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- With the unfortunate passing of Bray Wyatt, fans may never ever know the true details behind the Sister Abigail character, as it was certainly something that came from the creative and inventive mind of Bray Wyatt himself. Over the years, fans were expecting to eventually see some form of Sister Abigail, and whilst there were some instances of mentions or alter-egos now and again, a defined Sister Abigail never emerged. When looking back, there were several superstars who were rumored to be the character, and it is interesting to see what they had to say about that possibility. Additionally, there is an ex-writer who provided perhaps the best insight into what and who Sister Abigail is.
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WWE is no stranger to eccentric characters and oddball storylines. Bray Wyatt nonetheless stood out for having one of the most unusual character arcs of all time, from a swamp cult leader, to a follower of Matt Hardy’s Woken Universe, to splitting time between playing a children’s show host and the monstrous Fiend. One of the few characters with an even harder trajectory to follow was that of Sister Abigail—a persona always linked to and at one point even portrayed by Wyatt, not to mention the namesake of one of his signature moves. Many fans will wonder who exactly is Abigail and what he major significance is in Wyatt's overall story.
UPDATE: 2023/09/14 14:30 EST BY ANDREW KELLY
With the unfortunate passing of Bray Wyatt, fans may never ever know the true details behind the Sister Abigail character, as it was certainly something that came from the creative and inventive mind of Bray Wyatt himself. Over the years, fans were expecting to eventually see some form of Sister Abigail, and whilst there were some instances of mentions or alter-egos now and again, a defined Sister Abigail never emerged. When looking back, there were several superstars who were rumored to be the character, and it is interesting to see what they had to say about that possibility. Additionally, there is an ex-writer who provided perhaps the best insight into what and who Sister Abigail is.
The History Of Sister Abigail
When the Bray Wyatt character debuted on the WWE main roster—revamped from his earlier appearances as Husky Harris in The Nexus—he introduced a finisher billed as Sister Abigail. The move itself wasn’t so remarkable, though it got over as a finisher. The unusual name for a wrestling maneuver, not to mention oblique references to Abigail in promos led fans to wonder who she might be.
The best guess most fans had was to take it literally—that she was Wyatt’s kayfabe sister, though the cult undertones suggested to others that she may not be biologically related, or may represent a more spiritual figure (the way nuns are referred to as “Sister”). That led to some conjecture whether WWE might in time introduce a female counterpart to Wyatt, who never quite materialized (though there is some debate on that point).
Randy Orton Burned Sister Abigail’s Remains
In the build to WrestleMania 33, Randy Orton infiltrated the Wyatt family, including winning teaming with Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper and joining the list of teams to defend tag titles under The Freebird Rule. He revealed his true intentions later on, though, when he burned their compound to the ground, which apparently included Sister Abigail’s remains.
The conflagration made for an impressive visual, but the storyline results were unclear. At first, the act of destruction seemed to hurt Wyatt, akin to The Undertaker’s old rivals taking his urn. However, Wyatt suggested in promos to follow that Orton had actually unleashed Sister Abigail’s spirit, which included granting The Eater of Worlds extra magical powers, including the ability to project images of bugs on a wrestling mat. Despite having this special skill at his disposal, Orton beat him at WrestleMania 33.
Sister Abigail, The Bray Wyatt Alter-Ego
In the summer and fall of 2017, Bray Wyatt feuded with Finn Balor. In the build to a climactic match at the TLC PPV that October, Wyatt introduced Sister Abigail to the proceedings. Rather than a woman who’d accompany him to the ring, it was, instead, Wyatt himself in the Abigail persona, using a voice modulator and wearing a veil for a promo.
Reactions varied widely as to whether this was an awesome new dimension of the Wyatt character or a complete farce. The crucible may have come when Wyatt was anticipated to actually wrestle as Sister Abigail at the PPV, with some reports indicating he’d perform in drag, channeling her spirit through his body. Wyatt contracted a real-life illness and wound up unable to perform, and WWE put the angle aside, not revisiting Wyatt vs. Balor for nearly two years, and never showing Wyatt in the Sister Abigail persona further.
The Puppet From Bray Wyatt’s Firefly Funhouse
WWE didn’t seem to know what to do with Bray Wyatt after a while. His convoluted storylines culminated in him playing Matt Hardy’s sidekick and tag team partner for a short stretch, before disappearing from TV.
When Wyatt resurfaced, it was as the host for vignettes framed as a children’s TV show, Firefly Fun House. Sister Abigail was among the puppets—a black-haired, pale-faced witch of sorts. It was an underwhelming way for the persona to at last take corporeal form, but at least matched some of the spirit of the vignettes, which tended to satirize various elements of WWE programming.
