YMMV / Erick Rowan

• Arc Fatigue: His story in late 2019-early 2020 involved him bringing a covered cage with apparently some kind of animal in it to the ring every week as he squashes a jobber. And that's all he's done, for months on end. Sometimes we get teases of something more, like the jobber messing with the cage and pressing Rowan's Berserk Button, or Rowan forcing his beaten opponent's face under the cloth so whatever is in it can savage their face, or whatever is in it biting Rowan himself and drawing blood, but ultimately Rowan is doing nothing at all except squashing jobbers, week after week without end, and nobody cares any more. Eventually when it was finally revealed to be a large (and obviously animatronic) tarantula the audience mostly rolled their eyes. A week later, Drew McIntyre destroyed the cage and the toy tarantula, to a loud applause from the audience.
• Ass Pull: The Reveal that he was the one responsible for the attacks on Roman Reigns and was simply letting Daniel Bryan think he was working for him. It's supposed to make him come off as The Chessmaster, but, since he had no real reason to ally with Bryan, and his reason for attacking Reigns basically boils down to "I felt like it", it instead came off as WWE picking him because no one would suspect it.
• Base-Breaking Character: His face turn in November 2014. Most believe he fits the role well, while other's believe he shouldn't have never turned face in the first place. It doesn't really help matter's much as Rowan's face turn was a last-minute decision due to Sheamus had to be written off due to injury.
• Badass Decay:
  • Got hit with this hard after losing his first singles feud, which was against the Big Show, who is is pretty much loathed by the IWC community. Aside from some minor victories against on Main Event and Superstars and teaming with fellow Surivior Series teammates, Ryback and Dolph Ziggler, singles-competition Rowan has pretty much been regulated to losing to his opponent's, often jobbing to the likes of Big Show or his former Wyatt Family members.
  • Then at WrestleMania 32 he went and lost a six second match against The Rock. Seriously.
• Despair Event Horizon: In this promo, Rowan gives us some backstory about himself and how he (Bray Wyatt) found him. Erick Rowan, due to his intimidating stature, was pretty much a social outcast all of his life and was often seen as nothing more than a monster, leaving him vulnerable to Bray Wyatt, who then used him for his own means, and that John Cena was the first person EVER to stand up for him. It's pretty jarring in you think about it, because this could happen in real life, where people can be easily manipulated by other's to do wrong because society can at times be too overwhelming for them.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Rowan actually experienced quite a spike in popularity when he unexpectedly showed up to join Team Cena during their 2014 Survivor Series battle against The Authority. It didn't last, but it was notable by then.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Subverted with Erick Rowan's attire. His coveralls would look ridiculous with another wrestler in another gimmick, but his look makes him look like, if anything, an old-fashioned gas station attendant or mechanic-turned slasher movie serial killer. It actually works pretty well, especially with the mask.
• Heartwarming Moments: At the height of the tag match between the team of John Silver, Alex Reynolds and "Hangman" Adam Page, and the team of MJF, Santana and Ortiz at the memorial show for the late Brodie Lee (the former Luke Harper), MJF's bodyguard Wardlow ran in while the referee was distracted to attack Reynolds- only for Erick Redbeard to come thundering out to stop him, planting Wardlow with an Iron Claw Chokeslam and driving him off backstage. Bryan Alvarez would call this "the most perfect run-in of all time", saying that with all the history between the former Bludgeon Brothers, not even The Rock running in could have matched it. After the Dark Order secured the win in Brodie's memory, Erick returned to embrace Silver and Reynolds, tearfully holding up a sign with a final message for his departed friend: "Goodbye for now, my brother. See you down the road."
• Retroactive Recognition: One of the Jobbers he demolished during his infamous "mystery cage" angle was "KJ Orso", played by the indie wrestler Fuego Del Sol. Fuego would go on to be a massive Breakout Character in All Elite Wrestling. This is made all the more noticeable in that, as Orso, he wrestled without a mask, unlike the masked Fuego.
• Shocking Moments: Pretty much any time he uses the spinning heel kick.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Despite being eliminated from the 2015 Royal Rumble, he showed up anyway, attacking Curtis Axel before his chance to get in the ring and briefly sparking a Wyatt Family reunion. Axel didn't handle it well...
  • Before that when he suddenly showed up out of nowhere to become the 5th man on Team Cena for their clash against The Authority at Survivor Series 2014. Not even Cena knew what to make of it when Rowan came striding down the ramp, looking as confused as anyone.
  • Nobody expected him to make his return from injury at the Royal Rumble 2019 and assist Daniel Bryan in his WWE title match against AJ Styles either. Certainly not dressed in flannelette.
  • His cameo appearance in All Elite Wrestling on the "Brodie Lee Celebration of Life" episode to save Alex Reynolds from the interference of Wardlow and let the Dark Order overcome the Inner Circle in honour of his dearly-departed friend Brodie Lee (aka. Luke Harper). Perhaps not that unexpected because he'd been let from WWE by this time and, given the history the two men shared there was no way AEW wouldn't want to have him appear, but Bryan Alvarez would call it "the most perfect run-in of all time".
• The Woobie: After being severely underutilized by the WWE following the disbandment of The Wyatt Family, the poor guy lost both of his founding Wyatt members in the span of three years. After Bray Wyatt's out-of-nowhere passing, a lot of fans expressed a desire to check in on Erick to make sure he was doing okay.
• Woolseyism: The Bludgeon Brothers's tag name was translated by Spanish Atresmedia commentator Fernando Costilla as "Los Hermanos de la Maza" ("The Brothers of the Mace"), not only because the original name is tricky to translate faithfully to Spanish, but also to make a pun - "De la Maza" is actually a real surname in Spain.

---