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Former WWE star has revealed scrapped plans for a stable lead by The Fiend.
Bray Wyatt made his highly anticipated in-ring return at SummerSlam 2019, where he defeated top babyface at the time, Finn Balor. Wyatt played a very different character out of the ring, hosting the ‘Firefly Funhouse’ alongside his puppets. According to Mike Kanellis, Vince McMahon wanted Wyatt to lead a stable early into his return.
Speaking to Metro UK, Mike Kanellis, now known as Mike Bennett, recalled plans for him to join a Wyatt-led stable alongside another former WWE Superstar, as puppets.
‘Early on when Bray Wyatt turned into The Fiend, Vince was always high on having Bray lead a group for some reason – he always wanted him to lead a group.
‘We were about a week away from making it happen where me and Eric Young were gonna be part of Bray Wyatt’s group. We were gonna actually be – they were gonna bring to life the puppets.
‘Each puppet was gonna represent an actual person. I don’t remember, there were talks that I was gonna be Sister Abigail and Eric Young was gonna be a buzzard.’
In the end plans of course changed, however, Bennett was happy with the idea, and was ready to take on a different role.
“It was one of those things where, “You guys will play these characters”. He’s portraying them as the puppets [in the Firefly Fun House], but then they’ll come to life. I thought it was really cool, I was ready to sink my teeth into it.’
‘But then like most stuff there, right before it happens they’re like, “Oh yeah we’re not doing that anymore”. You’re like, “Oh, oh OK cool. That would have been a really cool spot but I guess I’ll go sit in catering.”’
Around the time of Bray Wyatt’s WWE return in 2019, Mike Kanellis instead took on a very different storyline, with his wife Maria. The two were then among the Superstars released from WWE the following April, and have gone on to join Ring Of Honor.
You can read the full interview, including Mike’s thoughts on his final WWE storyline, by clicking here.