Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt – A Perfect Tale of Good vs. Evil

When immortal evil sets its eyes upon a mortal man, the chosen one has either to fall forgotten, or to fulfil his destiny and become a hero, who carries his cross of suffering. It is the endless nature of evil that keeps the hero going. The swift dance of yin and yang brings chaos to create a perfect circle of order. Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns are about to complete one full cycle of this infinite war with a match, closed in a Hell in a Cell.

The battle between the light and the darkness is as old as time. It’s been done and re-done countless times. This makes it look deceptively easy to tell a story of the constant struggle between the two forces. However, in reality, constructing a rivalry that has nothing but the concepts of god and evil as a central point is difficult, as it requires an over-used idea to attract the attention of millions. A good example of how easy it is to fail in the creation of a compelling rivalry between the personifications of good and evil is the Neville vs. Stardust feud. The WWE tried so hard to sell the superhero vs. supervillain concept. There were the cartoon graphics, especially tailored for the feud; the comic book nicknames and cartoonish clothing that involved spandex and capes. Despite all that, the feud failed to compel the WWE Universe and turned into one of the most irrelevant rivalries on the card at the moment. The reason for that is that there were a lot of flashy marketing products but no real story to underline them. Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns took the completely opposite route. Their rivalry didn’t parade the hero/villain stereotypes in it but we were all well aware of them because they were easily read in the ideology of the characters. The meaningfulness of the plot came before the commercialization of the feud.

The New Face of Fear proved once again that he is the best storyteller that the WWE has. On the road to Wrestle Mania, Bray Wyatt rebuilt the legend of the Undertaker only with fragments of old-forgotten symbols. Then, he took Roman Reigns’ character and crafted him into what he was always meant to be – the hero of the WWE Universe. Bray did not care what the fans thought. He chose Roman Reigns to be his hero. The New Face of Fear saw the white knight where the people placed a corporate pawn and he made that knight shine. He simply offered Roman Reigns to die a hero, rather than see himself become the villain. It is a tragic predicament and it was a twisted pleasure to see Roman Reigns desperately struggle to find another way out, just so see everything he loves get destroyed in front of his eyes with every new failure of his to take Bray Wyatt down.

For Bray Wyatt wins and losses don’t matter. He may be an actor but he is also the storyteller. He could get pinned but that would not bother him because in the end, he’d be back, persistent and determined. He’s a nightmare that never ends. With Bray Wyatt, there is no closure, there is no rest. That emptiness; that door to darkness that is always slightly open gives a bitter taste to every victory. It creates constant fear. The New Face of Fear injected that horror into Reigns’ life and he watched as the ink slowly spread throughout all strands of love Roman holds dear until they all drowned in darkness.  Bray Wyatt left him no way out and that gave an entirely new meaning to the One vs. All slogan. Suddenly, these words assumed a much darker and heavier tone.

When Roman Reigns first became a solo character, he took a cold, careless stance – One vs. All. He was all alone and it didn’t bother him. He claimed to care about no one and to have no one who cares about him. He was an empty shell that was supposed to attract with a fake smile and overly confident, a bit too cocky phrases. However, the WWE fans are smart, or at least, they have intuition. They quickly sniffed out his lack of substance and tried to devour him for it. Since then the WWE has been desperately trying to get the WWE Universe to give Reigns a chance to redeem himself. The One vs. All motto seemed to be a mistake that could hardly be fixed. Bray Wyatt took that mistake and gave it meaning. He filled in the shell with substance and created a hero.

On Smack Down, the Roman Reigns who entered the ring, despite being surrounded by numbers he could not possibly overcome, was not alone because he cares about no one but exactly because he has people, who he loves dearly. Reigns wasn’t cocky, there was no sign of the “swag” that felt so unnatural but was imposed on him by the script before. He didn’t enjoy standing up to the entire Wyatt Family. He didn’t do it to “look strong”. He willingly entered the lion’s den because he had everything to lose and there was no other way to protect it but to let go of it. Reigns turned into a hero who chooses to be alone, in order to keep his dearest away from danger. He had seen his daughter threatened; he had seen his cousin beaten to a pulp and left for dead; he had witnessed his closest friend get hurt violently over and over again, only because that friend would not leave his side, no matter what. Roman tried everything he could to defeat Bray. He accepted the help of those who loved him and saw them suffer as a result. In the end, he had to stand alone, One vs. All, if he wanted to have a chance to protect his loved ones from the evil that wanted to destroy him.

On Smack Down, there was no wasted motion, on wasted words. Hell in a Cell. Nothing left to lose, as all had been taken away. The only way to defeat the evil that will not go away is to try to take it down with you. At Hell in a Cell, the Reigns vs. Wyatt feud will complete a full circle. It accomplished all its goals and gave itself an infinite possibility of rebirth. That was yet another beautiful tale, told by the one true storyteller of the WWE – Bray Wyatt.

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