Bray Wyatt was back on SmackDown last night (Oct. 28). He quit the show, the third time he’s done so since returning to this spot on Extreme Rules.
The former WWE and Universal Champion opened up about his struggles again. Wyatt’s emotional and mental health has been an issue throughout his runback, and this promo built on the psychological profile that was one of last Friday’s Easter eggs. Bray feels either too much or too little, and that has taken him to some dark places and made him do some horrible things. But he continued to describe what we’re seeing now as the best version of him, even though he’s likely to do terrible things again in the future.
It was mostly a synopsis of what he said in his other two recent promos, delivered in Windham Rotunda’s signature charismatic arcane style. What we got more of this time was the character who shuts down and reacts to Bray… a character we can now officially call Uncle Howdy.
Howdy is someone with a rather gross-looking mask* who also appears to be wearing a different mask at times (which looks very similar to the one we saw in Philadelphia last month when he came back). In another callback to a recently hidden clue, he refers to himself as “the ghost of the man who sold the world.” And since Wyatt appears to be “the man who sold the world,” is that Howdy Bray’s ghost?
The big takeaway here is that Wyatt is a liar. He claims to show us his real self without masks, but Howdy says he still wears one. What Bray calls the best version of himself is just a shell of his former greatness, according to his “uncle” – likely because Wyatt sent “him” away (the screen flashes quickly to what The Fiend looks like as Howdy delivers that line ).
Our latest QR code supports Howdy’s claims. It leads us to this image reminiscent of something The Riddler would have sent to one of his targets in Matt Reeves’ The Batman…
And the image’s source code eerily proclaims that the person responsible can “see” the real Wyatt beneath his mask of normalcy.
Regardless of whether the character ends up being played by someone else or not, it still seems pretty clear to me that Windham Rotunda is providing the voice at this point, and that at least the first program for Bray Wyatt’s latest WWE run is feuding with will be himself. How we get there is still unclear at this point.
Assumptions, of course, come quickly and furiously. Many have to do with Rotunda’s real family. Many people have pointed out the Howdy mask’s resemblance to Bray’s uncle and namesake Barry Windham:
And some think the fact that we could see a crossed earring on Uncle Howdy was a deliberate tease from Bray’s supposedly returning brother, Bo Dallas:
One circulating theory has the signers Vincent & Dutch play Uncle Howdy-like characters who want Bray to revert to his devilish ways, with Bo & Barry Windham emerging as Uncle Harper’s yet-to-be-revealed soldiers in a war for Wyatt’s soul .
Which, as critics and others understandably jaded at the way WWE has presented Bray’s ideas in the past point out, could be one big mess! But we also don’t know where anything is going a month after that run. And for people who are into that kind of immersive storytelling and/or just intrigued by trying to do something other than a traditional pro wrestling angle, it’s pretty cool. Also, Wyatt hasn’t even indicated he’s involved with anything else on SmackDown. So if this isn’t for you, you can just skip it.
So if you’re into it, give us your guesses! If you’re not, enjoy what appears to be a Wyatt-free crown jewel!
*I thought of this sketch from Tim Robinson’s brilliant I Think You Should Leave. Which, on the one hand, really destroys the vibe Bray & Company are aiming for. But on the other hand, I could fully see Uncle Howdy saying desperately, “We’ve done too much… I don’t even want to be here anymore.”