History Wrestling / TheWyattFamily

** Luke Harper may count as one of these. In the early days of the team, Wyatt was the mouthpiece, Rowan was the monster, and Harper was mostly just there to take bumps. But between how well his old Brodie Lee style offense adapted to the WWE (Harper simply doesn't have bad matches), and how well he took to the character, he's gotten over in his own right. He holds the record for being the first (and thus far, only) member of the stable to win a title on the main roster, the Intercontinental Championship.

At TLC 2016, they became the WWE [=SmackDown=] Tag Team Champions; with Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton defeating Wrestling/HeathSlater and Wrestling/{{Rhyno}}.

As of December 4, 2016, they are the WWE [=SmackDown=] Tag Team Champions; with Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton defeating Heath Slater and Rhyno.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Strowman recently {{No Sell}}ing a Dropkick to the knee from TommyDreamer. Not only does this fly in the face of the same move having been proven to work against even-bigger guys (Wrestling/TheBigShow, The Great Khali, etc.) time and time again, but such a bodyweight-backed move actually carries the risk of snapping the knee in RealLife.

As of December 4, 2016, they are the SmackDown Tag Team Champions; with Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton defeating Heath Slater and Rhyno.

* AbortedArc: During his last few months in NXT, Bray Wyatt began cutting promos challenging then-NXT Champion Big E. Langston, and appeared to be heading towards a showdown with him. This ended up not happening, possibly due to the Wyatt Family being called up to the main roster sooner than expected, meaning it wouldn't have been all that worth it to put the title on Bray.
** There looked to be a feud in the works with Big Show for Bray in mid-2014, but, perhaps due to the Wyatts' overall decline in recent months and the feud with Wrestling/ChrisJericho doing little to help re-elevate Wyatt, Show was placed into a feud with Rusev while the Wyatts have been repackaged with vignettes indicating Bray has "released" Harper and Rowan into the world, while Bray's vignettes potentially hint at the appearance of the unseen "Sister Abigail."

** "Live In Fear" by Mark Crozer and the Rels (formerly known as "Broken Out In Love" prior to WWE buying the rights to the song) is an incredibly unnerving track with a perfect creepy backwoods Southern sound that accompanies their promos and entrance.

* DefectorFromDecadence: Daniel Bryan ended his tenure with the group in grand fashion, costing himself and Bray a cage match and delivering one hell of a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on the Family's patriarch. Strowman is in a similar situation; during the build-up to Wrestling/SurvivorSeries 2016, he would no longer respond to any of Bray's commands - Strowman was a member of Team Raw while Wyatt and Orton joined Team Smackdown.

'''The Wyatt Family''' is a professional wrestling stable consisting of '''Wrestling/BrayWyatt''' (real name Windham Rotunda), and his followers '''Wrestling/LukeHarper''' (real name Jon Huber), '''Wrestling/ErickRowan''' (real name Joseph Ruud), '''Braun Strowman''' (real name Adam Scherr) and '''Wrestling/RandyOrton'''. Their gimmick is somewhat hard to describe, but think of the hillbillies from ''Film/{{Deliverance}}'' mixed with a creepy Charles Manson-esque cult. Wyatt himself has a bit of Max Cady from ''Film/CapeFear'' and the mannerisms of a Southern bayou preacher. They are a very dark, creepy bunch with an ominous presence enhanced by Wyatt's incredible mic skills and hypnotic charisma. They debuted on the July 8, 2013 edition of Monday Night Raw attacking Wrestling/{{Kane}} and injuring him. Since then, they have engaged in a number of feuds, including mid-late 2014 storylines with Wrestling/JohnCena, Wrestling/TheUsos and Wrestling/ChrisJericho.

* DefectorFromDecadence: Daniel Bryan ended his tenure with the group in grand fashion, costing himself and Bray a cage match and delivering one hell of a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on the Family's patriarch. Strowman is in a similar situation; during the build-up to Wrestling/SurvivorSeries 2016, he would no longer respond to any of Bray's commands - Strowman was a member of Team Raw while Wyatt and Orton joined Team Smackdown.

