Bray Wyatt has suffered his second major injury of 2016. (WWE.com)
In the WWE, so much of the character of Bray Wyatt remains elusive to this day, even as Wyatt has become the World Champion, and one of the biggest mysteries is that of Sister Abigail. So what do we know about her and her relationship with Bray Wyatt, and what are some of the best fan theories about her?
Bray Wyatt repeatedly references Sister Abigail in his promos as being the person who made him into who he is today and the person for whom he does everything that he does. He has said that she raised him from when he was a child after the death of his father. It’s also implied that she is called Sister Abigail because she was a nun, not because she was Wyatt’s actual sister.
“Abigail rescued me and my brothers and sisters,” Wyatt said in a 2015 promo. “She took us to this cabin in the middle of nowhere. It was freedom, but even the greatest freedom comes at a price.”
We know that Sister Abigail is dead, although the circumstances surrounding her death have been left vague. Wyatt has said, though, that he was there when she died, and he has also suggested that she made him the leader of the Wyatt family before her death.
In a 2013 promo, Wyatt said that Sister Abigail “lead us with love” but that she taught him that “you gotta get them before they get you” and that “the world is an evil place.”
“And I was there,” Wyatt said. “I was there when she took her final breath. She pulled me in close, and she said, ‘You’re the one.’ She said, ‘They chose you long before you ever were ever in existence,’ and I understood what she meant. Her touch could save the world, but her kiss burns it to the ground. I love you, Sister Abigail.”
It has been heavily implied that Sister Abigail died in the old shack that we’re constantly seeing in the Wyatt promos, probably in the rocking chair itself. When Randy Orton betrayed Bray Wyatt in February, he burned the shack to the ground and said that he was going to “burn the soul of Sister Abigail to eternal damnation.” He also very pointedly targeted the rocking chair, fitting with the theory that this is where she died.
Not only did Sister Abigail anoint Wyatt as the family’s leader when she died, but it’s also implied that she has given him actual supernatural powers and continues to help him out from the afterlife. In 2015, when Wyatt brought a new member into the family, Braun Strowman, he said that Strowman was a gift from Sister Abigail.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” Wyatt said on Monday Night Raw. “Thank you Sister Abigail. I wanted to say thank you for giving me your greatest gift: the black sheep, Braun Strowman.”
Wyatt recently covered himself in Sister Abigail’s ashes on SmackDown Live, saying that he was being born again by doing so. He also said that Sister Abigail is the “spawn of Satan” and that she was “forged in hell itself.” It’s not clear how literal he was being, but there has been evidence to suggest that Abigail was at the very least a Satanist and that this may be the source of her powers. In a 2015 promo, Wyatt said that Abigail warned him not to go into the woods near the cabin, and when Wyatt didn’t listen to her, he encountered a seven foot tall pale creature with thin hair and yellow eyes. This may have been Satan himself, who Abigail was serving.
In a promo video from back in 2013 when Bray Wyatt debuted, a strange woman can be seen lying on the branch of a tree. Some have gone back to this to suggest that this could be Sister Abigail, although it doesn’t really make sense for her to be so young considered she supposedly raised Bray Wyatt.
A mysterious girl appears in a 2013 Bray Wyatt promo. (YouTube)
Not everything Wyatt has said about Sister Abigail has really fit together, though. During a March 2015 interview, in which Wyatt is mostly in character, he says that Sister Abigail is “flesh and blood and real and breathing just like you and I. She was real. Still is.” This seems to conflict with the idea that she died years ago.
For the past year and a half, there has been some speculation that we might actually see Sister Abigail introduced on screen. In January 2016, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported, “There is more talk as of late about the introduction of a Sister Abigail character. It’s been talked about forever but apparently the talk has gotten more serious about doing it.”
Considering we have seen Sister Abigail’s ashes on screen, if she were to be introduced, it would probably have to involve possession.
There have been a number of fan theories surrounding Sister Abigail, one popular one being that she does not exist at all and is simply a figment of Bray Wyatt’s imagination. After all, we really don’t have any proof that she was ever a real person beyond the fantastical stories Wyatt has told us. Some also believe that she herself is a demon who is possessing Wyatt’s body or influencing him in some way.