I’ll be the first to admit, I’m entirely too old to really care about professional wrestling anymore. It was something that I grew up with and then as time marched on, I somehow got lucky enough for wrestling to be considered a socially acceptable form of entertainment while I was in high school and the WWF’s “Attitude Era” was raging on while WCW had the nWo in full swing. Wrestling was still a weird sideshow, but it wasn’t being marketed to kids like early 90’s WWF was, or rednecks like some of the Southern wrestling was (although it was still something to behold).
When Windham Rotunda debuted the Bray Wyatt gimmick in early 2012 there was something about it, a buzz and a feeling that this was something different, something special. Windham had captivated audiences while part of NXT and the Nexus as Husky Harris, but was sent back to FCW, later NXT, to be repackaged and to get a little more shine on him. The gimmick which he eventually came up with, Bray Wyatt, is nothing short of genius. Bray is a Louisiana backwoods maniac, much in the vein of Robert DeNiro’s Max Cady from Cape Fear; slow-talking, maniacal, calculating and charismatic.
I hadn’t really been following wrestling on a regular basis when Bray Wyatt debuted in FCW, but after a few months of hype and me seeing his debut vignette, I was sold and found myself watching NXT on Hulu Plus on a regular basis, which felt like insanity to me. His promo spots got better and better, while his work in the ring was solid and he was really living the gimmick. Then he was teamed up with Luke Harper and Erick Rowan with Bray playing the part of the cult leader and it had that same kind of energy that Raven had back in ECW when he had his stable, or even in WCW when he had the flock. Wyatt has the same sort of charisma and energy, being a character that is cerebral, brilliant and a bit off as a cult leader.
This is exactly the kind of thing that professional wrestling needs right now. WWE has done a lot of “good” over the past few years, from the rise of CM Punk, everything involving The Shield and the rise of Daniel Bryan, it only makes sense to see Bray Wyatt on Raw this week, finally making his debut.
Don’t take my word for it, watch the video.