* FinishingMove: Wyatt's 'Sister Abigail', Rowan's splash, Harper's monstrous discus clothesline, and Strowman's lifting arm triangle choke.

'''The Wyatt Family''' is a professional wrestling stable consisting of '''Wrestling/BrayWyatt''' (real name Windham Rotunda), and his followers '''Wrestling/LukeHarper''' (real name Jon Huber), '''Wrestling/ErickRowan''' (real name Joseph Ruud) and '''Braun Strowman''' (real name Adam Scherr). Their gimmick is somewhat hard to describe, but think of the hillbillies from ''Film/{{Deliverance}}'' mixed with a creepy Charles Manson-esque cult. Wyatt himself has a bit of Max Cady from ''Film/CapeFear'' and the mannerisms of a Southern bayou preacher. They are a very dark, creepy bunch with an ominous presence enhanced by Wyatt's incredible mic skills and hypnotic charisma. They debuted on the July 8, 2013 edition of Monday Night Raw attacking Wrestling/{{Kane}} and injuring him. Since then, they have engaged in a number of feuds, including mid-late 2014 storylines with Wrestling/JohnCena, Wrestling/TheUsos and Wrestling/ChrisJericho.

In late 2014, after being absent for approximately two months, Bray Wyatt revealed, through pre-recorded vignettes, that Erick Rowan and Luke Harper had been "set free," effectively disbanding the group and sending all three into singles competition. Wyatt retained all the qualities of his entrance (the theme, lantern, "I'm here" pre-intro, and the rocking chair), and Rowan and Harper were given their own themes respectively. However, the family was later reunited in mid-late 2015, with Braun Strowman initially replacing Erick Rowan due to an injury until his return to the fold prior to Hell in a Cell 2015. Strowman left the stable in the summer of 2016 after the brand split.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Introduced themselves to the WWE in person by beating the [[{{Pun}} hell]] out of [[{{Badass}} Kane]] and giving him a Con-chair-to with '''steel steps'''.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Bray Wyatt, believe it or not, was giving out such world wearing promos as the youngest male wrestler on the WWE main roster at only 26 years of age. This was until Wrestling/BoDallas (his younger brother) debuted on Smackdown in May 2014.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Strowman recently {{No Sell}}ing a dropkick to the knee from TommyDreamer. Not only does this fly in the face of the same move having been proven to work against even bigger guys (Wrestling/TheBigShow, The Great Khali, etc.) time and time again, but such a bodyweight-backed move actually carries the risk of snapping the knee in RealLife.

In late 2014, after being absent for approximately two months, Bray Wyatt revealed, through pre-recorded vignettes, that Erick Rowan and Luke Harper had been "set free," effectively disbanding the group and sending all three into singles competition. Wyatt retained all the qualities of his entrance (the theme, lantern, "I'm here" pre-intro, and the rocking chair), and Rowan and Harper were given their own themes respectively. However, the family was later reunited in mid-late 2015, with Braun Strowman initially replacing Erick Rowan due to an injury until his return to the fold prior to Hell in a Cell 2015.

** There looked to be a feud in the works with Big Show for Bray in mid-2014, but, perhaps due to the Wyatts' overall decline in recent months and the feud with ChrisJericho doing little to help re-elevate Wyatt, Show was placed into a feud with Rusev while the Wyatts have been repackaged with vignettes indicating Bray has "released" Harper and Rowan into the world, while Bray's vignettes potentially hint at the appearance of the unseen "Sister Abigail."