The Alexa Bliss Tease
An unorthodox Universal Championship feud between Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman in 2020 included a cinematic Swamp Fight between the two at the Extreme Rules PPV. The presentation was fine on the whole, and most memorably included a surprise appearance from Alexa Bliss, appearing out of the ether.
A number of fans leapt to the conclusion that Bliss embodied Sister Abigail, which was a reasonable enough inference given how integral the character had been to Wyatt, and that battling in the swamp seemed to call back to the origins of the Wyatt Family faction. However, WWE never explicitly made this connection, and as time went on it seemed more the case that Wyatt’s character drafted Bliss into the situation to play mind games with Strowman, given his past friendship and mixed tag team partnership with The Goddess. As time went on, Bliss became more intertwined with Wyatt’s act, but as a character distinctly her own—more positively not Sister Abigail.
In the end, Sister Abigail ranks among the most referenced, speculated upon WWE Universe figures to never actually amount to anything, not least of all never becoming an on-air character (aside from Wyatt’s one-off promo and the puppet). Fans may never quite know what to make of her, unless Wyatt himself one day comes forward to volunteer more about his intentions for her.
Abby The Witch Returned Alongside Bray Wyatt At Extreme Rules
The only thing more speculated about than Sister Abigail was where Bray Wyatt would end up after his shocking release from WWE in late July of 2021. Many fans assumed that the three-time World Champion was AEW bound, but that ultimately proved not to be the case. After about 16 months or so, WWE began dropping mysterious clues that seemed to point to a Wyatt return amid various red herrings. The series of QR codes and strange video disruptions finally led to Extreme Rules 2022, which closed with the return of Bray Wyatt. As part of his big return, aspects of Wyatt’s previous run were incorporated into the segment.
This included not only The Fiend and a derelict Firefly Fun House set among other easter eggs, but also human-sized versions of the Fun House characters. Along with Ramblin’ Rabbit, Mercy the Buzzard, and Huskus the Pig was Abby the Witch, who pretty closely resembled the Sister Abigail version of Bray Wyatt. However, this appears to be the last time to date that Sister Abigail has explicitly resurfaced in the Bray Wyatt narrative, though some believe she showed up again in a video aired in November.
Who Was Supposed To Play Sister Abigail On-Screen?
The likes of Paige, Alexa Bliss, and Liv Morgan were among the various names pitched from fans and even involved in rumors to play an on-screen real-life version of Sister Abigail. This never happened, and perhaps the closest to the fans’ vision of this was Alexa Bliss’ spooky character when she aligned with Bray Wyatt during his “Fiend” character phase. In terms of Liv Morgan, she had this to say in an interview with Sportskeeda on the possibility of playing the role.
“I was never, you know, respectfully, hoping to be Sister Abigail. I was never pushing to be Sister Abigail. I went away for a while and I’m finding myself and I’m exploring myself and I have all these thoughts and emotions and I’m trying to let people know without literally saying it. And they just, kind of, wanted me to return so bad. I think that that was, they felt that was it. They felt that that was it. That was what I was going to be doing. That’s a very flattering, you know, fanfic.”
Although Morgan stated she was never in plans to be Sister Abigail, someone who claimed to be in plans to portray that role was Mike Bennett amidst the plans of having real-life characters of the Firefly Funhouse puppets, though these plans were eventually nixed. He explained as such in an interview with The Metro.
“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.”
A Former WWE Writer Had The Best Explanation About Sister Abigail
Of course, these plans with Bennett never came to fruition, and perhaps that was for the best, as it seemed as though “Sister Abigail” was something internalized by the Wyatt character to perhaps channel his darkness or even deflect to justify some of the heinous acts he committed to his opponents. Former WWE writer Kevin Eck discussed this in an interview with PWTorch and revealed where the concept came from.
“From what I know about how Bray Wyatt envisioned that character, I don’t think that character is ever going to be seen, because the way Bray explained it, and I don’t think it’s ever come out on TV, he speaks in riddles, so maybe if you read in-between the lines, but Bray Wyatt was apparently a young man and Sister Abigail was an old, black woman, in I believe, the swamps of Louisiana who had some supernatural powers, and you know, the history of voodoo and such in New Orleans. I believe she took him under her wing and kind of taught him the secrets of what she knows of the dark arts and things like that. So that’s who Sister Abigail was, or is in Bray’s mind….she’s an almost witch-like character who made him what he is and told him he’s special and he’s kind of the chosen one. So if WWE ever goes with Bray’s vision, I don’t think you’re ever going to see a physical Sister Abigail.” (H/T WrestlingNews.Net)
The mystique of the gimmick was protected by the fact that fans never saw a physical version of it, and the alter-ego showcased by Wyatt during the feud with Finn Balor was probably the closest to what she was set out to be - a piece of Wyatt and something inside him rather than someone else.