Projecting What's Next for 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt After Seth Rollins Rematch

Despite ending up on separate shows coming out of the 2019 WWE draft, Seth Rollins and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt are set to do battle once more for the Universal Championship at Crown Jewel on October 31, this time in a Falls Count Anywhere match.

Although Wyatt wasn't pinned or submitted at Hell in a Cell, it doesn't make much sense for this storyline to continue.

WWE received an incredible amount of backlash from fans following the finish to their original encounter on October 6, which saw the referee throw the contest out because he felt Rollins had gone too far. They could have, and arguably should have, moved on from that embarrassment of an ending and never acknowledged it again.

Instead, the company is insistent on seeing this thing through. If the intent isn't for Wyatt to emerge from this feud as the new universal champion, WWE is risking doing more damage to his surging popularity by having him endure another loss to Rollins.

Start-and-stop pushes have been the story of Wyatt's career since he arrived on the main roster in 2012. He'll have major momentum and appear to be on the brink of superstardom, only to lose when it matters most.

His recent resurgence as The Fiend gave fans hope that WWE finally knew what they had with him and weren't going to drop the ball this time around. After all, he has been hotter than any other act on either Raw or SmackDown since his re-debut over the summer.

It's unknown why officials bothered to book him in a Hell in a Cell match for the Universal Championship if there weren't any plans in place for him to win it, though. The idea behind the show's controversial conclusion was for The Fiend to be protected in defeat, but all it accomplished was getting fans less excited about a potential rematch.

Wyatt and Rollins proved during their first feud with each other in 2017 that their in-ring chemistry is stronger than some may think. Unfortunately, their Hell in a Cell clash was a mess, so here's hoping they're actually allowed to have the bout they're capable of in Saudi Arabia.

As previously noted, the biggest problem their Falls Count Anywhere matchup faces is that they're on opposite brands. In other words, unless Wyatt is traded back to Raw somehow between now and then, it's extremely likely Rollins will keep the title on the red brand.

Then again, Chris Jericho's United States Championship win at Payback 2017 led to him joining the SmackDown ranks that same night. That could be done with Wyatt as well, as long as it's established ahead of time that he'll return to the Raw roster if he manages to beat The Beastslayer for his prized possession.

The most logical scenario would see Wyatt lose to Rollins and remain on SmackDown. From there, it would be tough for fans to take him seriously again, especially given the company's track record with him leading up to this point.

On the bright side, SmackDown needs top heels at the moment and Wyatt fills that void nicely. He can be a fantastic foil for the likes of Kofi Kingston, Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan and The Miz and be booked to look stronger than all of them.

The only roadblock he might run into on the blue brand is Brock Lesnar, who could well destroy the mystique of The Fiend if they were to ever wage war. If Wyatt can't score a victory over Rollins (who has beaten The Beast Incarnate twice in 2019), there's no chance he'd be positioned as as threat to Lesnar, let alone escape that outing unscathed.

Credit: WWE.com

Although The Fiend suffering a second straight loss to Rollins is virtually guaranteed, that doesn't mean he won't get another shot to be a main event player. In fact, with Raw's roster as stacked as it is thanks to the draft, Wyatt will be better off on SmackDown where it's a lot less likely he gets lost in the shuffle.

Of everyone on SmackDown, Braun Strowman should be The Fiend's next target beyond Rollins. They have history dating back to their Wyatt Family days, and The Monster Among Men could easily absorb a loss to Wyatt.

With more credible victories under his belt and his failed feud with Rollins behind him, perhaps Wyatt could be the one to dethrone Lesnar as WWE champion down the road. In the meantime, the immediate aftermath to his projected loss at Crown Jewel will be crucial in determining his future worth as a world championship-caliber competitor.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is an Endicott College alumnus and aspiring journalist. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.