10 Times WWE Destroyed Something Brilliant

7. The Wyatt Family

Bray Wyatt
WWE

In NXT, the Wyatt Family act worked because Bray Wyatt was a messianic cult figure. He didn't have actual supernatural powers; that would have been dumb in the more knowing 21st century. He instead cast a psychological spell over "sons" Luke Harper and Erick Rowan in order to control them. It was a great act in Orlando. The hype for their main roster debut was off the charts...

...and WWE made a hash of it almost instantly by having the backwoods monsters use protective fire safety equipment to interfere in Bray's debut "Ring of Fire" match with Kane at SummerSlam 2013. At least they didn't somehow magic the flames away.

Such silliness came later, when Wyatt, a composite of horror movie cliche, was somehow able to conjure ghosts, project imagery onto wrestling canvases and teleport all over the place. There was nothing Wyatt couldn't do, save winning many wrestling matches of note.

Imagine if The Undertaker routinely lost in the early 1990s despite the presence of his urn. If you have supernatural powers, you should be able to win essentially every wrestling match you are a part of. The Undertaker did. That's why the character worked, against all reason, for so long.

The Wyatt Family in rapid order became just three total geeks who had the literal power to improve their position but were mostly abysmal at wrestling in the storylines.

Bray is essentially a conman, which might be why he still retains fan support in some quarters.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!