Awesome / The Wyatt Family

• The extent that WWE hyped up their debut surely counts. How often does a vignette for an upcoming debut get to close out the show? Furthermore, the week they debuted, their vignette opened the show. And it doesn't hurt that the vignettes themselves were extremely well done.
• The Wyatt Family's TV Tropes page being created less than a week after their debut on the main roster.
• Just about any time Bray Wyatt gets a hold of a microphone.
  • Special mention should be given to the family's promos against The Shield leading up to Elimination Chamber 2014. He had everyone in the stands hanging on every word, and played the audience like a piano at Carnegie Hall.
    • The best example of this was, when in the middle of a promo, Roman Reigns interrupts Bray and demands they come out and fight. Bray's response?
  Bray Wyatt: Funny...you should mention that. Cuz, y'see, we were thinking... the exact... same... THING.
  Cue collective fangasm at what this meant for the crowd.
• November 11, 2013: The Wyatts going up against fellow heel stable The Shield. It didn't matter if both groups were heels; the UK crowd loved every second of it. Plus their Villain Team-Up against Daniel Bryan and CM Punk...
• The match between Erick Rowan and Luke Harper against the aforementioned Punk and Bryan at Survivor Series 2013 was considered one of the highlights of the event, and with good reason. At one point, Harper even hit a sitdown powerbomb on Bryan from the top rope, which prompted the fans to chant "This is Awesome!"
  • There's a spot in the match where Rowan gets both of his opponents around the necks and suplexes them both at once!
• On the final RAW of 2013, they did the unthinkable: They made Daniel Bryan confess that he wants to join the family. Although this turned out to be a ruse on Bryan's part who wanted to get his hands on Wyatt, and decided to join the group in order to do so. And he did, on January 13, 2014.
• Bray Wyatt actually defeating DANIEL FREAKING BRYAN in a singles match at the Royal Rumble. Not only that, the match itself was so good that not even Bryan's notoriously rabid fanbase was upset with the decision (well, mostly). "This is Awesome!", indeed a far cry from Bray Wyatt's mostly forgettable first match against Kane.
• On the February 10 edition of RAW, Bray Wyatt hit a running Sister Abigail on Rey Mysterio Jr.. After so many incidences where the move itself seemed to veer too close into Awesome, but Impractical territory, that moment not only made Bray appear even more dangerous than before.
• Let's be honest: the fact that WWE is setting up an Elimination Chamber matchup between The Wyatt Family and THE SHIELD is an awesome moment in and of itself, but all six members of the two teams have been doing an excellent job bringing the fans to a slobbering frenzy at the prospect of the match.
  • Add this to the fact that they're both still heel stables. WWE doesn't usually make a habit of heel vs. heel matches because it's thought that the crowd won't be nearly as emotionally invested. But people are.
• February 23, 2014: The Wyatt Family topples The Shield at Elimination Chamber. This is a match that the IWC has been clamoring for months. This is the match that people were really interested in seeing. This is the match that had so much impossible hype that there was no way it could possibly live up to it all…and ALL SIX participants fucking deliver.
  • It's doubtful anyone has ever watched a match where the audience is chanting "THIS IS AWESOME!" merely by The Wyatts stepping through the ropes. No contact made, simply entering the ring. Maximum hype levels.
  • The two teams had ANOTHER great match on RAW 8 days later.
• March 10, on Raw. John Cena, the biggest professional wrestler of the modern era, and Hulk Hogan, the biggest professional wrestler of the past, are in the ring together. Arguably the two biggest names in the business, both noted for their intense charisma and mic skills...and then Bray Wyatt, the youngest male wrestler in the company, comes out and delivers an absolutely blistering promo that makes John Cena and Hulk Hogan look like rank amateurs. Let me repeat that: Bray Wyatt out-promoed John Cena and Hulk Hogan and made it look easy.
  • Furthermore, note that Cena arguably tried to undercut Wyatt with Smug Super comedy during his promo, however it failed so hard in the face of Bray's brilliance (and fans simply not having it at this point) that Cena was forced to forgo his usual shtick of no selling smirks and Berserk Button-pressing Blatant Lies, instead selling a fear of Bray Wyatt every single night since to build the feud.
  • It's only gets more impressive. In-Universe, no pun intended, Cena has faced mostly every threat head-on and, as the Doctor of Thuganomics, with outright defiance, from The Undertaker to Shawn Michaels to Brock Lesnar. This is the first time in-story that Cena has admitted and shown genuine fear. He tried to hold to go along as he always has, but Wyatt is the first to shake him like this.
