When Bray Wyatt and his family descended upon the ring at the end of HIAC immediate fantasy booking started, however within a few moments I realised this was WWE and it was foolish of me to get excited at the prospect of the Undertaker once more clashing with Bray. Their Wrestlemania feud and subsequent match was mediocre at best, it was a one sided build up with Bray having to carry it until Taker returned at Mania 31.
Once the Undertaker had completed his Wrestlemania duty he went off into the sunset, Bray on the other hand suffered another setback to his career as the loss further dented his momentum. In the aftermath of this defeat Bray slowly got his career back on track with an excellent win over Ryback on PPV and in some stellar matches on TV, at Money In The Bank he chose Roman Reigns as his next ‘supposed’ victim. Bray’s issue with Roman continued throughout the summer, it also signalled the return of the Wyatt family with new member Braun Strowman. The feud with Reigns ended at HIAC where once more Bray was defeated, the trend it seems with Bray not winning feuds continued.
The Undertaker meanwhile returned to the WWE at the finale of the Battleground PPV, attacking Brock Lesnar and costing him his opportunity to capture the WWE title from Seth Rollins. This return re-started his feud with Lesnar, they clashed at Summerslam and HIAC. The ending to this feud was done the right way with Brock going over strong, for reality sakes it had to happen that way. For Undertaker to win the feud would have made a mockery of the last two years of Brock’s WWE career. With Taker left lying on the mat in defeat that’s when Bray emerged to harvest his soul.
I have to say that after one week WWE didn’t know what to do with this feud, on the Raw following HIAC Bray did cut a blistering promo but it was full of hocus pocus…..this was no longer the attitude era or the childish cartoon era of the early 1990’s, we are in 2015, we are in the reality era. Further to the kidnapping of the Deadman at HIAC, the Wyatt’s then decided to beat down and hold Kane hostage. Rumours instantly started about Taker & Kane taking on the Wyatt’s at Survivor Series and who could be their potential partners, many presumed due to the Wyatt’s being a fourth-some that a traditional Survivor Series match would take place.
Further to Bray’s promos he last week on Raw summoned the fire & lightning, a trick belonging to the Undertaker and Kane which I found quite laughable while watching. I know WWE likes to portray this PG product but please we are not all children, don’t insult us with third rate special effects. Bray is a mysterious character with great scope going forward in WWE, he embodies the new supernatural characters from such TV shows as True Detective and Fargo not Sabrina the teenage witch. After losing out to Roman Reigns Bray needed momentum and quick, unfortunately for him, the family and his fans this wasn’t the best way to achieve it.
As far as I’m concerned this feud was and is badly written, a week after Undertaker was kidnapped WWE announced he is due to make a special appearance on Smackdown in the UK on November 10th, on the UK tour itself the kidnapped Kane took part in multiple matches. Then this Monday on Raw live from Manchester the WWE ruined any chance of making Survivor Series a must see event when it allowed established talent to steamroll over young talent without a backward glance. In the final segment on Raw, Bray was in the ring waxing lyrical until the Brothers of Destruction returned and made their way down the ramp to confront the ‘New Face of Fear’. The WWE, Undertaker and Kane wasted no time in letting the rest of the world know who the top dogs in WWE were. Within a matter of minutes Taker and Kane had dealt with the Wyatt’s and left Bray lying in the ring following a double chokeslam.
In 2002 Undertaker was criticised for his performance against new talent Brock Lesnar in a WWE title match at the Unforgiven PPV. In a mediocre match with an abysmal DQ finish many accused Taker of protecting his spot for not allowing himself to be pinned cleanly by the younger Lesnar. The Undertaker especially in the last decade has been very clever with who he allows to defeat him, apart from Wrestlemania 30 and a few choice matches Taker usually came out on top. He was also very clever with who his opponents were as his calibre of matches definitely improved in the later stages of his career, feuds with CM Punk, Edge, Batista, Orton, Triple H and HBK raised his reputation greatly in the eyes of the fans. There is no denying that apart from a handful of matches in the 90’s & 00’s Takers in ring contribution to WWE was okay at best. I can agree though that the Undertaker gimmick saved Mark Calloway and made him one of the most recognised and successful characters ever in wrestling history.
I personally feel that Wrestlemania 30 should have been Undertaker’s swan song in WWE, the defeat he suffered at the hands of Brock Lesnar also broke his decorated winning streak at the event. On that night the Undertaker did the right thing for business, Lesnar arguably may not have been the right choice but he was maybe the logical choice given the story that transpired over the next 12 months. As previously explained the Undertaker returned at Wrestlemania 31 to face Bray Wyatt in a winning effort, he then again took leave and returned to face Lesnar to finally draw a line under their hostile past. Once defeated at HIAC I personally thought it would be the end of the Deadman until he resurfaced at Wrestlemania 32 in Texas.
The Aftermath of HIAC was intriguing but after the events of last week and this week’s Raw I am massively disappointed with how WWE have booked this story so far. Plus the announcement that both Taker & Kane will face just two members of the Wyatt family at Survivor Series is a further kick in the gut to every wrestling fan. However what I do ask is what does Mark Calloway and Glen Jacobs feel about this? Are they concerned that they are crushing the futures of the business and the hope that Bray Wyatt could be a major player in his career. Personally the actions of WWE and the Brothers of Destruction on Raw was selfish, it also ruined the hype and build-up of the Survivor Series PPV.
The title of my article this week relates to the feud between the New Blood & Millionaire’s Club which took place in WCW in the Spring/Summer of 2000, it was basically the younger talent vs the older talent but reading and viewing it now it relates to this. WWE are doing a lot of good works with new/young talent but they also sometimes forget about the future and that’s a very dangerous thing to do. Randy Orton is the only veteran right now that sacrifices himself for new talent, he never quibbles at being asked to put over talent, why? Because it’s best for business. Survivor Series maybe the 25th Anniversary of the Undertaker but it should also be the start of something new, it should be the start of Bray Wyatt, and it should trigger the future.
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