The Story Behind Bray Wyatt's Pitch To Face Sting In A "Half-Time Heat" Chainsaw Deathmatch
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused worldwide shutdowns in 2020, WWE and professional wrestling as a whole had to pivot to a new way of presenting their shows. Thus, the ThunderDome era of WWE was born, and cinematic matches became more prevalent on WWE television.
Highlights included the 2020 Money in the Bank ladder match which was fought throughout WWE's former headquarters, The Undertaker having a definitive finale to his career in a Boneyard Match against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36, and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt facing John Cena in an unusual, silly Firefly Funhouse match at the same event. During this time, however, Wyatt got the idea for another cinematic match that would have seen him battle WWE Hall of Famer, Sting. Wyatt proposed the idea for a horrific-sounding chainsaw death match in February 2020 on Twitter and had this to tell his followers: "If my beloved [Oakland] Raiders make the Super Bowl next year, I'll fight Sting at halftime in a chainsaw death match. As long as he's available."
Unfortunately for WWE fans and the men that would have been involved, certain details would keep the idea for the cinematic match from ever taking off. For starters, the Oakland Raiders didn't make it to the Super Bowl the following year (the 2021 Super Bowl was played between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Tampa Bay emerging victorious). But beyond those desires for Wyatt's favorite NFL team getting shot down, contracts would have also thrown up hurdles for Sting and Wyatt.
Why it couldn't work
There was a period when Sting and Bray Wyatt were working for WWE at the same time, which would have made such an elaborate idea easier to pull off if they legitimately wanted a chainsaw death match. However, it wasn't long after Sting's big WWE debut in 2015 that he suffered an unfortunate neck injury in a match against Seth Rollins and was forced to retire. He would reappear in pro wrestling six years later, making a shocking debut in AEW during their 2020 "Winter is Coming" episode of "AEW Dynamite." Sting's been signed to AEW ever since, and knowing how WWE conducts business, it's almost a guarantee that a crossover match between an AEW and WWE star won't happen.
Wyatt has also had an up-and-down few years in WWE. Often, he's been a focal point of WWE programming, but he was also surprisingly released from the company in July 2021, only to return over a year later in October 2022. This means he still could have represented WWE in a match at the 2021 Super Bowl, but it also sheds some light on how management felt about Wyatt during this time.
Both men are in respected, featured roles in their respective companies. Though Sting was reportedly only going to do cinematic matches in AEW, he has gone on to have full-fledged matches with memorable spots including him jumping off a balcony, while Wyatt remains a master of cinematics and atmosphere.