If Booked 100% Right, Does The Fiend Have Long Shelf Life?

[fw91]

Something I’ve been wondering after last night. Right now he’s far and away the best thing in the company. Firefly funhouse skits are great and he looks like a legit scary threat. BUT even if they stay the course and do things right, is it all done with one loss? Even if that loss is way down the road? I see that one loss would kind of be like beating a video game. The funhouse gang gets set free and whatnot. Idk maybe I’m overthinking?

[Deleted]

I think Funhouse Bray needs to start wrestling. The Fiend really should be getting saved for special occasions, it'd increase the shelf life of the gimmick dramatically.

Granted even then, you run the risk of turning him into Finn Balor where he's unstoppable with the costume on but completely useless without it. You definitely need to avoid that as well.

[fw91]

Sept 17, 2019 15:41:39 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I think Funhouse Bray needs to start wrestling. The Fiend really should be getting saved for special occasions, it'd increase the shelf life of the gimmick dramatically.

Granted even then, you run the risk of turning him into Finn Balor where he's unstoppable with the costume on but completely useless without it. You definitely need to avoid that as well.

I actually really like this idea.

[Mozenrath]

Long enough, I think. Monster heels always have a certain amount of time before you need to cash them in to put over people, but I think they're on the right track so far.

[Deleted]

Sept 17, 2019 15:49:32 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Long enough, I think. Monster heels always have a certain amount of time before you need to cash them in to put over people, but I think they're on the right track so far.

I think the biggest issue is putting the belt on him this early. That basically means you're going to run out of challengers sooner rather than later, especially since it'd undermine the Fiend's threat level to have people lining up to challenge him more than once instead of promptly putting some distance between them. You've got the brand stupidity to get you through Survivor Series and the Elimination Chamber to also help with that, but you'd still need filler challengers for TLC, the Rumble, and Fastlane just to get to Mania, and really with how hot the act is I feel like Mania's too soon to beat him.

[Bang Bang Bart]

Sept 17, 2019 15:56:05 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Sept 17, 2019 15:49:32 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Long enough, I think. Monster heels always have a certain amount of time before you need to cash them in to put over people, but I think they're on the right track so far.

I think the biggest issue is putting the belt on him this early. That basically means you're going to run out of challengers sooner rather than later, especially since it'd undermine the Fiend's threat level to have people lining up to challenge him more than once instead of promptly putting some distance between them. You've got the brand stupidity to get you through Survivor Series and the Elimination Chamber to also help with that, but you'd still need filler challengers for TLC, the Rumble, and Fastlane just to get to Mania, and really with how hot the act is I feel like Mania's too soon to beat him.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't do Demon Finn vs. the Fiend at WM36, instead saving that for SummerSlam. So, in this case, the Fiend would face someone else at WM and retain the belt.

[4real]

The worry for me is when he eventually has to start wrestling every week. Hopefully not because I want to see his push stay as it is for now but you know people will start moaning that he’s not putting on classics with Cedric or Ricochet soon enough.

[Deleted]

Sept 17, 2019 16:02:54 GMT -5 Bang Bang Bart said:

Sept 17, 2019 15:56:05 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I think the biggest issue is putting the belt on him this early. That basically means you're going to run out of challengers sooner rather than later, especially since it'd undermine the Fiend's threat level to have people lining up to challenge him more than once instead of promptly putting some distance between them. You've got the brand stupidity to get you through Survivor Series and the Elimination Chamber to also help with that, but you'd still need filler challengers for TLC, the Rumble, and Fastlane just to get to Mania, and really with how hot the act is I feel like Mania's too soon to beat him.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't do Demon Finn vs. the Fiend at WM36, instead saving that for SummerSlam. So, in this case, the Fiend would face someone else at WM and retain the belt.

Personally in the moment, I'd do the Fiend vs. the Demon at Mania and have the Fiend win.

[Tenshigure]

Sept 17, 2019 15:41:39 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I think Funhouse Bray needs to start wrestling. 

I completely disagree. If anything, Funhouse Bray should never make any kind of on-screen appearance that isn't strictly within the confines of the set of the Funhouse itself, never directly interacting with the rest of the roster in a physical sense (outside of maybe an abduction or two). Having that persona wrestle turns the entire character into a slightly better received Finn Balor with his Demon persona and a Kids show instead of being a Rock N Rolla. 

You want to increase the shelf life of the Fiend? Easy enough: you don't overuse him. There's no reason to have him show up on a weekly basis, especially with the bloated roster already struggling to get everyone on TV while they can. Keeping his appearances limited makes the mystique grow and reduces the exposure he has to the audience (when he shows up, you know something serious is going to happen).

