8 wrestlers whose careers suffered after feuding with Bray Wyatt
Bray Wyatt He’s one of WWE’s top talents and someone the company often pushes into main storylines and working against him could be a big deal. He’s got someone to look up to and guarantees plenty of TV time, but a feud with him can also be a curse, as his mysterious persona can be difficult to navigate.
Wyatt’s stories are sometimes too convoluted for their own good, which prevents the person in front of them from looking good. Their character often has a strong influence on the person they are having a fight with, meaning they may be in a difficult place when the story is over.
8 Braun Strowman
Bray Wyatt obviously had a positive impact on Braun Strowman’s career, his inclusion in the Wyatt Family kicking off his main roster run. However, when it came to the Universal Championship feud, they left a lot because it was all too much.
The two could have had some entertaining power-style matches, but it didn’t go that way. Instead, it was Wyatt trying to play mind games and his swamp match wasn’t good to watch because Strowman didn’t look good at the end.
7 The Miz
The Miz was put in a weird position when he wrestled Bray Wyatt because he was originally a heel, but then the fans had to sympathize with him after Wyatt started eyeing his kids. It was a weird situation and something that didn’t help The Miz out of it.
The Miz was the wrong man to put in this spot, and his complete fear of Wyatt established his heel nature, but it did nothing for the Miz, who failed to capitalize on his new side after that.
6 Randy Orton
Randy Orton has had a couple of major storylines against Bray Wyatt, and while their original work made the Viper look good, his feud against The Fiend did not. The problem was that it went on too long, and many of the goofy segments didn’t fit Orton’s character at all.
Seeing him have fake burns on his face or spitting black blood didn’t help at all. Orton eventually won the match, but Alexa Bliss turned on Wyatt more than anything else.
5 LA Knight
LA Knight is Bray Wyatt’s newest rival, and was steadily building up between them with Knight getting a lot of exposure. He was able to show off his promo skills and that’s something that helped him overcome it, but the end product of their storyline was a disaster.
They didn’t work in The Light’s Out match Royal Rumble In 2023, and it left fans frustrated to see. Wyatt dominated Knight in the match, even as he was becoming popular, and then destroyed him even after the loss to add insult to injury.
4 Kofi Kingston
Kofi Kingston was Bray Wyatt’s early rival, and the fact that most fans don’t tend to remember it shows that Kingston didn’t come out looking good. They had a very quick storyline that didn’t have much development as Kingston was just a babyface thrown into the ring to beat Wyatt.
It’s a role that Kingston took well, helping to make Wyatt look great, but it didn’t leave the story in a good place. He was stuck in a weird position without much attention, which wasn’t the right call for him.
3 Matt Hardy
Matt Hardy taking part in a feud against Bray Wyatt was something people wanted to see because of the supernatural elements that both of their characters had. However, the matches they had against each other were not entertaining, although they managed to show some cinematic situations.
Then WWE tried to make a tag team, and while it worked for a while, they eventually fizzled out. By the time Hardy returned to television, their time together was largely forgotten, and it didn’t do Hardy any good in the long run.
2 Finn Balor
On paper, the idea of Finn Balor fighting Bray Wyatt might have been exciting, but it wasn’t something that worked in reality. Balor is a beloved talent, and pitting his Demon persona against The Fiend is something that could have been entertaining, but that’s not how things ended.
Balor was The Fiend’s first feud and WWE chose to squash him instead of trying to make him competitive. Balor didn’t get any rematch or momentum against him, and instead ended up in no-man’s land by pulling out of the matchup.
1 Seth Rollins
No wrestler has been more hurt by his feud with Bray Wyatt than Seth Rollins, whose reign as Universal Champion ended against him. They had an infamous Hell in a Cell match, considered by many to be one of the worst ever inside the structure, hurt by the red lights.
Rollins wasn’t here because anything he did to look good would keep The Fiend around, and he’s talked about the frustrations of feuding against him in interviews. Rollins later lost much of his support from the fans and had to completely rebuild himself.
