Bray Wyatt Must Leave Lasting Mark on Dean Ambrose at Survivor Series and Beyond

Bray Wyatt doesn't need a victory against Dean Ambrose at Survivor Series. He needs to leave a scar.

The Eater of Worlds has talked, prowled and cackled like a monster, but he hasn't left behind enough ruin to earn that label. Wyatt's character will weaken over time if he doesn't do more damage.

His battles with Ambrose are a perfect opportunity to do that, to leave evidence of his destructive power.

WWE should have Wyatt pull from Mark Henry's playbook. In 2011, Henry was a devourer of men, leaving his opponents wrecked behind him. He jammed a steel chair around Big Show's ankle and fractured his fibula. The Great Khali suffered the same fate. Henry later left Kane with a broken bone of his own.

That created a powerful aura around Henry. Fans knew those injuries weren't real and those victims' exits were scripted. The World's Strongest Man was still a haunting presence afterward, though.

Wyatt hasn't erected his own Hall of Pain. He's shown flashes of this kind of monstrous behavior but has been portrayed more as a rambling madman than one capable of destroying someone.

He threatened to destroy John Cena's legacy and coax the darkness out of him. He did not succeed.

Before that, The Wyatt Family kidnapped Daniel Bryan in 2013. Bryan showed up a week later, unscathed, ready to battle Erick Rowan on Raw.

While Seth Rollins has been crushing heads through cinder blocks and putting Randy Orton out of commission, Wyatt hasn't had those kinds of lasting images often enough. WWE seemed close to giving him one during his feud with Chris Jericho but pulled back at the last second.

In September, Wyatt met Jericho in a Steel Cage match. Near the end, he pounded on Jericho's leg.

Rather than have Jericho bare Wyatt's mark by hobbling around on that leg afterward, the story shifted to one focused on Orton. The Viper attacked Jericho backstage, setting up their match at Night of Champions.

Y2J returned to his non-wrestling life, but he was jettisoned from WWE by Wyatt. A loss to Orton was his send-off.

That marks one of many missed opportunities in Wyatt's timeline.

He now faces the red-hot Ambrose, a man nearly as unstable as himself. WWE can't just have him talk in riddles, linger around the fan favorite and lose a few matches.

This is a chance to make Wyatt appear as threatening as Rollins and as dangerous as 2011 Henry. WWE can deepen its roster by making him more of a convincing threat. The road for the company's babyfaces is suddenly a treacherous one if they have to face the cunning of Rollins, the brute force of Brock Lesnar and a Wyatt who shows himself to be a man who leaves men in great pain.

Have Ambrose leave their Survivor Series match in a sling or on a stretcher. Have The Lunatic Fringe, win or lose, talk the next night about how battling Wyatt changed him.

Credit: WWE.com

Have him spiral into an even more unbalanced state during their feud. Cena did that ever so briefly leading up to WrestleMania. WWE would be smart to go that route again and take it further this time.

Ambrose going mad is an inherently enthralling story.

It doesn't matter who comes out of their feud with more wins. Victory over a monster, though, should come at a price.

Ambrose's verbal and physical battles with Wyatt should leave him limping, his confidence shaky, never the same. That's a guaranteed way to build up Wyatt.

Otherwise, all of his threats just begin to sound hollow.

If you pull off enough masks from supposed ghosts, revealing that they are just ordinary men underneath, you stop being afraid of them. We can be afraid of and compelled by Wyatt with the right story, one soaked in suffering.