We knew it was coming by the time it happened, a moment I dreamed of ever since he left us. It compounded my feelings on WWE at the time when on July 31st 2021, Bray Wyatt was released. My favourite WWE superstar, a man and a performer who has so much potential, a true generational talent and mind, once in a lifetime. Gone, just like that.
But since then, things have changed. A LOT has changed. A new man at the helm, or more the old man out of the picture, and suddenly the main obstacle that stopped Bray Wyatt from being everything he SHOULD be in WWE was no longer a factor. Surely then it was only a matter of time. And all else we wanted to return did so… from Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky, to Karrion Kross and Scarlett, Hit Row, Dexter Lumis, Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae, Braun Strowman even decided he had controlled his narrative enough and he joined the long list of returns to WWE. But it seemed the loudest of calls would go unanswered. Questions were asked, answers… didn’t really come. When speaking to Ariel Helwani, Triple H said of Bray Wyatt…
Things are never and have never been as they seem with Bray Wyatt… And the first signs came in a way that even we didn’t know what we were seeing at the time… In mid September 2022, WWE began to play the song ‘White Rabbit’ by Jefferson Airplane during breaks to the live crowds in arenas, and also dimming the lighting to the colour red towards the end of the song…
So… we had to ‘follow the white rabbit’ I guess… where to? We had no idea… but it became very widely presumed that this would all lead to the return of Bray Wyatt. I will get on to my thoughts on this whole campaign later in this blog… But one thing I can absolutely say about them doing this was it got people intrigued. Note also they did this not on TV, but during the ad breaks to the live crowd during TV tapings, and in intermissions of live shows… Hidden in plain sight you could say…
Then began the next part of the drip to come through the feed… QR code. I’m sure you’re familiar with the symbols that hyperlink to somewhere or something else… WWE had experimented with these recently on NXT to hype up the return of Zoey Stark, but it was a new way for WWE to promote… something… on the main roster… Each QR code would be something you may only really see if it was pointed out, or some would be more prominent (usually in backstage segments, and one-time notable front and center of the screen on a microphone during an in-ring segment with Triple H)…
Here’s a quick recap of all the QR codes (and what they linked to) we got during this chase of the elusive white rabbit…
Raw on September 19th: a video eventually shows us a game of hangman, that asks the question ‘who killed the world?’… The white rabbit (who is playing the game of hangman… just go with it…) incorrectly guesses the letter ‘D-E-M-O-N). The Rabbit does eventually guess the answer correctly… ‘You Did’…
The video then shows a message ‘Come with me’, and a number sequence (9:23)… which seemingly leads us the next Friday Night SmackDown…
SmackDown on September 23: The journey down the rabbit hole continued with a QR code linking to…
Ok… so just in case you, like me, got terribly annoyed by the game you have to play… should you be able to successfully lead the rabbit around the maze and into the door, you would be shown the following image…
This time the key was the coordinates at the bottom. Which lead to Edmonton in Canada… the site of the next Monday’s Raw…
Raw on September 26th: On this occasion, we were linked to a rather interesting Tik Tok (I should also mention, I’m not even coming close to talking about all the little nuggets and easter eggs across this whole ‘White Rabbit’ chase, honestly, I’m just covering the main bits, but the whole campaign was absolutely masterful)… This QR code though was revealed in a very much different way… not in a backstage segment on the back wall, but this time it flashed up fort a split second during a match between Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio… Slowly but surely, they were making you take more notice of the white rabbit… (should also mention another bit on this tale I’ve thought about… they would tease words or locations here and there such as ‘Belair’ or ‘Gacy’, and then we’d see the next clue during a Bianca Belair or Joe Gacy segment on Raw or event NXT…It was definitely one of those campaigns that gave you as much detail as you looked for. The odd red herring hear and there too, one html code for a link contained the lyrics to the theme song of former WWE superstar Aleister Black, at a time when his AEW future as Malakai Black was in question…)…
SmackDown on September 30th: Another show, another QR code linking to another TikTok… (the video below also features a crowd sign shown during that smackdown, not the only time during this whole thing that WWE had things appear in the crowd as well…)…
Raw on October 3rd: As eluded to, after clues hidden in another teaser prior, we got another QR code during a Bianca Belair segment on this Raw. This link was one you had to know the meaning of to understand… So I will direct you to this article from Cageside Seats … https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2022/10/4/23387075/wwe-raw-white-rabbit-clues-bray-wyatt-extreme-rules
One thing was clear now, was that all roads led to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The site of the upcoming WWE PPV Extreme Rules…
SmackDown on October 7th: This time we had a video which was shown during the show. It very much was made clear where the rabbit hole was ending…
X marks the spot… X for eXtreme rules!
We also had one of our more blatant QR Code reveals… As Triple H cut a rousing promo to open the show, at the very end he made a very clear movement of his microphone to make sure one side was front and centre right in front of the hard camera…
And following that link takes you to the following…
‘LET ME IN’ you say… I’m sure we’ve heard that before somewhere…
It was also at this show where we had a white rabbit in the crowd… yes just wondering around the arena, there was a giant white rabbit…
And so. The day had arrived…
After what was yet another fun PLE under the HHH regime, the main event of the show saw Matt Riddle finally get the better of Seth Rollins… but as Riddle made his way back up the entrance ramp… it was time… the moment we had all been waiting for…
As anyone who knows me can imagine, I was absolutely lost for words. This was EVERYTHING to me.
The buzz that had been created so far was like nothing I’ve seen in WWE for some time. And just LISTEN to that live reaction for him… Amazing doesn’t do it justice.
