The Wyatt Family led by their namesake Bray Wyatt has been in the WWE since mid 2013. I was watching RAW last night and I realized something – I’m completely over this gimmick. It hasn’t changed, hasn’t moved forward, hasn’t given us anything new in over 2 years now. To say it’s stale would be an understatement the size of Bray Wyatt’s beard.
Sure, the guys in the stable are good workers. Hell, I’ll go so far as to say a couple of them (Wyatt and Harper) are great in the ring. I hate to sound like a cynical wrestling fan but… so what? Bray Wyatt is simply AMAZING on the mic. But he’s been spouting the same gibberish for so long that I just can’t get myself to care anymore. For the first time in a long time, I’ve begun fast forwarding through Wyatt promos to get to the matches. And more often than not recently, I’m zipping through those too. You know why? Because I’ve seen it all before.
I’ve seen the big bearded guy that moves better than he should be able to decimate the good guy. I’ve seen Wyatt kneel in the ring and tell me that “salvation” or “the apocalypse” or “the reckoning” or whatever catch phrase he’s using this week is coming. I was on board… big time. I loved this gimmick. But it’s tired.
At least Rowan and Harper have done something. Harper got himself an IC Title run and Rowan got a run (or two… I’d have to check) with the tag straps with Harper. What has Wyatt done? He’s feuded with Chris Jericho. He had a decent feud with Dean Ambrose but where did that lead him? Back to the Wyatt Family. His best work (in my opinion) was his feud with John Cena but that turned rather silly once he involved the children. Oh yeah… he lost that feud.
He became the “new face of fear” and talked himself into a match with the Undertaker at WrestleMania which he promptly lost. This would have been something if not for the fact that The Streak was broken the year before. At this point it’s a young guy losing a meaningless match against an old guy. He followed that match up with a match with… Ryback?
He came off that and went into what looked like a promising program with Roman Reigns. Wyatt was back to his mind games but they were interesting at least when he introduced Reigns’ daughter into the mix. That “feud” promptly ended after one match where we got… The Wyatt Family reformed. Meh.
Now we’ve added a new guy… Braun Strowman. I’ll be honest, dude looks amazing and at least in the couple short weeks he’s been around he looks like he could be something special. Sure, he was one of Adam Rose’s Rosebuds but we’re a WWE crowd so we’re supposed to forget what happened last week let alone a couple of months ago. But we’ve seen it. Fat guy with a beard that needs a trim who can work. He’s a monster heel. We get it.
This week we got a Strowman promo at the end of the Ambrose / Reigns match where he looked strong. He was playing the part of the monster to perfection. And then Wyatt pipes up with “The apocalypse waits for you at Night of Champions.” Um… OK… I guess. That might make sense if there was a champion involved in this match. But alas there isn’t. Which leaves this as just another open ended, go nowhere feud between The Wyatt Family and what’s left of The SHIELD.
What’s going to happen when Erick Rowan returns? Are we going to get some sort of epic beard-off where the loser has to shave his beard? Are we just going to get plug and play bearded guy and swap him out for whichever Family member Wyatt is tired of that week? Are we going to get a fourth Family member? I’m guessing Wyatt will give us a long-winded promo about how Sister Abigail has “called Rowan home” and how we should “Follow them toward salvation” or some such nonsense.
Time to Unfollow the Buzzards?
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I’m going to be around to see it… unless of course its in triple speed as I fast forward over it. I’m sure I’ll get a ton of heat from the wrestling hipsters out there who love Bray Wyatt and everything he stands for. These are the same guys who will tell you they hate WWE but think NXT is the second coming of… Bray Wyatt.
I hope I’m wrong. Windham Lawrence Rotunda (Bray Wyatt) is an amazing third generation wrestling talent. He’s probably the best talker the business has seen since the likes of The Rock and Stone Cold. But he’s been saddled with this gimmick that has grown stale. At this point for me, the Wyatt Family is getting into Aces & Eights levels of boredom. And that’s saying something.
What do you think? Are you still on the Wyatt Family bandwagon?
