward.
My estimation is, we see Bray Wyatt as Firefly Fun House Bray Wyatt holding the blue belt for a long time, and we see The Fiend wrestling under the red lighting, accompanied by his "new toy" going forward.
It may also be a really nice coincidence, but from a marketing standpoint from WWE, bringing out two new championship belts right before Christmas probably isn't the worst idea any wrestling company can do as a business - with a limited number of handcrafted replica championships now available, too.
ALSO READ: Bray Wyatt actually introduced us to The Fiend back in 2015 [VIDEO]
What do you think of The Fiend's new WWE Championship? Let us know over on Twitter!