And so the questions turned to what would he have to say? Why was he back? Well… that led us to SmackDown. Bray Wyatt in a WWE ring with a live mic…
The SmackDown on 14th October was a fun show. But it’ll be one of my most memorable of my entire fandom for what closed the show…
Where to even begin? Firstly, that theme song by Code Orange is a BANGER! Secondly, I tweeted about what this promo meant to me (see below)…
… but yeah… Wow… seemed at this stage as if Bray is telling us he is a tortured soul, hateful of the things he has done before, and looking to show his true and natural self to the world. No longer hiding behind magic or a mask… But it appears… someone or something … has other ideas about WHO Bray Wyatt really is… All very odd, but all super interesting. We all wondered who Bray Wyatt would feud with first upon his return, it appears the answer to that is… himself…
The next week, as the world was still in awe of the Bray’s promo, he spoke backstage during the next week’s show… This time though it appeared to not be as positive and hopeful for the future as before, another side to this Bray Wyatt was revealed…
It appears that Bray admits he has these bad sides to him, and as much as he wanted to just go away he is grateful that WE pulled him back. He’s ready now to confront WHOEVER it is trying to turn him bad, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes… The stuff about being the servant I found interesting, as if he’s still being pulled by some cause or being… Again, very unclear at this stage, but still intriguing…
The next week, as Bray again tried to tell us who he really was, we finally got a reveal of what he was up against…
So what you’re all wondering is who is this ‘Uncle Howdy’?
Is it a manifestation of the internal demons Bray is up against? Is it SOMEONE playing a role as a personification on behalf of the demons of Bray’s mind? All remains to be seen, but Uncle Howdy appears to know all about who Bray Wyatt is… A ghost of his past. He says that Bray killed the world…
He says that (and this bit I LOVED) he (Bray) sent HIM… away…
So Bray is trying to repent, Uncle Howdy wants Bray to revel in what he is…
The final SmackDown before Crown Jewel showed a really interesting development in who THIS Bray Wyatt is… As we saw a real example of Bray trying to contain what was in him, what Uncle Howdy was referring to, as a member of the backstage crew was caught in the crossfire of Wyatt’s personal demons…
Bray talking about how it gets to him when someone interrupts him when he’s trying to open up, only for someone to then interrupt him again, is perfect. It feels like Bray is ready to crack, are the demons going to win already? This is a tortured soul that much is clear, but he will get another chance to talk the next day…
We did get one VERY notable moment during the Crown Jewel show long before it was time for Bray to talk to us… As a certain someone was backstage, a certain symbol appeared…
(Something similar happened later on the 7th November Raw, as Asuka, Bianca Belair and Bliss once again were making their way to the ring, see below…)
So just before the main event of the show, it was time for us to hear from Bray Wyatt. After a quite spellbinding entrance he then spoke about how that previously he would do his upmost to do something to make sure people knew who he was. He went on to talk about how he comes from a very prestigious wrestling family (which is true for those who don’t know, his brother, father and grandfather have all been in the business). he referred to how they could be considered larger than life, and that growing up all he ever wanted was to be great. But that wasn’t enough, and he had to be the greatest of them all. Bray went on that previously he thought the way to do this was making a monster of himself, he wore his ‘mask’ with pride. But now he no longer felt the pain of wearing that mask, no longer would he be afraid, now he felt untouchable, and that felt good. Before he said he was in a kingdom of nothingness, sitting on an island by himself. The monster that he was ran off all that he ever loved and destroyed him he said, and Wyatt added that nobody loves him, they just love the idea of him.
He finished with his strongest words so far… he repeated that “MY NAME IS BRAY WYATT” and that now he would “rewrite my story”. So clearly, he hated what he was, and that this time he was going to do things his way. Which is funny in the kayfabe sense in that he the CHARACTER wants to repent and do things how they should be done, but also could be considered a pot-shot at the creative in a real-life sense behind that Bray Wyatt character at times in the past… Regardless, once Bray was in his flow, Uncle Howdy then appeared once again…
Yeah, this is going to be a slow burner. I’m still really on board with it though. Uncle Howdy (whoever he is) really seems intent on bringing this dark side out of Bray, and Bray seems to be trying to stay as good as he can but is getting increasingly frustrated by the repeated interruptions as he tries to explain his story. I guess the idea is his promos are him repenting his sins, as somebody would in the confessions area of a church to a priest, but in this sense, Bray is talking to us. But with him never being able to really finish what he says, the frustration builds, and so does the anger and the lure of giving in to his demons, giving in to who or what this ‘Uncle Howdy’ represents. As I’ve said I don’t think this is going to conclude anytime soon, so we’re all just going to have to see how it all unfolds.
But a month in, the buzz for Bray Wyatt doesn’t seem to be slowing down. He’s in the featured spot of every show he is on, and whilst I have seen some say they want things to speed up, I think those same people will be all back in once we get more action, if Uncle Howdy shows up in person (played by… someone…) or Bray just goes on a rampage, I think then the buzz will increase even more. We have had so much talk about the Wyatt 6, the characters shown during the initial return, if they are going to be characters that feature going forward and what other WWE names could play those roles. We’ve had names like Liv Morgan and now of course Alexa Bliss be talked about as possibly playing roles alongside Bray, Wyatt’s real life brother Bo Dallas has been rumoured, as has his actual Uncle (and former wrestler) Barry Windham… The speculation and easter eggs for this Bray Wyatt thing has been off the scale, but speculation can only mean people are interested. And there has been A LOT of speculation, so go figure.
Where this all goes, even me as big a Bray Wyatt fan as I am, I don’t have a fucking clue! But I kind of like that, in fact I like it a lot! I trust Triple H to let Bray Wyatt be Bray Wyatt, and I’m so excited to see where it goes. A month in and so far it’s been insane, who knows where it’ll be at in another month, 6 months or a year…
Bray Wyatt is back. And I couldn’t be happier about that.
Josh.