Firefly Funhouse

[EnviousDominous]

I'm honestly a little shocked that this segment hasn't earned a thread on this forum, and I'm well aware that there's a thread relating to Firefly Funhouse on WZ.

I'm creating this thread because I see so much potential in this gimmick, and I love that they're giving this gimmick to Bray Wyatt.

For those who don't know; Firefly Funhouse is a segment on Raw and Smackdown meant to hype the debut of Bray Wyatt's new gimmick, that of a jolly sweater-clad man who intends to teach morals and values to children while subtly alluding to a sinister alter-ego currently known as "The Fiend".

Why I love this gimmick: this has all the potential of being the next USA vs CANADA. Way back when, Bret Hart was living a double-life as a heel and a face and the WWF was wisely exploiting it for all it was worth. There's something more captivating about a gimmick that is both beloved and hated. My hope is that after Bray debuts, he plays up the kind nature of the side that's the children's tv show host. Let him be sadistic and vile as The Fiend, but give him some tear-jerker backstage segments where he shows genuine concern for emotional well-being of anyone he encounters. Have Alexa Bliss go too far in a criticism of someone and hurt their feelings, and then have Bray give them a heart to heart talk where he conveys some Mr. Rogers wisdom and let's them know that he cares for them even if nobody else does.

I see this as a potentially more sophisticated version of the Abyss or Mankind gimmick, where Bray will -- at times -- be at odds with the wishes of The Fiend. Make it so that The Fiend isn't necessarily evil, but that it's willing to resort to evil means to encourage the world to behave better.

I'll have more to say later.

[Jack-Hammer]

Sure, there's lots of potential here. There's a potential for something great and there's potential for it to be a huge trainwreck.

From what I understand, or at least what I've read in some articles, WWE is actually giving Bray Wyatt pretty broad discretion with this whole thing. Wyatt has a reputation backstage of being someone that the talent really enjoys working with, he's more than willing to help talent with their promos and he's just really respected for his creativity. The potential problem here is when/if Vince starts to lose interest and decides to start putting his fingerprints all over it. Right now, there's a definite creepy vibe about the Firefly Funhouse, which is exactly the point as Bray is sort of a deranged Mr. Rogers; Bray Wyatt is someone who can pull such a character off and I think the chances for him succeeding in reinventing himself a little, for the better in this case, is better if Vince just lets him do his thing and doesn't try to run things. This is a sort of character Vince doesn't get, he doesn't really understand and he doesn't need to tinker with.

[Spidercanrana]

This and the 24/7 are the best things going in WWE right now. It could get cancelled tonight and it would have still served its purpose, holding our interest. That's a success.

[Y 2 Jake]

Theres so much potential in WWE it's unreal.

I'm enjoying each segment but I can't get too invested because that would be foolish of me.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Firefly Fun House has been the best part of Raw since it started. I'm hopeful WWE won't ruin it, but I'm almost certain they will. We've seen this before with Wyatt too many times.

[EnviousDominous]

One of the more brilliant aspects of the Bray Wyatt character is that he encourages participation from the crowd, almost without even trying.

The crowd sings with him, and they create what looks like fireflies peacefully hovering in the waning twilight. It wouldn't surprise me if this aspect has gone way the Hell over Vince's head, but I'm hoping that part of the carte blanche that they're apparently giving Bray with this character is that they give him the time and space needed to come up with (hear me out) games and sing-a-longs.

We live in an age where it's cool to be different, and it's especially cool to be so different that "normies" scoff at you and glance in your direction with a stink stare so vile that it's as though you just took a shit in their hat.

I'm sure that Bray is working on his ring-work as well, but one of the greatest things about pro-wrestling is that it can make something like a contest of technical prowess more fun with some added substance. I can see Bray directing popular folk-songs (public domain of course), with the lyrics changed to promote or discourage his opponents. There's also the idea that he can do like Hulk Hogan in that he'll push morals and values down our throats, but do so with a more serious edge when it comes to the consequences of crossing him.

I don't think I've ever felt more creatively inspired by any other pro-wrestling gimmick.

[EnviousDominous]

I have no inside knowledge as to what inspired The Fiend character, but it looks to me like it's a mix of Beetlejuice, Sweet Tooth (from Twisted Metal), and Freddy Krueger.

With the latest promo for Firefly Funhouse, we were treated to some genre-contrasting remixes of the Muscleman Dance song until they played what seemed to be a heavy metal theme for The Fiend.

From what I've gathered after obsessively researching this promo, The Fiend is meant to be some kind of evil presence that thrives off of inspiring your imagination. In the same manner that Freddy Krueger gains strength when more people are aware of him, The Fiend apparently seeks to vicariously persuade you to allow him to enter your mind. I imagine that Bray is acting as a somewhat unwitting vessel for The Fiend, which is why I mentioned that The Fiend's persuasion of you to let him into your mind is vicarious. The Fiend uses Bray to present a fun and inviting atmosphere.

