The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling every Tuesday in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.

(The Post Match Angle will return on Sept. 12)

Plenty of time will need to pass so hearts and souls can mend after the death of Bray Wyatt.

WWE has already properly mourned Wyatt, who died last Thursday at 36 of a reported heart attack after complications of COVID-19, with a touching tribute show Friday night on SmackDown. 

The images of Wyatt’s rocking chair alone in the spotlight on the stage and his blue lantern alone in the ring below a silhouette photo of him on the Titantron were lasting, emotional and healing images for so many fans.    

With that over with, somewhere down the road WWE and the Rotunda family have a decision to make on how to further honor Wyatt’s contributions to the business. Wyatt changed how we look at storytelling in pro wrestling and it shouldn’t be taken from the industry just because he was heartbreakingly taken from us.  

Still, no one will blame anyone if they let Wyatt’s creations and world fade into the annals of WWE to be replayed and appreciated on Peacock, YouTube and memories of the fans of the former world champion.

But Wyatt left us and his family one last gift, pulling his brother Bo Dallas into his world as the mysterious Uncle Howdy after returning to WWE at Extreme Rules last October.

In Howdy, should Dallas and all parties feel comfortable with it, they have a way to continue to build on the storytelling legacy Windham Rotunda left behind. Rob Fee, WWE’s director of long-term creative, who worked so closely with Wyatt on his return and the Howdy storyline could oversee the project. Fee was one of the people who got matching tattoos of Wyatt’s Firefly logo last Friday.  

There is clearly fan interest in it as Uncle Howdy began trending on X, formerly known as Twitter, over the weekend.

Uncle Howdy T-shirts could also be seen behind The Judgment Day on “Monday Night Raw.”

Let’s be clear: I’m not talking about next week or next month or even next year. Dallas may not want to return to wrestling at all. All of this is if and when they ever feel the time is right. It’s possible they have already decided to bring him back or to let what Wyatt created remain untouched until someone else is brave enough to come along to pick up the baton in their own way.

Because there are obvious risks involved. 

Without Wyatt’s genius feeding the narrative and the action, can it live up to the standard it will have to in order to do his work justice? How do you keep it from feeling like a cheap knockoff or tribute act? Do you scrap it all and start something new with Dallas that’s based on the broad strokes of Wyatt’s creative mind?

WWE said a proper goodbye to Bray Wyatt on Friday. It will now be up to them and his family on how best to honor his legacy and the creative gifts he left us with. 

The bickering continued between Finn Balor and Damian Priest — after J.D. McDonagh helped the latter to a win on Raw — and it appears it will finally come to a head at Payback. Rhea Ripley, who truly and refreshingly has become the group’s leader, said changes would need to be made if Balor and Priest can’t beat Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens for the Undisputed tag team championship. It means we are likely headed for the end of The Judgment Day as we know it. My guess is Balor is out and he teams up with McDonagh and Lyra Valkyria to go against his old group. Priest on his own makes little sense.

NXT Heatwave made it even clearer what we likely already knew – Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams have limitless potential, together, apart and against each other maybe sooner than we think. Williams’ ring-presence, charisma and athleticism really showed through in his banger of a match — even in defeat — with Ilja Dragonov even in defeat. Fans were invested and his avalanche-uranage was awesome.

Then in the main event, Hayes continues to be much-watch TV. If his match isn’t the best on the card, it’s always close. He and Wes Lee made history marking the first time two black men competed in the main event for the NXT championship. Hayes’ springboard DDT to Lee through the announce table was insane and just another example of his next-level creativity in the ring. 

L.A. Knight cut a truly remarkable promo on SmackDown. He was able to deliver a great tribute to Bray Wyatt while staying in character before absolutely shredding The Miz and giving the crowd something to laugh about. Elite-level stuff and the type of things you need your big stars to deliver on. Miz followed that up with a perfect impersonation of Knight on Raw to remind us just how good he is.

AEW has handled Nick Wayne well so far. We keep getting more bits of his compelling personal story – his mom at ringside for his tag team win with Darby Allin this week was a nice touch. The teenage star feels like an integral part of the story and not someone who is tagging along.

At Payback, Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus may have a hard time topping Lynch and Zoey Stark’s Falls Count Anywhere match from Raw.

I couldn’t help but wonder watching Will Ospreay’s contract signing with Chris Jericho if having Don Callis as his manager is the thing that could get the IWGP United States champion back into the world title picture from a storytelling standpoint either in New Japan or AEW down the road. AEW treated him like the big star he is at All In. 

Impact could be heading for some extremely interesting stuff around its world championship with Alex Shelley holding the belt and former champions Josh Alexader and not Steve Maclin healthy and back in the fold. PW Insider also reported the company is going to make “massive upgrades” to it’s production facility.

The NWA appears to be starting anew at the top with EC3 beating Tyrus for the Worlds Heavyweight championship and Kenzie Paige ending Kamille’s long reign as World Women’s champion at its 75th Anniversary. EC3 winning means Tyrus, mercifully, has to retire from pro wrestling. 

Tiffany Stratton name-dropping Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch – who responded on Twitter – can’t just be for show, right? Stratton was also in the crowd on Raw on Monday. Her vs. Lynch is far more interesting to me as a feud and Stratton and Flair might make a fun team down the round.  

Not sure Zelina Vega is getting enough credit for the string of quality matches she’s had this year.

Grayson Waller may have finally crossed the line going after Sister Jean’s first pitch at the Cubs game.

I’ve had a blast playing the Stadium Stampede Mode in “AEW Fight Forever”, but still haven’t gotten to ride the horse like Hangman across the field yet. Hope THQ improves the combat a bit and keeps adding to it.

Extra: No matter the he-said, he-said that’s going on around the reported backstage altercation between CM Punk and Jack Perry, negative headlines around CM Punk are starting to become way too frequent — this one at the worst possible time around such a historic show.

MJF, AEW

All In on Saturday was the culmination of one of pro wrestling’s great success stories. Five years ago MJF was in the opening match of the original All In in front of 10,000 fans and over the weekend he main evented a historic show in front of 80,000 at Wembley Stadium as the face of AEW. The match added another fine chapter to the best stories he has shown, but it’s his personal growth that’s been even more impressive. MJF has allowed himself to be more open and truly become a leader for AEW both with how he stands up fo the company and it’s talent publicly.

Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the World Heavyweight championship at Payback (Saturday, 8 p.m., Peacock) 

This is just the fifth televised singles match between this team and the first since 2021. Nakamura comes into this match with a rejuvenated character and an edge he has seemingly been missing for a while in WWE. Rollins has delivered time and time again as world heavyweight champion, but will Nakamura going after his injured back finally spell the end of his run?