Hello! Its another Mania Week Blog,these are almost becoming a regular occurrence- you'd think I stupidly committed to doing 31 of the bastards in a week. This one is an interesting topic- it's one that I've seen a lot of differing opinions on this one, it's something I have my opinion on definitely but you always have to consider both sides of the argument in these scenarios- so that's the point of this blog.
Bray Wyatt is without a shadow of a doubt one of the guys the WWE can hang their proverbial hat on for future success- everything about his character is money, and with someone who is as diverse on the mic as Bray is he can be an equally good babyface and heel in my opinion. Then you get to The Undertaker who is one of the legends of this business without a shadow of a doubt, this provides an interesting dynamic for the match because we have two guys at different ends of the spectrum with regard to their careers and both guys coming off losses at the previous Wrestlemania.
At Wrestlemania 30 we had Taker finally losing "The Streak"- and quite a lot of people saw that as his curtain call, but he's back for another round and for the first time in nearly 10 years he's facing someone who hasn't been WWE Champion in Bray Wyatt.
I'd make the argument that Bray needs the win a hell of a lot more than Taker does. I've been what you'd call a "Bray Mark" since his days in FCW- I'm a weird case where I was watching NXT before it was even called NXT, and Bray was a character I latched onto straightaway so from that perspective it has really fun to see how he's gone from vignettes being shot with one camera in a shed to vignettes with four cameras in a big shed. Barring injury Bray is a character I can see being a regular fixture in and around the main storylines for at the very least the next 10 years- and most likely beyond because he doesn't always have to wrestle in order to be a presence on TV because of his exceptional mic work.
Bray lost to Cena last year, which I genuinely didn't mind as much as some people did- because if you look back at the build to the Mania Match Bray didn't ever want to win the match, he just wanted to get the monster out of Cena and although he failed it didn't make the loss sting from my point of view. I had more of an issue with how he won the match a Month Later because that made Bray and the Family look beyond bad. So coming into this Mania, which I think is his second- because Orton punted "Husky Harris" in the build to his match with Punk you could make the argument that Bray can't afford to lose on the "big stage" two years in a row. I fundamentally disagree with that point because you only have to look at the Mania Record of people like Jericho and The Rock to know winning at Mania isn't the be all and end all. Especially with a character like Bray who doesn't always need to win in my opinion- and he'll still be over. While I'm not saying he should have the record of a jobber- heels fundamentally should lose at a 65:35 Ratio in my opinion as long as the 35% of Wins come at key points of the feud.
Then you get to The Undertaker who lost to Brock Lesnar, and with it lost The Streak. As you've seen in my "31 Favourites" blog Taker is someone I have the utmost respect for both as a character and as "Mark Calaway" because of his longevity, adaptability and toughness. Unlike some I wasn't 100% against Brock ending the Streak hindsight being 20/20 which I discussed in detail in my "Was the end of The Undertaker's Streak a Good Thing?" blog I did at the beginning of February- but in short it legitimised Brock and Heyman as an entity again. But I've seen a lot of people saying that Taker can't lose 2 Manias in a Row which as with Bray I fundamentally disagree with. The reason for this one is different however, while I do understand some people comparing the two characters because they're both "dark" there is very little similar between the two- which was why I didn't want Bray to start his own "Streak". I think its generally accepted that Taker is going to go through until Wrestlemania 32 when its in Texas- and that'll probably be his last match, and it wouldn't surprise me to see a Hall of Fame induction either that year or the subsequent year; but while I think its likely Taker does win on Sunday I think that Taker doesn't "need" to win in order to make Mania 32 happen.
Either guy can lose on Sunday and carry on- I don't think giving Bray The Streak would have been a good thing, because his character shouldn't chase Titles- and The Streak had become a Title defended once a year *insert Brock joke here*. But if Bray can beat Taker this year it'll give him a huge platform to use as a base for a hot feud headed into Summerslam as such I think Bray needs it more because as Punk highlighted a load of times in his AOW Podcast he's the one who's going to be there after all the Mania furore has died down.
Thanks for reading as always, this is another Mania Blog, if you weren't aware I'm doing 31 blogs for Mania Week- so feel free to look back on all of the Blogs I've done this week and if you see one that takes your fancy, read it. Stay Tuned throughout the rest of Mania week for future blogs- and thanks again for reading this one.
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