Luke Harper Happy To Be Free From The Wyatt Family

Since his storyline separation from Bray Wyatt, the man who was once the most trusted and closely identified member of the WWE world champion's family has spoken out about the freedom he feels to finally be on his own.

The Wyatt Family always felt like they were on the verge of something bigger, but despite a few genuinely great moments - such as The Shield staredown and mini-feud - the faction never managed to reach their potential. For Harper, Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman, they were always viewed as little more than muscle for their charismatic leader, but Luke was always touted by fans and critics as the one with the most breakout potential.

Now that he's done so, he's letting the world know that he feels a weight has been lifted. Speaking to The Gorilla Position Podcast, Luke made his true feelings known regarding his role as a Wyatt acolyte and his newfound independence:

"Nope, don't miss it at all. I just did an interview recently where I talked about how frustrating it was to be in The Family and to be almost a back-up dancer for a strong amount of time. I mean, me and (Erick) Rowan broke out, and I broke out and was an Intercontinental champion but always in a shadow. For a performer like me, that's hard to take and hard to deal with, and I thought that the coming out party of the last six weeks was very eye opening and showed me what was out there."

Harper is clearly a confident guy and knows that he's capable of much more than what he's been given thus far, and we'll see how far that confidence can take him. As we all know, it takes more than a strong belief in oneself to achieve greatness in the WWE; the company must share that level of faith in a performer to push them accordingly.

Hopefully Harper gets that chance to be more than just "that guy who used to be in The Wyatt Family" and is given a fair chance to show what he can do. He's one of the most impressive big men on the roster and can really go in the square circle, he just needs to find the right role now that he's a solo act.

On a somewhat related note, Harper's former family member Erick Rowan, who has been on the sidelines injured for several months, was backstage at this week's SmackDown. Reports are there are no plan to introduce him into the Bray Wyatt/Randy Orton story at this time, although we may seem him pop up at some point.

With Bray looking to be going it alone from this point forward - at least for the immediate future - it'll be interesting to see were Rowan fits into the picture.