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The majority of 2023's Royal Rumble premium live event is being celebrated by fans, and rightly so. Both 30-person matches were terrific, even though their results were predictable, and the final moments between Sami Zayn and The Bloodline were executed to perfection. In fact, that final match and what came after was done so well, it wasn't until fans were turning off their TVs and leaving the arena that they remembered there was a hope that The Rock would show up at some point.
WWE's Mountain Dew Pitch Black Match
There were some lulls in the night though, the biggest one being WWE's Mountain Dew Pitch Black Match between LA Knight and Bray Wyatt. After waiting more than three months between his return at Extreme Rules and his first match at Royal Rumble, you'd have thought fans would be chomping at the bit to see Wyatt finally back in the ring. Well, between attention spans being shorter than they have ever been before and the build not being all that great, the desire to see Wyatt actually wrestle a match for the first time in almost two years simply wasn't there.
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A lot of the blame for that can be pinned on the match type WWE went with. Calling something a Pitch Black match alone and not offering up an explanation as to what exactly that means (even after having seen the match I still don't know what it is) is bad enough. Doing that so you can get a little money from Mountain Dew is just not okay. Well, it is okay for someone like The Miz perhaps, but not for Wyatt.
Wyatt's first televised match back was one geared to advertise Mountain Dew, and somehow that isn't the most unforgivable thing about all of this. Despite the advertising attached, the match itself could have been great, but it wasn't. It was full of the same gimmicks that had WWE fans divided when Wyatt was The Fiend. Even those who enjoyed that chapter in the former WWE Champion's career would have had that flame extinguished long ago as they watched the creative character get the momentum knocked out of it under a pile of steel chairs, and then killed off completely by a quick spear, jackhammer, and three count courtesy of Goldberg.
Wyatt Needs A Full Refresh
Whatever this latest Wyatt is going to be, it needed to demonstrate something new. There had been glimpses of that in the build to this match, but the match itself implied it'll be more of the same. Some of Wyatt's promos in the last few months where he shed all of his character work felt like they were from the heart. Words from the real him inside a wrestling ring for the first time. More of that would have been great to see, but it feels as if that was sacrificed for the sake of shoehorning the gimmick he's known for into a promotional match for a new soda.
Even a bad match teeming with supernatural stuff could have been salvaged if the Wyatt story had been moved along, but that didn't happen, not even a little bit. Instead of revealing who Uncle Howdy is after all this teasing, the mystery character dropped an elbow and the segment came to an end. As fans attempted to move past that and enjoy the rest of the show, the match directly after that, which wasn't all that long, also got its own Howdy segment and no reveal. I get that the guy is supposed to be some sort of inhuman monster, but back-to-back segments with the same character that felt completely unconnected just didn't help the situation.
Maybe McMahon Wasn't To Blame After All
As someone who has loved most of what Wyatt has done in WWE, that feeling I've had for years at this point that I'm in the minority in that regard continues to grow. It feels like the few people who were clinging to the Pitch Black match and what came after being something that would grab their attention and truly signify the best Wyatt is back have been left disappointed. Worst of all, something I've fought back against for so long is slowly starting to come true. The idea that Vince McMahon wasn't the one holding Wyatt back.
That's always been where Wyatt fans have been able to point, myself included. That The Eater of Worlds is the most talented and creative wrestler on the roster, but McMahon didn't know how to use him. If Wyatt, Triple H, and whoever else is helping book his angles and matches right now can't move past the Pitch Black match and build a path to WrestleMania for the character that truly pulls fans back in, this latest Wyatt run might have been derailed before it has even had the chance to pick up any speed.
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