A Case For Bray Wyatt To Win The Rumble

Introduction: At the risk of spoiling a show that’s over four days old as I write this, when Monday Night RAW went off of the air Monday with Bray Wyatt and his family kneeling over the incapacitated bodies of both Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, I found myself filled with an emotion I have not been able to muster for a while as it pertains to WWE’s main roster programming – hope. Realistically, I realize that either Roman Reigns or Triple H will win this year’s Royal Rumble and go into Wrestlemania as WWE World Heavyweight Champion; however, it is possible to make a case for Bray Wyatt to be the winner of the 2016 Royal Rumble match without much difficulty at all, and that is exactly what I intend to do.

What makes Bray Wyatt, a character who seems to win the majority of his feuds but then ends up losing whenever he actually runs up against a top-tier talent, a legitimate candidate to win the first-ever Royal Rumble that will see the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion put his championship on the line? There are actually a variety of factors working in Bray’s favor, so much so that if WWE actually booked this match logically, he would make the most sense.

Strength in Numbers

Obviously, Bray’s biggest advantage is the Wyatt Family, three hulking, subservient behemoths who combined are, realistically, WWE’s most dangerous stable. Even if Rowan, Harper, and Strowman aren’t all in the ring at the same time as Bray, they could still benefit their leader in two ways, either with staggered entrances into the event in order to give Bray a chance to recuperate, or by coming out to ringside and ensuring that he does not get eliminated while perched precariously on the ropes or near the apron.

Regardless of whether Bray finds himself with a single Family member in the ring with him or multiple members at the same time, there is not another tag team or faction who can match the cunning of the bayou dweller and the raw power of his followers (not to mention Harper’s nearly-forgotten wrestling acumen). Look no further than Monday night, when they incapacitated both Roman Reigns, the WWE World Heavyweight Champion who trounces the League of Nations regularly, and Brock Lesnar, a near-mythical force of destruction unmatched in today’s WWE. Is someone like Titus O’Neil or even Big Show realistically going to be able to stand against that kind of devastation?

A History of Success at the Royal Rumble

But that’s not to suggest that Bray can’t do it on his own, either, as Wyatt has done remarkably well for himself at the two Royal Rumble events he has competed at, first in a singles match against Daniel Bryan and then in the Rumble match itself. While the Wyatt Family is a truly imposing unit, Wyatt himself is no slouch.

After recruiting Daniel Bryan into his Family and then attempting to break his spirit, Wyatt was duped into getting into a cage with Bryan, ostensibly against the Usos, on a RAW before the 2014 edition of the Royal Rumble. Bryan turned on Wyatt and incapacitated him while Harper and Rowan looked on helpless. This set up their match at the Rumble, which opened the main card portion of the PPV and saw Rowan and Harper banished to the back after being caught attempting to interfere during the early portions of the match. Even without his Family, Wyatt wrestled one of the best matches of his career, culminating in a clean win over Bryan, the last clean defeat the Superstar would suffer prior to his historic run up to Wrestlemania XXX. Not only that, the entire Family would come out later in the night to interfere in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match, costing John Cena an opportunity to defeat Randy Orton for the unified titles, which drew a huge “thank you, Wyatts” chant from the crowd in Pittsburgh.

A year later, Wyatt had disbanded the Family and found himself entering the Rumble match fifth, and he and Harper quickly worked together to eliminate a returning Bubba Ray Dudley, only for Erick Rowan to steal Curtis Axel’s sixth spot and brawl with both of his former faction members. Wyatt used the confusion to eliminate both of his former associates, two of his six eliminations that left him tied with both Rusev and Roman Reigns for the most eliminations in last year’s match. Perhaps the most shocking of Wyatt’s eliminations, though, was his sixth and final one, as he tossed the recently-returned Daniel Bryan, a move that stunned the live crowd in Philadelphia and essentially set the tone for the rest of the Rumble. Wyatt made it to the final six before being unceremoniously eliminated by both Big Show and Kane off-camera, but his 47 minute, 29 second stay in the match was, by far, the longest last year (for comparison’s sake, the competitor with the second-longest time was eventual winner Roman Reigns, who came in a full twenty minutes shorter than Wyatt).

