WWE Must Not Sacrifice Bray Wyatt's Momentum to Celebrate Undertaker, Kane

As WWE places Undertaker and Kane atop a pedestal to laud their legendary careers, it has to avoid crushing Bray Wyatt under it.

Balance will be key as this rivalry unfolds. Even if the heroes conquer the monster and his clan, it can't be to the point where the beast is completely defanged, declawed, defused.

Wyatt is too valuable a commodity to diminish in the long term for the sake of a short-term tribute. It's not clear, though, that WWE understands that.

At the close of Monday's Raw, with Kane and Undertaker serving as their own cavalry, they left The Wyatt Family beaten and flattened. The Eater of Worlds was in the middle of eulogizing the two entities he claimed to have destroyed. As he so often does, he promised the apocalypse and boasted about his fearsome nature.

Then in marched the Brothers of Destruction to have Wyatt go from smug to scrambling in search of the nearest exit.

The two titans moved in unison, tearing through the cult of bearded bruisers. They flung Braun Strowman over the announce table, smashed Luke Harper and Erick Rowan to the mat, and finally held Wyatt by the throat and sent him crashing into the canvas.

In many ways, the moment was a success.

The surprise of seeing Undertaker and Kane standing amid smoke and raising their fists in the air was a strong sendoff for Raw. The feud had been one-sided up to that point, so an attack from the babyfaces shook things up.

And seeing the Brothers of Destruction riding together again doled out a satisfying dose of nostalgia.

Still, the domination of two aging stars against four monstrous figures is concerning. It points to potential pitfalls ahead in this narrative. It points to WWE using Wyatt and his family as doormats as Kane and Undertaker make their exit from the squared circle.

As the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Justin LaBar pointed out, it didn't look as if Undertaker and Kane actually need any partners heading into Survivor Series:

Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net wrote about the show's final segment: "Taker and Kane got their revenge for having their souls eaten. They took out all four Wyatt Family members, so I guess there's no need to have a match at Survivor Series."

He's right. There's a danger of WWE gutting the intrigue of a battle at Survivor Series here.

The key to avoiding that and making this all work is allowing Wyatt to experience retribution, to make sure he is inflicting pain—not just receiving it.

If The New Face of Fear continues to be on the wrong end of steamrollings, not only will the expected PPV match with him at the center have minimal appeal, so will his character as a whole.

Undertaker and Kane can't be booked as so much more powerful than The Wyatt Family that they bowl over their foes with ease.

Credit: WWE.com

Wyatt must lead a counterstrike—the more memorable, the better. Because as much as this angle is clearly a showcase of two veterans as they sing their swan song, it also needs to empower Wyatt—and hopefully some of his imposing followers.

WWE has yet to have Wyatt sustain any momentum for long. And with as much energy as the company spent on Monday night commemorating Kane and Undertaker's careers, one has to wonder if that's even a concern for the writers.

The focus repeatedly returned to The Deadman and his sadist brother throughout the night.

Monday's Raw featured a number of clips that highlighted those wrestlers' biggest moments. Fans relived Kane pile-driving a priest, Undertaker hurling Edge through the ring and the Brothers of Destruction joining forces to wreck havoc on the wrestling world.

WWE has billed Survivor Series as a celebration of 25 years of Undertaker. The WWE Network will feature "Undertaker Week," a tribute to the future Hall of Famer complete with interviews with Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin.

All of this gives both Kane and Undertaker a proper exit and the respect the deserve. It is the perfect example of WWE's deftness at milking big moments.

The company, though, can't forget about elevating Wyatt in this process somehow. The Eater of Worlds has the tools to ascend to the role of top heel. He's a 28-year-old just beginning his prime.

Kane and Undertaker won't be around in five years. Wyatt will be.

As this rivalry continues, WWE has to be asking itself how it can get Wyatt to the point where he has his own week on the network 20 years from now. How can the company build him up to where big names sit around and speak about him with awe in their voices, with a shortage of proper superlatives to properly describe his impact?