If the WCW can make a non-speaking Crow Sting a looming presence of their programming without even speaking a word for the better part of the Monday Night Wars, the WWE can keep The Fiend in their back pocket as a threat that can and will destroy anything that he chooses. 

Of course with that being side, this is the WWE in 2019. I'm sure they'll have driven his character into the ground by the time the 2020 Royal Rumble comes around...

[Deleted]

Honestly, I'd never have Bray wrestle on the weekly shows.

[Bang Bang Bart]

Sept 17, 2019 16:16:30 GMT -5 Tenshigure said:

Sept 17, 2019 15:41:39 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I think Funhouse Bray needs to start wrestling. 

I completely disagree. If anything, Funhouse Bray should never make any kind of on-screen appearance that isn't strictly within the confines of the set of the Funhouse itself, never directly interacting with the rest of the roster in a physical sense (outside of maybe an abduction or two). Having that persona wrestle turns the entire character into a slightly better received Finn Balor with his Demon persona and a Kids show instead of being a Rock N Rolla. 

You want to increase the shelf life of the Fiend? Easy enough: you don't overuse him. There's no reason to have him show up on a weekly basis, especially with the bloated roster already struggling to get everyone on TV while they can. Keeping his appearances limited makes the mystique grow and reduces the exposure he has to the audience (when he shows up, you know something serious is going to happen).

If the WCW can make a non-speaking Crow Sting a looming presence of their programming without even speaking a word for the better part of the Monday Night Wars, the WWE can keep The Fiend in their back pocket as a threat that can and will destroy anything that he chooses. 

Of course with that being side, this is the WWE in 2019. I'm sure they'll have driven his character into the ground by the time the 2020 Royal Rumble comes around...

Easy solution to maintain the mystique of the Fiend on a weekly basis? Just allude to his presence if he's not there in person. Tiny things like the Funhouse puppets popping up in the background (previously done already) or visages of the Fiend's mask showing up in the background. Maybe even a graphical f***up like the upside down match card last night.

[Pushed to the Moon]

If they want to "Keep him Special ^TM" then he shouldn't be having 3 minute matches on Raw vs Apollo or whatever and just cut promos and have PPV matches so they could probably string it out a while. I dunno how long it'll take before people get bored of him though. He's basically still doing the same Wyatt thing of teleporting in from nowhere to attack people except he's "scary" now and people think he's cool.

[rnrk supports BLM]

"Evil Clown" is one of those core ideas that's always going to have appeal. If they don't bungle this they've got the next Undertaker on their hands.

[Deleted]

he could get a decade plus out of this character

[dbrussel]

A lot of people will be tired by next WM

[Rican]

Monster heels always have a short shelf life. They have to lose eventually and then the mystique isn’t quite the same. He’s best as a special attraction so maybe the loss doesn’t hurt as much if we don’t see him for a while. Bray has proven to be incredible at re-inventing himself though so I’m sure he’ll come up with something.

[salz4life]

Sept 17, 2019 16:03:12 GMT -5 4real said:

The worry for me is when he eventually has to start wrestling every week. Hopefully not because I want to see his push stay as it is for now but you know people will start moaning that he’s not putting on classics with Cedric or Ricochet soon enough.

IMO, he doesn't need to wrestle anywhere but PPV.... at least for now.

[Starshine]

WWE monster gimmicks have a shelf life of around, give or take, a year. If they want to go with Wyatt getting a top card run, they should do it now before we all get sick of the new added sheen on the gimmick.

I'm very confident that a lot of us here will be back to complaining the same way we did before since the only new substantial thing for this gimmick is a clown mask, a childrens show set, and new lighting effects. Everything else is exactly the same, he's a walking deus ex amchina with a new hat mask.

[Allie Kitsune]

I really don't know what to make of it.

To keep him special, he basically needs to be an unstoppable squash machine that the rest of the roster not only can't touch, but has to s*** their pants at the very thought of.

And you can't do that long-term.

[Mister Pigwell]

Sept 17, 2019 17:46:17 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

I really don't know what to make of it.

To keep him special, he basically needs to be an unstoppable squash machine that the rest of the roster not only can't touch, but has to s*** their pants at the very thought of.

And you can't do that long-term.

After he gets established they have a real tricky job of how to beat him without it killing the mystique. I don't envy whoever gets stuck booking that one.

Undertaker is the prime example that long time craziness *can* work, but replicating his success is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle at the end of a double rainbow when you're announced as a lottery winner.