Standing out in an era of WWE often considered Lighter and Softer, The Wyatts are by far one of the most unsettling gimmicks in the history of wrestling.
Bray Wyatt's solo entries can be found following this way.
As per Spoilers Off policy, all moment pages have their spoilers revealed. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned.
- It all began with a little promo on NXT, where the man formerly known as Husky Harris displays some serious (then-unknown) promo chops as Eli "I don't have a mustache" Cottonwood stands menacingly in the background. At this point the supernatural aspects of the character haven't bled through yet, but the implication that Wyatt gleefully murdered his abusive father, and the eerie midnight swamp setting make for a very creepy beginning for the Wyatt character.
- On the Raw of their debut, a series of disquieting Found Footage style vignettes are aired to hype them up one last time. As if this wasn't bad enough, it all culminates with a guided tour of the family's "compound" courtesy of Luke Harper, who tells the cameraman "don't stray." So what happens when he does? He stumbles upon a cluttered room of an unknown, unnamed man kneeling and repeating the word "obey" in an entranced monotone. Harper angrily reprimands the camera man and brings him back to his course, with no explanation whatsoever for the event.
- The gimmick itself, but primarily their promos, vignettes and interviews. And the entrance. Dear god, the ring entrance. Some of the stuff Bray does inside the ring is creepy, too... During his Battleground 2013 match with Kofi Kingston, Bray did this... Exorcist crab-walk... thing. Look it up on Youtube, but not if you plan on sleeping at all tonight.
- At the end of the 4/7/14 6-Man Tag Team Match, as Bray does that crab-walk, the crowd is loving it. The chilling part? They're chanting to Big E. Langston, "Bray is gonna kill you!" Then we have the audience clapping and waving their arms in rhythm to the theme...that was so surreal.
- Three weeks after that match, the Wyatt Family ramps up the creepiness by bringing an entire chorus of children to sing "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands" as if Bray was Pied Piper and donning sheep masks as Cena looks on in horror. The segment ends with a child sitting on Bray's lap as Bray laughs in glee.
- At Extreme Rules 2014, John Cena wrestled Bray Wyatt in a steel cage. At the end, the entire Wyatt Family was beaten, strewn across the ring and most of all, accounted for. Cena was only steps away from exiting the cage and winning when the Wyatt's Offscreen Teleportation Jump Scare scene plays! When it comes back, there's a young boy in a black robe singing, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" with deeply distorted Voice of the Legion, scaring Cena back into the ring with a few new stains... right into Bray Wyatt hitting him with the Sister Abagail and then winning the match.
- After the match, the Wyatts walked off with the kid, who was dressed in a black robe like a choirboy. The sight of Wyatt walking off with Rowan and Harper behind him, holding the kid's hands and leading him onward, looked disturbingly like they were taking the kid away for a human sacrifice.
- Wyatt's attempt at Revenge by Proxy on John Cena via Jerry Lawler. He forces Lawler into the ring and has him sit down in a chair, then proceeds to give a chilling speech about Lawler's supposed 'crimes'. The delivery makes what would normally be a cheesy speech genuinely tense and frightening. When Cena comes out to try and be the Big Damn Heroes, Bray holds Lawler hostage to give Harper and Rowan a chance to restrain Cena so he'll be Forced to Watch what he's about to do. What makes this so unsettling other than Bray's delivery? He has Harper and Rowan hold Cena's eyes open. It takes a large amount of acting talent to make what has become a common, cliche wrestling situation genuinely terrifying.
- Bray's return at Hell in a Cell 2014. What the fuck did we just see?
- Bray releasing Eric Rowan and Luke Harper. Before, they were deranged, unhinged backwater lunatics kept more or less on Bray's proverbial "leash." Now?...that leash is gone. And for anyone who thinks Bray's promos are the stuff of nightmares, Harper's got his eyes
◊ on you.- The two disciples, after a period of wandering alone and even battling each other for a while, reunited of their own free will - conveniently at a time where the Tag Division was utterly decimated by injury (Tyson Kidd and Jimmy Uso both sustained severe injuries within a few weeks of each other and both will be out for several months or more). Never mind that they're easily bigger than most of the other teams in the Division, save for The New Day, which is a three-man stable that ostensibly operates under the "Freebird rule". And they've debuted a new tag team finisher simply known as "The Way." It's their appropriation of the 3D. Yes - that 3D.
- The newest member of the Family: The so-called Black Sheep of the Wyatt Family, Braun Strowman. The first time we see him, the first thing we see is an absolute colossus of a man with a black sheep mask appear in the ring, with no flashy entrance whatsoever, greeted to a dead silent (probably shocked) crowd. What he does next is even scarier: He goes through Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose like tissue. Also, worth noting, he's not a big teddy-bear like the last member of the Family who wore a mask. He's legit terrifying.
- Erick Rowan returning before Hell in a Cell. In itself, it wasn't that terrifying, but what really sells it are the implications. Now The Wyatt Family is four men strong. Bray Wyatt has control over three extremely powerful followers when he was able to destroy almost anyone (besides Cena) with only Harper and Rowan. Now he has them AND the strongest among them, Strowman. "Run"
- Turning the druids against The Undertaker and Kane.
- Trying to legit kill The New Day by CRASHING A TRUCK INTO THEM. It's been a looong time since we've seen attempted vehicular manslaughter in WWE. There's also Bray trying to take Xavier's head off with a pick, then there's Rowan trying to drown Kofi...yeah, the Wyatts have really gotten their steam back after a few months of middling due to members being injured, and apparently they're out for blood.
- Wyatt finally convincing Randy Orton to join the Family. Remember who Randy Orton is.
- At the end of the 2/28/2017 SmackDown, Orton ultimately revealed himself as a Sixth Ranger Traitor and then invoked Kill It with Fire on "Sister Abigail"'s burial ground. The Squicky close-ups of the maggots were bad enough, but then Wyatt's resulting Villainous Breakdown was on the level of Mankind. Definitely not PG at all (*shudder*).
