Well. Against all odds, we’re here now… we made it to the end of the week. And for better or worse, WWE’s gonna go through with this show no matter what anyone thinks. WrestleMania 36 is now upon us. It’s a strange and surreal night and it’s to be christened with this strange and surreal battle, pitting John Cena against the Fiend in a Firefly Funhouse match.
I’ve only been working as a wrestling columnist/recapper for less than a year. In other words, the first WrestleMania I’ve ever covered is… this one. I didn’t really imagine it’d be like this, fair to say. But even so… my name is Jordan Huie and I’m truly glad to have you here with us tonight at the Overtimer. You can expect that we’ll be giving you the same coverage as always for the Show of Shows. This year’s iteration of WWE’s biggest annual event will, if nothing else, be absolutely nothing like any other. So with all that said, let’s get to the previews. We’re getting to some truly major matches at this point.
(Note: At the time of writing, WWE have not announced which matches will be airing on which day.)
Firefly Funhouse Match: John Cena vs. The Fiend
The story of this match centers around John Cena and Bray Wyatt’s first encounter at WrestleMania 30. At the time, Bray was one of the hottest stars in the business. It seemed apparent to many, myself included, that if Bray had won it would’ve cemented him as a top name for years to come. But Cena defeated him and then went on to win the feud outright. It was the start of a trend for Bray. He would regularly target main eventers for vague reasons, threaten them with spooky dialogue and then inevitably lose to them every single time.
The downward spiral eventually forced Bray to completely reinvent himself in the incarnation we see today, splitting time between being the cheerful host of the Firefly Funhouse and the terrifying monster that is the Fiend. It’s a funny thing. In-storyline, this doesn’t really make sense. Bray went on to win the WWE Championship years after losing to Cena after all, he didn’t have to become the Fiend to make that happen. But it’s not a storyline angle, really. Rather this is another angle that plays off real life.
Even though Bray continued to be pushed to big matches (to lose them) and even won the WWE Championship, from John Cena no less, he was always seen as a disappointment. That WWE title reign in particular was a real mess, short-lived and his only major match defending the title involved bugs being flashed onto the canvas over and over, killing the crowd’s investment a little more every single time.
For years, it seemed that everything WWE did destroyed Bray Wyatt a little bit more and he could never get as hot again as he was back when he was merely a concept being shown off in awesome vignettes. And yes, that all started with WrestleMania 30 in many ways. That’s the story here. WWE wants to backtrack on all that and the symbolic way to do it is with this match here. John Cena has gone out of his way to say that Bray is not a star, was never a real star and would never live up to his potential. He’s promised to squash him, bury him and end him. In other words… he must lose.
This is a trademark of Cena’s. Whenever he was going to win, he always made it clear that if he didn’t win, it would mean that his career was over and he’d be ruined forever. If he was going to lose, he’d flip the script and say the exact same thing about his opponent. They face off now in a Firefly Funhouse match and whatever that is, there’s only one possible outcome to it all. The Fiend over.
SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get TheOvertimer’s Hottest Stories, Breaking News and Special Features in your email, CLICK HERE!
