Bray Wyatt’s Character Change: What is the Firefly Fun House leading to? Find out as we uncover Bray Wyatt and his new gimmick.
Bray Wyatt is back! And well, he looks different now. The former eater of worlds has ditched his Hawaiian shirts, his evil persona and the Wyatt family leader role to become a friendly turtle neck wearing, kid’s show host, Or has he?
The first episode of “Firefly Fun House” (the name of the segments that feature Bray Wyatt) split opinions among the fans on whether the gimmick was good or bad. Some loved the drastic change in the character as they claimed that it made Bray look like a delusional psychopath trying his best to appear sane. There were many on the other side of the argument as well who hated the look and felt letdown, especially after the build up with the spooky video packages with creepy puppets before Bray’s eventual return.
The Aftermath
Immediately after WWE played the new Bray Wyatt’s debut on Raw, he began to trend worldwide. The Video on Youtube has amassed almost 3 million views. Regardless of what the fans thought, they were all talking about it. Bray had successfully done what WWE TV has failed to do in recent times; capture the fans attention.
A follow up video of the “Firefly Fun House” dropped on this week’s episode of Raw. The video already has a million views in just two days. There are still people of the opinion that the New Bray Wyatt character is horrible but they have been drowned by the huge number of fans that Bray has won over with his commitment to the character.
New Friends!
In these 2 episodes, we have been introduced to 3 puppet characters that Bray supposedly met and befriended while he was away. There’s Mercy the buzzard, who’s possibly a nod to Waylon Mercy; the man after who Bray had modeled his previous gimmick. We also have Abby the witch (Who is more or less confirmed to be Sister Abigail after the second episode) and The Rambling rabbit that made an appearance this week.
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The fans are already beginning to notice that Bray is just as if not more macabre and sinister than before. Behind all the smiles and laughs lies a very disturbed man. There were multiple clues in the first episode that people picked up on after repeated watching. The gloves he wore being a huge talking point. With Hurt written on his right glove and Heal on his left, Bray exhibited signs of being under their command. The screen distorted for a second or two as Bray wore them before going back to being the silly man he was portraying himself as. He even seemed to communicate with his gloves as he brought the Hurt glove next to his ear before he ran a chainsaw through a cardboard of himself in his previous gimmick.
A different approach
It is interesting though how WWE has handled this gimmick change. When repackaging a character, the WWE usually sweep the entire past of their wrestlers under a carpet. They like to pretend that this is the first you’ve seen of them. With Bray however, they have acknowledged his past. They’ve had Bray speak about how he used to be a very bad man and how he has been barbarically punished for his actions.
In the second episode they’ve even referenced the burning down of his old house. Bray painted a picture of what looked like the house that Randy Orton had burned down during their feud in 2017. This angered Abby the witch who only calmed down after Bray apologized. Shortly after that he, along with The rambling rabbit announced that the word of the day was ‘Sociopath’.
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But what does this mean for Bray and what is it leading to?
Many people are of the opinion that the puppets are supposed to be a facet of Wyatt’s mind and the Firefly Fun House is merely a peek into his deranged mind. There are also several that opine that the puppets are going to be revealed as wrestlers who will form Wyatt’s new stable.
Considering how Bray has often found himself with partners, a new stable for him would not be too out there but what would the gloves mean then?
Let us break this down one at a time and try to understand what Bray has tried to say to us in these two appearances.
The Gloves
The Hurt and Heal on his gloves seem to represent Bray being stuck in conflicting thoughts. Like it is meant to show that a part of him wants to seriously change for the better and heal, while the hurt is eating him and making want to punish himself. This would probably explain why he enjoyed mutilating his cardboard so much after berating himself and promising that he had changed.
Mercy the Buzzard
In my opinion Mercy the Buzzard is meant to represent the consciousness of Bray’s old memories. This could probably be the reason behind mercy’s absence in the second episode after hacking his old persona in the previous episode. Bray mentions how he takes to painting to express his suppressed emotions. Perhaps this suppression is a clue as to why Mercy is not in this episode.
Abby the Witch
A lot of people had originally speculated her to be the fabled Sister Abigail, and this was more or less confirmed by Bray Wyatt himself in the second episode when Bray reveals his painting. A burning house with a little girl stuck inside. A little girl that looked awfully similar to Abby the witch (who happened to have a meltdown at the revelation of the painting). The fact that the house in the picture is meant to be the house that Randy Orton burned down to kill Sister Abigail (Who in WWE lore is the source behind Bray’s Supernatural Power) is a crystal clear confirmation of who Abby is supposed to be.
The Rambling Rabbit
Just like Mercy, the Rabbit in my opinion is meant to represent another facet of Bray’s old character. The one that would talk and talk and talk but never deliver. There is very little at the moment to suggest anything else about this new character except that of the 3, he seems to be the friendliest with Bray.
Conclusion
Wrestling fans are aware of how weird wrestling can get. We’ve had a Clown, a Minotaur and even a Rooster in the ring but I can’t see how WWE would translate Bray Wyatt’s puppets into wrestlers. It is solely because of this reason I believe that instead of other wrestlers, the puppets and the gloves are meant to be Voices in his head. The Firefly Fun House is a way of letting us see what is going on in his mind. He has clearly not forgotten the pain of his past and he is obviously still angry. I believe that he is going to eventually have a breakdown in his head and I think the Mercy Puppet is going to have something major to do with it.
Only time will tell where this goes and how wrong or right I was, but one thing has become very apparent in the last two weeks; The fans definitely believe in Bray and at least for the moment, the big man seems to have the company’s backing too. Bray has done everything that was asked of him by the company and that is why it is imperative of WWE to see this gimmick through and not fail him a second time.
