Bray Wyatt dethrones John Cena as WWE Champion

The ‘Eater of Worlds’ wins first Elimination Chamber, beating out five other wrestlers

KARACHI: It’s surprising that it took Bray Wyatt four years to win a championship in WWE.

Since his debut in 2013, the self-proclaimed ‘Eater of Worlds’ has been on a path of destruction, laying waste to every superstar in the roster. But he never won any championships until December last year, when he became the Smackdown Tag Team Champion alongside Randy Orton and Luke Harper. Although Wyatt lost it merely a month later, he has now made up by winning his first WWE Championship.

Wyatt defeated five other stars inside the hellacious structure that is the Elimination Chamber at the namesake pay-per-view on Sunday. The high profile match included the likes of AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, Baron Corbin, The Miz and the defending champion John Cena.



His win comes at quite an interesting time as Orton, who surprisingly aligned with the Wyatt Family a few months ago, is the Royal Rumble winner and has a guaranteed shot at the title at Wrestlemania in April. The unique world of ‘kayfabe’ (the fictional universe of wrestling) proposes the two allies fight it out at the Grandest Stage of Them All, for the prestigious WWE Championship.

This rivalry has been months in the making, with Orton and Wyatt battling each other and then turning into allies after the latter eventually ‘converted’ him into a member of his cult. With Orton now as the number one contender for Wyatt’s title, he has an opportunity to once again become the lone apex predator and get revenge from Wyatt.

However, the storyline becomes interesting as it’s a nod to the days of Evolution – the most dominant faction in early 2000s, which consisted of Triple H, Batista, Orton and Ric Flair. Back in 2004, when Orton won the World Heavyweight Championship at Summerslam, Evolution turned on him. In 2005, when Batista won the Rumble, he turned on his mentor Triple H. In a world where performances and wins immortalise a wrestler, there are no friendships: only temporary alliances and betrayals. Orton and Wyatt are set to add one more chapter to the long list of rivalries, which proved that nothing is greater than championship glory.

What remains to be seen is who comes out on top at Wrestlemania 33. If we put the kayfabe talk on hold for a moment, Orton is already an established star with a dozen world championship reigns under his belt. Wyatt, on the other hand, just recently stepped into the main event position and needs to solidify himself as the main attraction.



Meanwhile, Cena who made history two weeks ago by tying Flair’s record of 16 world championship wins, lost the title, making his win unnecessary from the storyline perspective. After not competing at Wrestlemania last year, it remains to be seen what direction he goes in this year. Considering that he eliminated The Miz in the Elimination Chamber match, Cena should go on to face him at ‘Mania or even participate in a rematch against Styles – one final showdown.

While Cena, Styles, Ambrose, Corbin and The Miz figure out where they stand in the coming weeks, Wyatt’s win has changed the entire landscape of Smackdown. And positioning himself as ‘The Man’ to beat, he has made sure all WWE stars and fans ‘follow the buzzards.’

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