WrestleMania 33 was an awesome show. The in-ring wrestling and spectacle easily washed the dumpster fire that was last year’s from my mind, but there was an obvious stain on the “Ultimate Thrill Ride” that prevented it from being in the conversation for best ‘Mania of all-time.
No, I’m not talking about the Taker/Reigns slog. I’m talking about the lackluster, safe, boring WWE Championship match between Randy Orton and then-champion Bray Wyatt. And Bray deserved better.
Outside of Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens, Wyatt/Orton was the best built feud in the company heading into WrestleMania 33 . The slow burn of Orton’s betrayal was well done, lending complexity to the Randy Orton character, who can be very bland and boring at times.
Bray thrived on SmackDown Liv e after the brand split. He was slowly built back up to be the supernatural monster he was when he first debuted, culminating with him gaining his first title (the SmackDown Tag Team Championships with Orton) before finally winning the big one at Elimination Chamber.
Longtime Wyatt Family member Luke Harper left after Bray sided with Orton over him, and then the eventual Orton betrayal snowballed the feud between the two into the top feud on SmackDown Live.
Weeks of creepy vignettes and pre-taped segments and the promise of a more powerful Bray really put the spotlight on Bray at WrestleMania 33 and then… yea.
What we got at WrestleMania 33 was 10 minutes and 27 seconds of Bray getting good offense in for the first minute or so, sprinkled between three odd (but honestly, pretty cool) visuals in the actual ring before the “Eater of Worlds” fell to a single RKO. And just like that, the “era” of Wyatt was over.
Now, I’m not against Randy Orton going over Wyatt for the title (I fully expected it to happen), but it’s the way it happened that’s really troublesome.
Six matches lasted longer than the Wyatt/Orton match, including the Shane McMahon and AJ Style bout. This is one of the top two belts in all of the company, and it wasn’t given the proper amount of time to tell what could have been one of the final chapters of this feud.
Wyatt was supposedly imbued with the powers of Sister Abigail, making him more powerful than ever and there was no show of power at all in this match. You can say the SmackDown go-home show had Randy Orton taking those powers away, but then what was the deal with the maggots and roaches projected in the ring during their ‘Mania match?
If you wanted Orton going over against this superpowered, supernatural being you should have had Wyatt seem unbeatable. No-sell an RKO or two, have Orton really struggle to do any damage on Bray.
Hell, you could have had a returning Erick Rowan go in and help Wyatt to really amp up Orton’s struggle. Creative could have even had Orton becoming the new leader of the Wyatt family, if they set it up that Orton took away Bray’s powers and became the new alpha male in the group.
But none of that happened. Instead, Randy went over clean to put the belt on a veteran wrestler instead of one of the rising stars in the company. It’s boring and predictable, and Bray deserved better.
For years, Wyatt has been on the cusp of greatness. He’s had some memorable feuds with the likes of Daniel Bryan and John Cena but ultimately never really could break out. His record at WrestleMania is now 0-3, being tasked to lie down for the likes of Cena, The Undertaker and now Orton, all wrestlers who do not need the victories and could have used their clout to give the “rub” to Wyatt.
With WrestleMania 33 behind us, Bray will get his rematch at the next SmackDown exclusive pay-per-view and hopefully they can flesh out the story between Randy and Bray before then and without the spotlight and cluttered card of ‘Mania, give fans the “blowoff” match they wanted in the first place.
It’s just a shame that they couldn’t have given Bray his WrestleMania moment. Well, there’s always next year.
