10 Big Mistakes WWE Have Made With Bray Wyatt

Bray Wyatt should have been something special. Once pegged as his generation’s Undertaker, the former Husky Harris was one of WWE’s most exciting performers upon debuting in 2013. The Wyatt Family were a captivating presence, and their Cape Fear-inspired leader was a chilling, commanding, and frightening megalomaniac.

They initially tore through WWE like a buzzsaw. After destroying Kane on their debut, The Wyatt Family devastated wrestlers like R-Truth and Justin Gabriel, but soon set their sights on bigger targets. Their popularity peaked through their incredible Elimination Chamber 2014 match with The Shield, but as with most hot acts in WWE, their demise was right around the corner.

Wyatt started losing, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper struggled in the tag division, and everything that made their act unique and special was slowly stripped away. Today, Bray Wyatt is almost impossible care about, and while he currently sits with two consecutive (albeit tainted) victories over Randy Orton to his name, he has rarely looked so inept. His and The Wyatt Family’s credibility has plummeted, and it may never truly recover.

Bray’s booking has been particularly inconsistent. Once one of WWE’s biggest menaces, he’s become a guy who can’t buy a clean win despite his obvious strengths. WWE have once again succeeded in running a successful and popular act into the ground, and they only have themselves to blame.

Here are 10 big mistakes WWE have made with Bray Wyatt.

Bray Wyatt is a cult leader. In order to be a successful and convincing cult leader, he must have followers.

Sounds straightforward enough, right?

Not if you’re WWE, apparently.

Part of Bray’s mystique comes from his ability to manipulate others into doing his bidding. In Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, he had two able henchmen who were far stronger by his side than they were alone, and vice versa. Sadly, WWE decided to split the group in 2014, and it was a huge mistake all-round.

Rowan clearly wasn’t ready for singles action, and while Luke Harper had a decent run as Intercontinental champion, he was never booked particularly strongly. Bray, meanwhile, floundered without his allies, and didn’t even bother to replace either man after “setting them free”. You can’t be a backwoods cult leader without cultists, thus rendering one of the things that made Bray so compelling completely irrelevant.

The trio eventually came back together and added Braun Strowman to their ranks, but they never recovered their lost momentum. Now, with Strowman on Raw and Rowan injured, we’re back down to just Harper and Wyatt. A full break-up never seems far away, however, and fans shouldn’t be surprised to see them go their separate ways again soon.