WWE Nixed Wild Bray Wyatt Storyline Inspired by Cult Classic Film

Bray Wyatt’s creativity was well known by those who worked with him since all of his ideas always stood out. However, it turns out WWE ended up nixing one of his storylines that was inspired by a cult classic movie.

While speaking on the No Contest Wrestling podcast, AJ Francis revealed a storyline he once pitched to Bray Wyatt in WWE, based on the movie Leprechaun in the Hood. His pitch was that he and his group would find the creepy Firefly Funhouse while walking backstage.

There would be a spooky sign warning people to stay out. AJ Francis would act scared, like in a horror movie, and B-Fab would tease him for it. They’d go in anyway and find the Funhouse dirty and covered in cobwebs, showing no one had been there in a long time.

While looking around, AJ would find Ramblin’ Rabbit, which he compared to the lucky item from Leprechaun in the Hood. As soon as he touched it, everything would go crazy, lights flashing, toys coming to life, so they’d run out of the Funhouse and AJ would keep Ramblin’ Rabbit.

“So, so that when we did this segment with Bray, that was also in Montreal. And that was one of the nights I told everyone how much I hate Montreal, which is not true. And Bray—like that day—I pitched an idea of a storyline going forward to him, and he loved it because the storyline was based off of Leprechaun in the Hood. Oh my god.

And look, so well, so the thought process I had going into it was the fact that I would be Ice-T’s character, obviously. Um, and we would just happen upon the Firefly Funhouse. Like, we’d see a sign that points down a dark hallway that says, you know, ‘Fear all ye who enter.’ Like, so we’re like, ‘Oh, okay.’

And I’m like, ‘S*** I ain’t going in there. You ever seen a scary movie?’ And B-Fab’s like, ‘Why are you so scared, bro?’ And I’m like, ‘Scared, man?’ And then we end up going down there, right? So we go down there and we walk into the Firefly Funhouse. But at this point, Bray has been gone for a while. Like he hasn’t even come to the Funhouse. You know, he’s still doing the character—the Uncle Howdy character—right? So he hasn’t even gone back to the Funhouse yet at this point.

So I’m like, ‘Yo, how about we happen upon the Firefly Funhouse, but it’s cobwebs everywhere. It’s clear nobody’s been there. It’s—it’s just—it was, you know, disheveled everywhere.’ And we start playing, picking up, playing with stuff. And then I pick up Ramblin’ Rabbit, aka Lucky Rabbit’s Foot, aka the Golden Flute from Leprechaun in the Hood, right?

And I pick it up, and as soon as I pick it up, the whole place starts going crazy. Haywire. Lights start flashing. All the things start coming to life. We’re like, ‘We got to get out of here!’ Like we run out. So we run out, but I take Ramblin’ Rabbit with me.”

After that, things would start going well for them since they would win matches and get lucky. Eventually, Bray Wyatt would show up and kindly ask for the rabbit back. AJ Francis would refuse, saying Bray Wyatt left it behind and didn’t care about it.

This would lead to a slow and spooky feud. Bray Wyatt would go after AJ’s teammates one by one. It would build to a big match: first AJ Francis vs. Bray Wyatt, then a tag match, and finally a 6-person match with Hit Row against Bray Wyatt, Uncle Howdy, and Alexa Bliss.

“But Lucky Rabbit’s Foot—like at this point—we’ve been losing everything. And now s*** just starts going our way. We start winning matches. S*** just starts happening good for us.

And Bray realizes that we have his Ramblin’ Rabbit, and he comes up to us and he goes, ‘Hey, listen, man. I don’t want any—I don’t want any problems. I don’t want to have to start anything. Like, just please give me that rabbit back, man, and we can call it even and you can keep everything, you know.’

And then—and then I’m like, ‘I didn’t give you s***.’ Like, ‘Oh my god, this is my rabbit. This is my rattle. I found this. This is mine. You shouldn’t have been leaving things out if it was so bad. Look, you didn’t care about it when I went there. It was covered in cobwebs. You ain’t give a damn. Blah blah blah.’ So I don’t give it back.

So then now he starts this meticulous manner of hunting us down. First, he hunts Tehuti. Then he hunts B-Fab. Then he gets me. And then it leads to a match. And then the match leads to a tag team match with me and Tahuti versus him and Uncle Howdy, which leads to a six-man match, which is me, Tehuti, and Bri versus him, Uncle Howdy, and Alexa Bliss. Like we had this whole—I had this whole storyline planned out that could have went on for six months, right?”

Francis said Bray Wyatt loved the idea, especially because he and his brother Taylor were big fans of Leprechaun in the Hood. When AJ mentioned it, Bray Wyatt even quoted the movie: “Lep in the hood up to no good.” AJ said it was cool how excited they were and thought the story could have lasted six months on TV but WWE never went with it.

“He absolutely loved it. Because—not even just ’cause he loved the story—he loved the whole story of how we set everything up, how we did everything. But what I didn’t know is him and his brother Taylor—they loved Leprechaun in the Hood. That was like one of their favorite movies. I didn’t even know. I thought I was gonna have to pitch him on the movie.

Because, you know, you tell somebody, ‘Yo, I got this idea based off Leprechaun in the Hood,’ they’re like, ‘What the f*** is this Leprechaun?’ Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I’m saying? But like, I said it to him—he was like, ‘Lep in the hood up to no good.’ I said, ‘Oh, this s***.’ So like, they were all in before I even told him all the little details, just ’cause the idea was based off Leprechaun in the Hood. They were both like, ‘Yes. Yes, we love this.’ And it was cool, but they never went with it in the end.

AJ Francis’ Leprechaun in the Hood-inspired storyline might have been something that fans would have loved, but WWE ultimately decided it just wasn’t possible to portray it properly on weekly television and fans will just have to accept that.

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What do you think—would you have enjoyed seeing AJ Francis vs. Bray Wyatt in a supernatural feud over Ramblin’ Rabbit? Share your thoughts in the comments and let us know if WWE missed out on something special!