I don't know if Bray is supposed to be a tormented or willing servant of The Fiend. Firefly Funhouse seems like it might be a parody of all of Bray's past points of interest, as though he's learned to embrace his mistakes and absurd moments by joining in the ridicule of them. I imagine that The Fiend meant to attack Bray and make him subservient by bombarding him with horrifying memories, but has (much to The Fiend's accidental benefit) created a willing servant that doesn't possess an ego.

Bray is charismatic in a Mick Foley type of way. Bray doesn't just sell for his opponents, he allows his opponents to clobber him. Sweat and spit fly off of Bray when he gets hit, because he apparently insists on getting hit to deliver a full effect to the audience. I imagine that there is a source of personal torment that Bray deals with internally, in real life and in the gimmicks he plays. We hear a lot about prowrestlers having internal wars with their "demons", or being influenced by the "demons" around them. This gimmick is especially brilliant because it finally fleshes out this idea, the idea of the demon within us that torments us being fleshed out.

I expect that the bigger picture to The Fiend is that he can't go away. I expect that this character will take on some of the powers of Doink the Clown where he can appear in multiple places, and that he's a monster that can't be slain. The Fiend keeps Bray as a docile vessel for his mayhem by forcing him to co-exist with all the aspects of his career that torment him.

If the WWE plays this right, which is to say to back the Hell off and let Bray handle this, they can have a character on their hands that transcends prowrestling. I really think that this is the fix that the fans need.

[EnviousDominous]

Sometimes I see vague similarities in things, and really hope to myself that they're related.

It's probably impossible to pin-down what's gotten into Bray's head, or what inspired the Firefly Funhouse angle in regard to his character's evolution. But I have a pretty good idea that I'd like to share.

There was a gang of writers in the 1950's that wrote stories based mainly on rediscovering American identity through off-beat spiritualism, they were dubbed "Beat" authors. Jack Kerouac, who was one of the weirdest authors of all time, founded this movement and several budding young authors got on board. I don't think that Bray is supposed to be on drugs, I mention that because hallucinogenic drugs were a major influencer for beat authors.

One of those authors was William S. Burroughs, whose most famous work was a book called Naked Lunch. Naked Lunch is... different. It's only vaguely a story about a main character, in that most of the story explores occurrences that are happening in spite of the main character's presence. The apparent meaning to me is that main character was supposed to have been writing the story as they were experiencing it, and that the world around them became more interesting than themselves. Yadda yadda yadda, it's a decent read if you ever have time.

William S. Burroughs murdered his first wife while they were vacationing (and doing lots of drugs) in Mexico City. The details are sketchy, but he apparently up and decided that they should rehearse for a non-existent play of William Tell, his wife complied and balanced a shot-glass on her head, and then William shot her in the face killing her. After all the legal drama passed, William would explain that he wasn't in his own body when he pulled the trigger. He explained that "The Ugly Spirit" had possessed him, and made certain that he wasn't being misunderstood as meaning that anything other than a foreign spiritual presence possessed his body. He didn't indicate that it was Satan or an agent of Satan that possessed him, simply that "The Ugly Spirit" entered his body and forced him to act in the way that he did.

I realize that Bray will likely never conduct a non-kayfabe interview where he frankly explains the origins of his character, in fact I'm kind of hoping that he never does.

I don't believe that there's a such thing as "The Ugly Spirit", but I find it damn compelling when comparing incidents that invoke a sinister specter's influence. I'm not celebrating the death of William S. Burroughs' wife, more-so trying to make sense of the messed up world that we live in.

I'm sure that there are other examples of a supposed evil spirit that isn't a reference to any Abrahamic religious belief, I just found this connection to be worth exploring.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I love it, but its starting to get into the -"O.k, where are we going with this already? " territory. Now that his puppets are spying on wrestlers it looks like he might be actually targeting people now. I do hope the segments continue and he actually has Special Guests on his show, like R-Truth in one episode to where the comedy can be subdued for a minute and it could be really fun exploring the 24/7 scenario in Firefly Funhouse. The thing that scares me is that WWE tends to start a story, then scrap it for no good reason. Hopefully this one sticks around and advances eventually.

[Spidercanrana]

Beat Movement getting mentioned in this pro rasslin puppet show. You know we fuckin' around, trying to figure shit out.

[EnviousDominous]

Maybe Vince is reading this forum, and will utilize my amazing analysis for pointers on the direction of the Bray Wyatt character! Oh fuck, wait... that would be horrible.

Vince, if you're reading this, GO TO BED OLD MAN!

Another fun wandering of my overactive wondering is this gee whiz philosophical question of "free will".

Everything in Firefly Funhouse is subliminal, and the puppets are the most obvious. Abby is Sister Abigail, Mercy the Buzzard is likely a double reference to Dan Spivey's Waylon Mercy character and to the "Follow the Buzzards" idiom, Ramblin' Rabbit I believe is a vague interpretation of Windham Rotunda himself that more-so represents his vulnerabilities, and Huskus the Pig is an obvious reference to the Husky Harris character.

