My Friday column for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review looks at the upgrade in The Wyatt Family trio and more. The following is an excerpt:
The rebuilding of life and interest in The Wyatt Family continues.
Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan debuted on the main roster as The Wyatt Family in the summer of 2013. The first year of the trio was exciting and fresh. WWE then broke them up, letting each man go his own route as a singles star.
Nobody succeeded. Wyatt seemed watered down and repetitive. I always attributed his character’s success to having followers and leading a group of people. On his own, it didn’t have the same positive appeal.
Harper continued to deliver solid, intense matches that had no big direction in the storylines set up for him.
Rowan was turned face literally in the final minutes of RAW in November 2014. It was a decision WWE had to make once Sheamus got injured earlier that night and the company needed a spot to fill on John Cena’s team. It didn’t mean much.
Harper and Rowan were put back together as a tag team in the spring, which didn’t last long because of Rowan getting injured.
Basically, the Wyatt Family should have never needed rebuilding in the first place. It wasn’t broken, so they should have never tried to fix it. But they broke it when trying to fix it, so now it’s time to upgrade.
WWE paired Harper back with Wyatt, which was a good decision. This past week, The Wyatt family returned to being a trio, but the third member wasn’t Rowan. It was Braun Stroman.
He is a former Strongman World Champion. He’s taller than Harper and wider than Wyatt. He’s never had a match on NXT television, but that’s OK. It has greater potential than bringing Rowan back ever would have had.
Rowan always was the least talented of the original trio in every category: In-ring ability, promos, personality and even facial hair. He was given the sheep mask to wear as his personality because otherwise he didn’t have much else to offer. I would have loved to been in the room when the late Dusty Rhodes suggested it. “Daddy, we’re going to have you walk around with the Sheep on your face.”
CLICK HERE for more on Wyatt Family and why Reigns & Ambrose don’t need a partner.