• WrestleMania XXX - Bray's performance against John Cena may have been a losing effort, but between coming out to Mark Crozer & the Rels playing the Family's music live, to getting the crowd to start singing "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands," to scaring the living hell out of Cena (and New Orleans) by crab-walking before Cena could hit a Five-Knuckle Shuffle, Bray had a ton of Awesome moments during this match.
  • Becomes even more awesome when you consider the "golden shovel" reputation that Cena shares with Triple H in the eyes of some disgruntled fans. While that status was utterly averted in the case of Triple H's night (see the WrestleMania or Bryan Danielson "Awesome" pages for those details), Cena defeating Bray despite the Wyatt Family's interference could be cited as another example of Cena being needlessly bolstered at the expense of an up-and-coming talent. However, Bray's amazing performance was so captivating and memorable that the next two nights of Wyatt Family matches had the crowd clapping along to his theme song. The man may have singlehandedly made sure that he came out stronger for losing to John Cena.
• April 7, 2014: while he didn't win his match the night before, Bray Wyatt was cheered like a hometown-hero the night after. Whereas the opponents had...mixed opinions (Big E - little to no reaction, Sheamus - boos, Cena - crowd singing "John Cena Sucks" in rhythm to his own theme song), The Wyatts have the crowd clapping in rhythm to their theme.
  • The crowd was crazy for them. Clapping in rhythm, swaying their arms, chanting everything they could to the Wyatts and, most chilling, telling Big E "BRAY'S GOING TO KILL YOU!"
• April 21, 2014: the WWE Universe gets to vote which member(s) of the Wyatt Family will face John Cena in the main event. Whether the final actual percentages were real or scripted, they voted for all three of them to face Cena in a handicap match, which they respond to with a convincing squash of Cena to end the show.
• April 28th, 2014: You know how Bray keeps singing "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands?" Well, they topped that off with a whole choir of children singing it, as if they were hypnotized. They keep singing this song and surround the ring where John Cena is at, and put on sheep masks as Bray Wyatt leads them with different phrases to replace world (Big Bad Monster and Cenation). Up till now, the feud with Cena based around "bringing out the darkness" isn't a new one, but bringing Cena's target audience into this brought it to a whole new level.
  • Also, watch Cena's obligatory "no-sell" promo afterwards. You can tell it's more him trying to convince himself this is nothing, rather than his usual "I ain't bothered" attitude.
• Extreme Rules 2014: Bray Wyatt defeats John Cena in a steel cage match, and weaponizes the Creepy Children Singing by having a child singing "Whole World In His Hands" to distract Cena long enough for Bray to hit Sister Abigail.
  • Let's put this in perspective. In his first year in the WWE, Bray Wyatt owns victories over the company's two top faces.
• May 19th, 2014: Monday Night Raw begins, as always, with the WWE's signature: "Then, Now, Fore-DEA-!". That's right, Bray Wyatt cut off the signature that starts off every show.
  • That's not even the most impressive part: the London crowd tried to interrupt Bray with WHAT chants, but his unusual cadence kept them from getting a word in edgewise. His charisma and great promo work even had them singing along with him by the end of his speech.
• Around the time of the Wyatt Family's debut, a few crowds weren't really buying Bray Wyatt's character, possibly because of the weeks and weeks of buildup, an underwhelming debut match against Kane, and the fact that he often spoke in riddles and cryptic language. In WWE, when the fans aren't feeling you, and you're cutting a promo, you're probably gonna get "WHAT?!" chants whenever you take a pause while talking. Bray got the same treatment during some of his first few sermon promos... at first. In at least one instance, the crowd started the promo heckling him with "WHAT?!" chants, and ended the promo giving him a very genuine standing ovation. In other words, Bray Wyatt plays his character so well and is so godly on the mic that he can convert a crowd in the time it takes to cut one promo. For comparison, John Cena (no slouch in the charisma department) has been trying to convert crowds to his side for years, and it hasn't worked.
• Even though they lost, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper's match against The Usos at Battleground 2014 has to be mentioned here just because of the sheer quality of the performance.
• Bray's return at Hell In A Cell 2014. It was both this and Nightmare Fuel.
