Bray Wyatt proved to be the “White Rabbit” and is back in WWE in an epic return.
Wyatt, who was surprisingly released by the company in July 2021, made good on the weeks of “White Rabbit” teases and returned to WWE at the conclusion of Extreme Rules pay-per-view at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night.
After Matt Riddle submitted Seth Rollins in the Fight Pit main event, the lights went out as he walked back to the stage with special referee Daniel Cormier as Michael Cole was signing off on the broadcast. Wyatt’s voice could then be heard sing his signature “He’s got the whole world in his hand” and spotlights hit people dressed as each of his former “FireFly Funhouse” character and Wyatt’s former Fiend character.
As the crowd started to buzz a door appeared and a video package of a ransacked FireFly Funhouse was shown as its theme music played. A TV in the room started to buzz and white-masked figure appeared on the screen. The door in the arena was then shown and opened to a blue light. The figure emerged holding Wyatt’s signature lantern, before removing the mask to revel himself to chants of “Holy s–t!”. Wyatt then blew out the lantern and a logo similar to the one he uses as his Twitter profile hit the screen just to further confirm who it was.
It was the payoff to weeks of speculation and clues after WWE started playing Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” with the lights out or flashing red – similar to those used by Wyatt’s “Fiend” character at live events and some commercial breaks at Raw and SmackDowns. QR Codes leading to clues about the identity of the “White Rabbit” that hinted at a Wyatt return as well as a few other WWE talents to keep fans off the scent, have appeared on Raw and SmackDown the past few weeks. WWE recently hired former Marvel and Disney writer Rob Fee, who has links to Wyatt, as its new Director of Long-Term Creative and he has had a hand in the White Rabbit campaign, according to a Fightful Select report.
WWE didn’t waste anytime showing the White Rabbit on Saturday, having the latest QR Code video interrupt the opening match between Imperium and the Brawling Brutes. It’s unclear exactly what version of Wyatt we are getting. It felt like he left the “FireFly Funhouse” and The Fiend behind and is reverting back to an updated version of his original ‘Eater of Worlds” WWE character, but anything is possible with Wyatt.
Wyatt, 35, is considered one of the top creative minds in wrestling, and getting him back in the fold is a huge win for WWE and Triple H. The last we saw Wyatt, whose real names is he was paired up with Alexa Bliss and lost to Randy Orton at WrestleMania 37.
The luster had begun to come off the horror-movie-based “Fiend” character with two losses to Orton, a triple-threat match defeat to Roman Reigns and a loss to Braun Strowman at Money in the Bank in a span of about a year. The character also included a twisted Mr. Rogers-like persona on the “Firefly Funhouse.”