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Spooky Wrestler Of The Day – Day 9 – The Wyatt Family 

On day one of this series, The Fiend, Bray Wyatt was covered. But, as you may know, that isn’t the only iteration of Bray Wyatt. No, in fact, there was more than just him, he had a whole family. Bray Wyatt and his crew of freaky, backwoods-esq monsters by the names of Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and eventually, Braun Strowman, made up what we know to be “The Wyatt Family.”

Now, this is a little different, because we could talk about the family individually, but we’d be here all day. So, to save time, here’s a bit of a background on what they were about. Bray Wyatt was already apart of the NXT brand for a few months in 2012 after being rebranded from Husky Harris. Now, the man sporting a new look would go by Bray Wyatt and slowly but surely, he’d introduce his “Family” to NXT in late 2012. Rowan and Harper came in as separate family members but were quickly thrusted into the role of a tag team in this trios faction. The trio went on to have many feuds within NXT before quickly being moved up to the main roster of RAW less than a year later. Why? Well, probably because WWE realized they had something in these three men. With Bray’s unique ways of cutting a promo and making you think about every word he has to say, backed up with two absolute monsters, one, Rowan, sporting a sheep mask and the other in Harper, who looked like he’d eat you alive. In May of 2013, vignettes started for the main roster, explaining the origins of the backwoods trio and why they were here. The Wyatt Family went on to wreck everyone in their path on RAW and Smackdown, with very memorable feuds with the likes of The Usos, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Kane and most recognized, the Shield. As the years went on, The Wyatt’s has sporadic bursts of doing their own thing, but in 2015, they were brought back together with a new member added, Braun Strowman, who was named the “Black Sheep” of the family and promptly wore a all black sheep mask. The four even went on to test their night against The Rock at WrestleMania, putting them in the main spotlight like never before. As the years kept going, Rowan and Braun faded to their own ways and Randy Orton, yes, Randy Orton, was a part of the Wyatt’s for a small bit of time in 2016, where Orton and Wyatt won the tag team titles together. As the years passed, the group faded and everyone eventually went on their own paths, with Wyatt even becoming a multi-time world champion. Rowan was let go from the company, as well as Braun, who’s now recently returned to WWE. Bray Wyatt was also let go from the company but just returned this past weekend, as of this writing. Luke Harper went on to become a TNT champion in AEW before passing away. Rest in peace Brodie Lee, aka Luke Harper.

But, now that it’s over, we can look back on how fantastic the group really was in the sense of a spooky character. In my opinion, The Wyatt family is one of the scariest groups in WWE history. Why? Simply because it felt so real. There wasn’t magic, there wasn’t special effects, it was just three big bearded men who looked like they lived in the back of the woods and if you walked too far into the trees, they drag you deep into the bowls of the Forrest and murder you. The realism in their character was genuinely fearsome and it felt like they could rip your head off at any time. Mixed with the absolutely incredible skills that Bray Wyatt has on the mic to make you hang in every word, it felt like everything he said was real, making it that much more scary. There will never be another Wyatt family because they were special. They were what nightmares were made of, those four country bumpkins could kill you in an instant and there’s nothing you could do about it. They’re here.

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