Bray Wyatt's Sister Abigail Alter Ego an Instant Fail for WWE

WWE had already lost its way with Bray Wyatt when it wandered into the bizarre stretch of the Raw landscape that was home to Sister Abigail.

The Eater of Worlds has been no stranger to poor writing, misguided ideas and off-the-mark booking. So perhaps it didn't shock him when WWE asked him to don a dark veil and speak through a voice box as he morphed into a female spirit onscreen.

Sister Abigail finally arrived Monday night. After being talked up by Wyatt for much of his career as a powerful spirit and guiding force, she took her place on the stage by taking over the Wyatt Family patriarch's human frame and calling out Finn Balor.

She was not an actual person or a debuting female star as many suspected but instead a ghostly figure that Wyatt channeled. 

The scene was corny, low-rate, laughable. The Indianapolis crowd fell silent at her unveiling.

The critics pounced.

ProWrestling.net columnist Jason Powell wrote, "Sister Abigail speaking through Wyatt is absurd." Denny Buckholder of CBS Sports tweeted, "Bummer that after all that buildup, Sister Abigail is just auto-tune Bray Wyatt."

The WrestlingInc crew isn't a fan of it, either:

It's hard to blame them. This is an ill-advised concept that came off as more silly than scary. It's going to further damage Wyatt's aura. 

Wyatt wrestling in Sister Abigail garb is going to crack up the crowd.

He was always going to be a challenging character to write. He doesn't fit into the typical wrestling persona box: egotist, coward, underdog, dominant beast. It's hard to balance supernatural elements with conventional pro wrestling booking, and WWE hasn't been able to do so effectively.

Credit: WWE.com

Wyatt could have been the heir to Undertaker, to Jake "The Snake" Roberts, to Kevin Sullivan, the next great dark predator.

Instead, the company has scripted convoluted stories for him. It has saddled him with B-movie special effects. 

At Extreme Rules 2014, a kid in a choir robe distracted John Cena with his demonic singing voice. Wyatt projecting worms and insects onto the mat at WrestleMania 33 flopped. The House of Horrors match underwhelmed, the locale looking more like a dirty rental than a monster's lair.

It's all fallen flat to different degrees. WWE Creative looks out of its element when handling Wyatt's narrative, and that is especially clear with the Sister Abigail reveal.

Fans are going to struggle to buy into Wyatt's alter ego. It's asking a lot of the audience to accept a phantom playing puppet master with his body.

While Balor's own second persona is a cooler more powerful version of himself, Wyatt's feels like a joke. The transformation into The Demon is less literal. It doesn't require Balor to dress in drag. It doesn't depend on cheap voice effects.

The Sister Abigail concept is an idea that should have been scrapped and reshaped before making it to TV. It's the latest in a long line of groan-inducers involving Wyatt. 

While The Eater of Worlds' character as a whole is on life support, his alter ego is dead on arrival.