Following the news of his release, Rob Bonnette offers some perspective on Bray Wyatt, what happened, and why it’s not nearly as bad as you think.

The shocking news of Bray Wyatt’s release from WWE has brought with it some of the absolute worst takes you will possibly see on Wrestling Twitter.  Now rather than get into a bunch of arguments with people on social media I figured it would be best to sit back and try to take a more measured view of his career in WWE and what may come later.

The short version is that I don’t think anyone should be all that angry about his release.

Why, you say?  Well……..

For one as of right now we don’t know what happened.  Dave Meltzer is saying that it was budget cuts but at this point ‘budget cuts’ has become a one stop shopping answer for everyone’s release.  To be honest I think that it may be the case for some, like Braun Strowman, but ‘budget cuts’ sure does sound a lot nicer than ‘we think that guy/gal just wasn’t good enough’.  You can look at some of the releases, be honest with yourself, and and realize that some of these folks had zero chance of ever breaking through at that level.  But until Bray, someone he talks to, or someone at WWE say for sure we have no idea.

Second, from an employment and financial standpoint he should be fine.  He spent 8 years on the main roster at WWE and 11 years in total, and while I have no idea what his salary was it’s safe to assume that he was making good money for the wrestling business.  Now realistically speaking if he does stay in the business then he’s either going to AEW or he will be back in WWE.  Which means that he will again be at the high end of the wrestling pay scale.  If he chooses to leave the business behind then he’s got a million crazy ideas that will find a home on TV or in the movies.  One way or another he will be professionally fine.

But what about the booking?

Good grief, people….there are fewer things more irritating than seeing a man lose or ask out of his job, knowing that he lost a best friend and has reportedly been taking it hard (which is to be expected), and seeing people either fantasy book his future or complain about how was booked to win or lose worked wrestling matches.  But beyond the callousness of that line of thinking the idea that he was booked so terribly is just flat out false.

Bray Wyatt faced, at WrestleMania nonetheless, John Cena (twice), Randy Orton (twice), and the Undertaker.  I don’t care how the matches were on a star rating scale, the opportunity to work on that stage against those guys is an epic win.  He worked against and beat the two greatest WWE factions of the past 10 years, maybe ever, in the Shield and the New Day.  He worked with and beat present and future Hall of Famers Daniel Bryan, Kane, and Chris Jericho.  He’s a two time Universal Champion, one time World Champion. and held both the Raw and Smackdown tag team titles.

But that’s not all.  He got a level of creative input with his character and presentation that is above and beyond pretty much everybody there.  In a company where things are stage managed to a T, for better and worse, he got as close to free reign as anyone gets anywhere.  There are people working in companies who control far less than WWE who did not get as much space and control as he got.  Getting booked to lose some matches that you thought he should have won does not negate that.  It doesn’t wipe out all the great sketches and promos, from Cult Leader Bray with Harper and Rowan to all the Firefly Funhouse stuff.

To act as if everything he got to do for eight years doesn’t matter because of a handful of booking decisions is the height of wrestling fan and media stupidity.  To act like getting a segment with the Rock at WrestleMania 32 was bad because he and the rest of the Family was run off by the Rock and John Cena is complete dismissal of the goals that everyone in the business strives to achieve.  There are dozens of really talented people who didn’t get to do a single meaningful thing with any of those people I mentioned.  Please, for the love of God, get over yourselves.

Are there some things that we would all likely agree could have or should have been done differently?  Of course.  You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the business who did not have one or several booking decisions that were universally frowned upon.  (Bruno maybe?)  And we can discuss and even debate some of those but it should be in proper context and not as another way of yelling ‘Fed Bad!’ on twitter or some other platform.  Stop, breathe normally, and use your head for a change.

So Bray if this is goodbye thank you for a lot of great moments and memories over the last eight years.  If it’s see you soon then we look forward to seeing what you do down the line.  And finally we hope that you are in a good place as you move forward in life.  That’s what matters the most.