With so much success both at the Rumble event in general and in the Rumble match itself, it would only make sense for Bray to take the next step this year and actually win the Rumble match. Under normal circumstances, with a healthy roster, it would be significantly less likely, but that brings up my next point.

Talent-Depleted Roster

Whether it is perennial poster boy John Cena, 2015 Superstar of the Year Seth Rollins, the Superstar will waiting for his Rumble moment Daniel Bryan, or even mid-tier guys with huge upsides like Cesaro, right now, the WWE is as thin at the top of the card as it has been in recent memory. The reason this benefits Wyatt is because he’s largely been booked as a true main event threat. With the exception of feuds with John Cena, the Undertaker (twice), Roman Reigns, and, arguably, Dean Ambrose (who he had already soundly defeated in a feud), Wyatt has come out victorious in nearly every feud he has engaged in.

In spite of that (or, more accurately, because of the feuds that he’s lost), Wyatt has largely languished in the upper midcard, often finding himself seemingly without purpose or direction until it’s time to build him up again. This Royal Rumble is WWE’s chance to break that cycle and allow Wyatt to be a truly dangerous main event-level heel, something that’s been sorely lacking over the past year. The aforementioned Rollins was booked so weakly that it speaks to his talent that he was able to remain as popular as he did, and even Sheamus, who is often criticized for being a WWE pet project, has looked largely ineffective since cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Roman Reigns at the end of Survivor Series. And yet, in spite of Wyatt’s sometimes poor booking, he remains popular with smart fans, hated by the larger portion of WWE’s fanbase, and feared by their young fans.

The ending of Monday Night’s RAW was the perfect setup for a dominant run from the cult leader, and if WWE fails to pull the trigger again, they risk that being the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back and renders Wyatt as a permanent midcarder. Not only would Wyatt winning the Rumble and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship ensure that he is still seen as a credible main event-level talent, it also opens up the most storytelling possibilities for WWE.

Storyline Potential

The prevailing mindset right now is that Triple H will return for the Royal Rumble and cost Reigns the match, winning the championship himself and setting up a Reigns/Triple H match for Wrestlemania’s main event; however, with WWE’s recent booking of Reigns sapping any popularity he gained over the middle months of 2015 and reverting him into the smirking jackass with no promo skills that fans initially turned on in late 2014-early 2015, it makes more sense for the Reigns/Triple H feud to be about personal vengeance and not the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Not only does it keep a mostly-retired, forty-six-year-old away from the Wrestlemania main event and another championship reign, but it allows Roman to again step away from the spotlight and continue to improve as someone other than the focal point of WWE.

And if Wyatt wins the championship, not only does it pay off his “Anyone but you, Roman” proclamation from Money in the Bank, it also opens up several new feuds, either with Lesnar, who is angry about being punked out at the end of RAW and who fans love to cheer anyway, or with a debuting AJ Styles, who could bring in his Bullet Club brethren (once Karl Anderson is free to negotiate with WWE) to take away some of Wyatt’s numbers advantage. Or if a new feud isn’t in the cards and Dean Ambrose loses the Intercontinental Championship (as I expect he will), he and Wyatt could pick up where they left off and give the fans what they want to see – two young, talented, fresh Superstars headlining the Road to Wrestlemania. Or, they could just give the fans what they really want – a returning Daniel Bryan chasing the man who last eliminated him from the Royal Rumble for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Realistically, I am well aware that there is almost no chance that Wyatt wins this match, and in fact, the entire Family will probably be nothing more than fodder for Brock Lesnar and/or Roman Reigns; however, in my opinion, Wyatt absolutely makes the most sense as the winner of this year’s Rumble. He’s got the stable, he’s got the history, he’s healthy, and a win would present WWE with a variety of new directions to take the Road to Wrestlemania. Will it actually happen? Based on WWE’s general booking incompetence and the past two Rumbles, I highly doubt it, but if it does, hopefully no one will call the win undeserved, as it’s been a long time coming.

Wyatt Beougher is a lifelong fan of professional wrestling who has been writing for 411 for over four years and currently hosts MMA Fact or Fiction and reviews Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.