A familiar face popped up on WWE SmackDown this week as Bray Wyatt delivered a message to his WrestleMania opponent John Cena. In this period of unsettling empty arenas, Wyatt's Firefly Funhouse suddenly doesn't seem quite so unnerving, but this week saw yet another resurrection... and another cold-blooded murder. Luckily, the victim is a seemingly unkillable by the name of Ramblin' Rabbit.
This little guy has been through the wringer in the past few months; whether it's being torn apart while adorned in Seth Rollins merchandise, being literally scared to death or being straight up decapitated by his master, Ramblin' Rabbit has suffered more gruesome murders than anyone on WWE television.
Ramblin' Rabbit is a fascinating amalgamation of professional wrestling and puppetry, with the same spirit of slapstick animation classics like Tom and Jerry (who have a new film coming out next year) or Tweety Bird's senseless torture in Looney Tunes. Like the latter inspirations, Ramblin' Rabbit has been subject to all manner of harrowing punishments, all performed on what is supposed to be -- at least ostensibly -- a kid-friendly show.
Picture Sylvester the Cat being electrocuted to the point where only his feline skeleton is visible, or the time in Hare Ribbin' when Bugs Bunny folds himself into a sandwich and pretends to be severed in half, in what thankfully turns out to be a riff on the magicians trick and not the uncensored dismemberment of a beloved children's character. Rambling Rabbit harkens back to the days when children's cartoons weren't quite so reserved in their displays of wacky punishment; he even has a bit of Duck Amuck inspiration in how fourth-wall-breaking the Firefly Funhouse can prove to be.
But no matter how hideous his assassination, be it to be pulsed and turned into rabbity jam or blended into a vibrant orange shake, doomed to an eternity spent as a beverage guzzled before the impossibly catchy Muscle Man Dance, Rambling Rabbit simply refuses to die. He's even been put onto a carrot drip by Wyatt to keep him alive, as if the poor bunny is trapped in a distorted time loop of murder and resurrection, like Prometheus growing back his liver to have it eaten by crows each day. The difference is that Zeus isn't Ramblin' Rabbits captor, it's The Fiend.
Ramblin' Rabbit, of course, follows a long line of professional wrestling mascots, though few have been quite so cruelly handled by their spandex-clad wielders. Mick Foley, as Mankind or otherwise, famously kept Mr. Socko close at all times and treated him to a taste of each of his opponents' gullets at every possible opportunity. Al Snow also had his companion, Head, who was forced to engage in frequent conversation with the deranged J.O.B. Squad leader, though the two did eventually face off in a singles match on Sunday Night Heat in 1999. Snow even tried to put Head through a table in the match, before Head found itself being punted in the disembodied skull by a one-eyed deer. For Ramblin' Rabbit's sake, we hope it isn't forced into a similar match with The Fiend.
One wrestling mascot who perhaps had it worse than Ramblin' Rabbit was Perry Saturn's best friend Moppy. Moppy and Saturn were inseparable during the then-WWF Attitude Era until Terri Runnels and Raven kidnapped the wooden companion. Despite pleas for mercy, Raven strapped the poor Moppy to a log and sent it careening slowly into a woodchipper, its screams reverberating throughout the arena, even penetrating through the duct tape Raven had strapped to its mouth.
The key difference between Moppy and Ramblin' Rabbit is unfortunately that Moppy didn't seem to share the gift of immortality. Then again, is it better to suffer hideous torture just the once before perishing, or to be brought back by a demonic clown every week, unsure of your next inevitable demise? We'll have to see just how put-together Ramblin' Rabbit is come the Firefly Funhouse Match at WrestleMania.