The deeper meaning to these puppets relates to what they are, puppets. The idea being that as we see them, and as Bray either lived or reflected on each character, they were puppets acting on behalf of a puppet master. The obvious answer would be that Vince was that puppet master, except that Vince is also a puppet on Firefly Funhouse.

I believe that we fans are unwittingly the puppet masters. More-so now than in the history of pro-wrestling (thanks to the internet), we get what we want even if it wasn't exactly what we asked for. Our emotions are played with because that's what excites us, and grants us the catharsis we need to endure the real world. There's obvious fear whenever puppet-Vince appears, and the dramatic "DUN DUN DUUUUN" plays, but that and everything that Vince does and has happen to him is a result of what's expected to entertain us.

I'm reminded of an old episode of Dr. Who, with Sylvester McCoy, titled "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy". Three Old Ones known as The Gods of Ragnarok expect to be entertained, and a traveling circus known as The Psychic Circus is there to provide them with an eternity of fun. However; some acts don't manage to entertain the Old Ones, and they are immediately killed. The Doctor becomes trapped in the dimension of The Old Ones, and is doomed to entertain The Gods of Ragnarok until he perishes. His sidekick Ace comes to the rescue, bringing a medallion that bears the symbol of an eye. The Doctor uses the medallion to reflect the wrath of The Gods of Ragnarok back onto themselves, killing them and freeing himself. I imagine that their wrath is symbolic of their incessant desire to be entertained, and thus they were forced to recognize how pathetic and boring they had become.

I imagine that Bray is toeing the line that separates what's vague with what's obvious. He's still always going to be our puppet, but he's playing with the notion that we're unaware of his awareness of this. Though; even deeper than that I think that he intends to indicate that we're all puppets in our own way. We follow paths of least resistance, we react in certain ways to different forms of stimulus, and we absolutely love to indulge. The world is full of distractions, just because we have millions of options doesn't mean that we're not also limited to them.

[EnviousDominous]

Oh good Lordy! The fans are so irate with the WWE for that Hell in a Cell finish. You'd likely be asked "Where should I begin?" if you asked one of them for details.

Me? I'm not so miffed. Maybe mosty because my experience wasn't tainted by the apparent fact that much of the live audience couldn't see the match in that weird lighting, I saw it on PPV.

The Fiend is a fresh horror icon, that actually works. Think about it, when was the last time we consumers were treated to a new and convincing horror movie villain?

I think that Jigsaw was the latest one, and his debut was all the way back in 2004. That's fifteen years of disappointing sequels, origin stories and rehashes that are all scraping the bottom of the barrel to use up all the potential that a once great idea had left. Jason Voorhees, Pinhead, Freddy Kreuger, Leatherface, Wishmaster, Candyman and Jigsaw are all jokes at the point that have long since lost their capability to be frightening or even interesting.

The Fiend WORKS. He's cool like the Joker, without being a ripoff of the Joker. His mannerisms, timing and body language all flawlessly convey that he's gone over the edge and that Bray Wyatt was his lighter side.

Some are mad that a Hell in a Cell match ended in a DQ. I'm still not 100% sure if that's the story that the WWE are going with, I believe that they'll record that one as a "referee stoppage" and try to move past it. I'm not really mad, because The Fiend didn't die. If anything, I see this as having the potential to be played as The Fiend won in that he pushed Seth over the edge as well. The Fiend will come back as strong as ever, while Seth has to reconcile with his own conscience and will likely not find the strength to forgive himself for losing his humanity.

Some are mad that The Fiend did not become the WWE Universal Champion. Well shoot, it was only The Fiend's second match. My personal opinion on Seth? He's very vanilla. I believe that fans are craving a Champion that can reawaken the excitement they used to feel from performers like The Undertaker or Sting. The best thing that could have happened to The Fiend character, happened that night. There's no doubt that The Fiend still has the crowd's confidence, and that in the future the WWE will be forced to reward their faith.

Some are mad that, though the ref may have stopped the match out of fear for The Fiend's safety, the Fiend was up and about shortly after the decision to end the match and the match was not restarted in spite of the crowd's pleas. Oh phoey. Am I about to run to AEW? Nah, nothing against them, but they don't have The Fiend stirring things up. AEW has a few wannabes with respectable fanbases, but right now nobody holds a candle to The Fiend.

The bright side to all this? It's The Fiend vs the WWE right now. The fans want blood and mayhem for what they were forced to witness. No amount of brutality will satisfy them, and for that matter there should be no limit to the amount of brutality that The Fiend is willing to dish out for fun. Whatever The Fiend does at this point to get his revenge against the WWE will sell tickets for the WWE, and there's a LOT of WWE for The Fiend to
rip and smash through.