10 WWE Tag Teams Who Tried To Rebrand Themselves

This week's SmackDown Live saw the television debut of the "Bludgeon Brothers" - the new name under which former Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Eric Rowan will be competing as they reemerge from months in the wilderness (perhaps literally).

Response to this news has been decidedly mixed. Many fans regard Harper as a wrestler too good to be stuck in the tag team division, but others - recognising how difficult it will be for him to go it alone - see in the Bludgeon Brothers a slither of potential.

The skeptics are justified in their belief that WWE will, after an initial push, immediately get bored of the duo the very second a newer and shinier toy from NXT gets the main roster nod, but we mustn't write them off just yet - not until they're jobbing to the Usos come next month, anyway.

After all, if the duo need to draw inspiration, there are plenty of examples from wrestling history of iconic tag teams who similarly underwent a re-brand - sometimes subtle, other times dramatic - after their original shtick went stale (or became a copyright issue...).

Only time will tell how Eric Rowan and Luke Harper - formerly two thirds, and then one half, of the Wyatt Family - fare in their new role as the Bludgeon Brothers. But something tells us we would be well served holding our collective breath.

The pair - particularly Harper, who many had earmarked for a spot in the WrestleMania 33 main event - have plenty of talent. It's just that the spooky gimmick they've been given smacks of the sort of thing that the company has tried and failed to get over a dozen times before.

If there's hope, it's in the fact that we are dealing with two recognised names with whom the fans are already familiar, rather than a pair of developmental rookies thrown in at the deep-end after a couple of vignettes.