The Royal Rumble pay-per-view is just a week away and will see 30 competitors slug it out for the right to go on and main event Wrestlemania at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida.
Superstars from Raw, Smackdown, NXT and surprise entrants will all be vying for the opportunity to challenge for the Universal Or WWE Championship at WWE's most prestigious event of the year.
One of the men gunning for glory is Bray Wyatt. Already slated in for the Royal Rumble, Wyatt is looking to continue his momentum by going all the way and earning a spot in the main event of Wrestlemania.
Advert
Though he is one of the most unique performers WWE have in their ranks and he has mixed it up with the likes of John Cena, The Undertaker and The Rock in recent times, Wyatt hasn't had a one-on-one shot for a singles championship and a victory in the historic Royal Rumble gives him that opportunity on the grandest stage of them all.
With The Wyatt Family recently losing the Smackdown Tag Team Championship to American Alpha, The Eater of Worlds says he needs a dominant performance in the Royal Rumble.
Speaking to TheSPORTbible, he said:
Advert
"It's time, man. I've done really well in the Royal Rumble in the past but it's my time, I need to win this. It's come to fruition, the momentum is moving and me and Randy [Orton], as we proved at Survivor Series, with Luke [Harper], we're the most dominant force in WWE right now and I think everyone knows that; I think everyone's been put on notice. The people are ready and so am I."
Wyatt is like no superstar we have seen before and he has been able to surround himself with greatness in The Wyatt Family stable. Erick Rowan and Luke Harper were his regular allies in NXT and the early days on the WWE main roster before the man mountain Braun Strowman, now causing chaos on Raw as a solo performer, was drafted in.
He was also able to manipulate Smackdown General Manager and four-time world champion Daniel Bryan into joining his faction back in late 2013 and early 2014 and now he has recruited 12-time world champion Randy Orton. One would assume that it takes a very specific type of person, with fixed characteristics, to join such a cult but Wyatt says that is not the case and he is open to adding more people to his family.
When asked if he thinks only a very specific type of person belongs in the Wyatts, he said:
Advert
"No, I think it could be anyone. Adding Randy [Orton] - if you saw him first you would think he doesn't belong in this [The Wyatt Family] but as you see and realise, maybe we are not so different after all because I don't believe in good and bad - I believe that good guys do bad things and bad guys do good things. There is no certain look, there's no certain character that they must have, it's just do they belong or not."
As aforementioned, in his relatively short career Wyatt has faced both John Cena and The Undertaker, in losing efforts at Wrestlemania as well as working with The Rock at last year's event at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas. WWE clearly have faith in him as a performer as no average Joe gets the chance to work with such big names in the wrestling business, but Bray says that he has had to scratch and claw for those opportunities and that he is hungry for more.
"I've always been scratching and clawing and when you get those big moments at Wrestlemania, that's almost what being in this industry is all about. But I'm not quite there yet. Facing those legends and going against them was one thing but to beat them is another and I haven't really had my moment yet, which I feel is rapidly approaching. It was an honour and a privilege but I'd like to face them all again - we're going to be in New Orleans again next year where it all began for me; home. I've got a lot left to do, I've got 10-15 years left in my tank and I'm going to do a lot of great things that haven't been seen yet."
Just chatting to Wyatt over the phone, he doesn't come across as your standard professional wrestler. He is a complex character, so complex that it seems sometimes WWE don't know how to use him and his talents adequately.
Advert
Wyatt wouldn't look out of place in a Rob Zombie film and 'The Wyatt Family Compound' segment with The New Day, aired six months ago, provided a glimpse of how creative WWE could be with him. He feels that segments like 'The Wyatt Family Compound Brawl' suit his character perfectly and he is very much interested in doing more scenes in the same vein.
"I'm not as much as a pro wrestler as a lot of these guys, I'm a movie character. I'm straight out of a movie and that's just me being me so those type of segments have always been what kind of made us; we've been very influential in the rest of the wrestling world in doing so and that's an honour too - imitation is the highest of form of flattery."
You can catch Bray Wyatt LIVE on WWE Royal Rumble on Monday, January 30th at 12am GMT exclusively on the WWE Network.
Advert
Words by Josh Lawless
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Royal Rumble, WWE