• Their entrance, which starts with a Jump Scare (and kills all the lights in the arena), followed by Bray lighting a lantern and quietly proclaiming, "We're here." He blows out the lantern, but has another one as the lone source of light as the Wyatt Family walks in darkness to creepy yet catchy "Broken Out In Love"; the song comes to an abrupt stop when Wyatt reaches the ring and blows out the light. The fans' reaction have also evolved to make it even more awesome, first by clapping along eerily to the beat of the song, and now everyone holding up their cell phones (and we do mean everyone) and swaying concert-style. See his "fireflies" entrance from SummerSlam 2014 here.
  • Oh, and that jump scare intro? It also closes every Wyatt segment and victory.
• Harper's return, joining Team Authority and subsequent victory over Dolph Ziggler for the IC Championship is this, especially since it makes him the first Wyatt Family member to win gold in the WWE, even ahead of Bray himself. Not to mention Rowan, of all people, joining Team Cena, as no one, Harper, The Authority, the audience, or even Cena himself saw it coming.
• The debut of the new member of the Wyatt Family Braun Strowman. He comes in from out of nowhere and No Sells both Reigns & Ambrose's attacks, and knocks both of them out in SECONDS with a very unique submission. Erick Rowan move over, we got ourselves a keeper.
  • Night Of Champions 2015: Strowman not only earns his keep in his first PPV, but pretty much decimates Ambrose, Reigns and their mystery partner Chris Jericho, who may as well had been a non-factor, as Strowman tossed him like a child onto Reigns and Ambrose, tossed Jericho halfway across the ring kicking out of a Lionsault, and caught his Codebreaker in mid-move before hitting his over-the-shoulder finisher before cinching in his bear-hug sleeper hold, topping off what was effectively a Curb-Stomp Battle over a 6-time World Champion and two former members of one of the most dominant stables in WWE history.
• On the 11/5/15 episode of Smack Down, with the power of the Undertaker and Kane under their belts, they went against both the Prime Time Players and the Lucha Dragons in a 4-on-4 tag team elimination match. They proceeded to destroy the two teams by winning 4-0.
• Another 4-on-4 Curb-Stomp Battle at TLC 2015, when the Wyatts (having only lost Rowan) dispatching the four-man "ECW Originals" team with relative ease in a 8-man elimination tag table match; a little bit of symbolism near the end, where Bubba Ray looks to light a table on fire, an iconic "extreme" spot for the Dudleyz, only for Strowman to chokeslam him through the unlit table, effectively "snuffing out" ECW's fire.
  • The Wyatts beating the ECW Originals at their own game...in an "Extreme Rules" match...on Raw...in Philadelphia! For an extra bonus, Rowan (the only Wyatt put through a table the previous night) got the win, frog-splashing Rhyno through a table for the three count.
• On the 1/18/16 episode of Raw, the Wyatt Family proceeded to step into the ring near the end of the show during Jericho's Highlight Reel. End result: the Family utterly decimating not just Roman Reigns but also Brock Lesnar. That's right, they made Lesnar taste the curb this time around, making a very bold declaration of victory on the Raw before the Royal Rumble.
• That moment above? For the first time in a long time the family lived up to their promises, eliminating Brock Lesnar from the Rumble, the first time Brock Lesnar had ever been eliminated from the Royal Rumble and one of the few times since Brock's 2012 return where he has been overcome by anyone not considered a main eventer (by WWE management at least).
  • Braun Strowman pulled a Defeating the Undefeatable in the Rumble by himself, single-handedly eliminating both Kane and the Big Show, two very large and popular men who had devastated the competition the previous year.
• At the end of the Raw vs Smackdown match at Survivor Series 2016, the Wyatt Family (represented by Bray and new member Randy Orton, with additional interference from Luke Harper) symbolically crush The Shield when they are the last two members of the Smackdown team against Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins as the last two members of the Raw team. After Orton saves Bray from a top-rope double stomp with an RKO outta nowhere that finishes Seth, it looks like Roman is going to do the "one against all" schtick again when he sets Bray up for a spear- only for Orton to again save Bray by taking the spear for him, leaving Reigns to be destroyed by Sister Abigail, giving Smackdown their first win of the night, taking the climactic match with both Bray and Orton still alive.
• While it's past the time of the Wyatt Family, in the end of the 2018 PPV "The Greatest Royal Rumble" Bray Wyatt (Along with "Woken" Matt Hardy) won the Raw Tag Team champion, Erick Rowan and Luke defended their Smackdown Tag Team champions and Braun Strowman would go on to win the Royal Rumble (Along with the Trophy and the Title that came with it). All Four Wyatt Family Members end the night with Straps around them.