* GenreSavvy:
** Bray Wyatt "releasing" Eric Rowan and Luke Harper. Normally when the leader of a powerful stable starts to enter major singles competition, he tries to keep his underling by his side as extra reinforcements. This of course inevitably backfires as the ego of the wrestlers involved eventually leads to them resenting and eventually overthrowing their former leader. (Take Evolution and The Nexus / The Corre for example). But by letting Rowan and Harper leave the stable of their own free-will, Bray Wyatt no longer needs to worry about them turning on him out of jealousy.
*** Another way of looking at it is that Wyatt's greatest solo successes have come when he ''didn't'' have Rowan and Harper at ringside, like his victories over [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] and Wrestling/ChrisJericho at the RoyalRumble and SummerSlam, respectively. Bray likely caught onto this and "released" Harper and Rowan to not only increase his chances of success, but perhaps even give the two big men a chance to shine on their own as well, and we've seen that in Harper, who's no slouch in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrMotdTWNAU promo]] department or making a strong first impression by presenting a beaten-up DolphZiggler to the Authority.
** Whenever Bray Wyatt wants to use his finishing maneuver, "Sister Abigail's Kiss," on someone backstage, he always makes sure he's near a wall, and modifies the move to throw the opponent into said wall. This way, he doesn't hurt himself by doing the move conventionally, which involves him falling, with his opponent, onto what would be a floor with no mat or any type of protective covering.

* FriendToAllChildren: Bray played with this trope for NightmareFuel - '''''very effectively''''' - in his feud with Wrestling/JohnCena. When you consider Cena's main target demographic, it's probable that Bray did this [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy just because he knew it would mess with Cena's head.]]

* AGodAmI:
** Wyatt said as much to Wrestling/JohnCena:

*** Incidentally, that's paraphrasing a quote from Charles Manson.
*** Also said on the May 5, 2014 ''RAW''.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Strowman recently {{No Sell}}ing a dropkick to the knee from TommyDreamer. Not only does this fly in the face of the same move having been proven to work against even bigger guys (TheBigShow, The Great Khali, etc.) time and time again, but such a bodyweight-backed move actually carries the risk of snapping the knee in RealLife.

** They have a bizarro [[Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen Horsemen]] feel about them, from their claims of being the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse right down to [[MemeticHandGesture the upside down 4]] they flash after each match or spot. They got some good heat as heels who challenged multiple levels of WWE, but they just kinda got swallowed up in the midcards.

* FourHorsemen: It was after they became a foursome that Bray started referring to them as the "Faces of the Apocalypse" according to his cult's understanding: Destruction[[note]]Strowman[[/note]], Desolation[[note]]Harper[[/note]], Vengeance[[note]]Rowan[[/note]], and Fear[[note]]himself[[/note]]. And of course, there's that thing where—'''''DEA-'''''

* AscendedExtra: Luke Harper may count as one of these. In the early days of the team, Wyatt was the mouthpiece, Rowan was the monster, and Harper was mostly just there to take bumps. But between how well his old Brodie Lee style offense adapted to the WWE (Harper simply doesn't have bad matches), and how well he took to the character, he's gotten over in his own right.

** Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield described Wyatt as "Series/DuckDynasty meets UsefulNotes/CharlesManson." A more accurate description would probably be "[[Film/CapeFear Max Cady]] from ''Film/CapeFear'' meets [[Wrestling/DavidHeath The Brood]].

* CompositeCharacter / XMeetsY: Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield described Wyatt as "Series/DuckDynasty meets UsefulNotes/CharlesManson." A more accurate description would probably be "[[AxCrazy Max Cady]] from ''Film/CapeFear'' meets [[DemonicPossession Azazel]] from ''Film/{{Fallen}}''." Either way, combine the fact that it's [[{{Acrofatic}} Husky Harris]]'s body doing this, and it's freaking scary.

* SpiritualSuccessor:
** The most obvious is [[{{Wrestling/Raven}} The Flock]], to take a non-WWE example.
** They have a bizarro [[Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen Horsemen]] feel about them, from their claims of being the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse right down to [[MemeticHandGesture the upside down 4]] they flash after each match or spot. They got some good heat as heels who challenged multiple levels of WWE, but they just kinda got swallowed up in the midcards.

** They have a bizarro [[Wrestling/RicFlair Horsemen]] feel about them, from their claims of being the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse right down to [[MemeticHandGesture the upside down 4]] they flash after each match or spot. They got some good heat as heels who challenged multiple levels of WWE, but they just kinda got swallowed up in the midcards.