Last week was full of news in the always wonderful world of pro-wrestling and one of the most shocking news was WWE releasing Windham Rotunda (AKA Bray Wyatt/The Fiend) from his contract. The news of Rotunda’s departure from WWE were shocking, especially considering he was top merch seller for WWE and was heavily featured on TV before taking a break.
With Rotunda out of WWE, the speculation about the future of the former Bray Wyatt began on social media for the next few days and one promotion that was named the most was AEW. Are Rotunda and AEW a perfect match for each other? That’s the important question we need to answer.
Tony Khan on several interviews has mentioned that he regretted the teleportation segment from Broken Matt Hardy’s debut from last year. With that statement, is more than obvious that Tony Khan is not interested on cinematic wrestlers for AEW and unfortunately for Windham Rotunda, that goes for The Fiend and his LORE.
The Fiend stuff on TV was one of the most baffling things ever and AEW trying to replicate all that stuff on their already limited TV time would be would be a terrible decision, especially when they could use that TV time for the women’s division that could really use it. The lore of The Fiend is content that the AEW core wants non of it and AEW knows how to read their crowd and there’s a good chance this won’t ever be on their programming ever.
Some people will point out Abadon and make the comparisons with The Fiend. Abadon and The Fiend may share a few similarities, but their approach is quite different. The biggest difference between both wrestlers, is that Abadon does not have and all that wacky stuff and doesn’t expand much about it. The promotion and Abadon herself prefer to leave everything to the viewers interpretation. The Fiend doesn’t work like that and he relies on his lore and other wacky stuff that simply AEW doesn’t have time for on their limited TV time.
A role for Rotunda some people have pitched is that of leader of the Dark Order due to his connection to Brodie Lee. The Dark Order was Brodie Lee’s thing and he did everything in his power to make it work and the results of that had work can be seen today. Rotunda joining the faction would only overshadow the contribution Lee made for the group and only for the sake of a connection. The Dark order has evolved and they are way pass that stage of needing a leader to guide them, besides, Mr. Brodie Lee Jr. is already the leader of this faction.
Another idea pitched by fans is that Rotunda goes back to his swap leader cult days. That is a too much of a TNA move that AEW will not consider it. The character was great, but let’s not forget WWE buried that character so hard that Rotunda had to reinvent himself to The Fiend to start over.
Windham Rotunda doesn’t fit in AEW, but this is not the end of the world for him and his fans. He should go to the indies and reinvent himself or go to IMPACT and do his thing there. There’s a lot of places Rotunda can go and be successful, but AEW is not one of them.
