YMMV / The Wyatt Family

• Badass Decay: The Wyatts are like that old Pokemon cartridge you've got where the save game function has died. It doesn't matter how much progress you make, when you come back to it you're back to square one.
• Broken Base:
  • Early on, Harper and Rowan. Rowan had a unique look and an intimidating presence, but wasn't very good in the ring. Conversely, Harper was pretty good in the ring, but his "generic hick" character was really bland compared to Rowan and Wyatt. However, Harper took to the role really well and quickly found ways to make him interesting, and established himself as an important part of the Family rather quickly. It took a while longer for Rowan, but he improved in the ring to the point that he does what he needs to quite well and can carry his own part of matches.
  • Now with Braun Strowman as the new member, some think that he is a great reinforcement to the team and a terrifying character, while others opine that he is too green for the spot and that he is not credible enough as the invincible monster he is been pushed as. However, most of them think that, in one way or another, he was simply needed for the Family as it was becoming weak and stale, and that he can be an asset if they won't feed him to John Cena as everybody is fearing. They fed him to Roman Reigns instead which didn't get the best reaction either.
• Creepy Awesome: The only other Creepy Awesome trio in the WWE that could match them would be The Brood.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Bray was the main attraction, but Luke got the wraps from the Internet community who want him to have his own legitimate career. There is an agreement that Luke and the family were good for one another, though.
• Evil Is Cool: Based on how readily they got cheered, the fans thought so.
• Fan Nickname: "Upside down Sheamus" for Erick Rowan, due to his pale complexion and bright orange hair, as his beard spikes downwards from his chin in a manner inverted from Sheamus's hair spiking atop his head. Became an Ascended Meme when the Big Show used it to insult Rowan on the November 24, 2014 edition of Raw. It later reached a new level when Rowan's assault on Curtis Axel at the 2015 Royal Rumble had similar repercussions as Sheamus's 18-second squash of Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania.
• Rooting for the Empire: Crowds now will usually do some or all of the following: A) clapping along in the dark to the beat of "Broken Out Of Love" while B) holding up their cell phones as beacons of light while swaying them concert-style (Wyatt now refers to this as "his fireflies" and the previously darkened TitanTron now has a starry-sky motif to match the fans) C) sway spontaneously during a match while probably D) singing "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands", much to Bray's delight.
• The Scrappy: Braun Strowman was this once it became clear how green he was in the ring, with the only thing going for him being his size as the group's muscle. When The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Vince had been pushing for a Strowman/Taker match at WrestleMania 32 after John Cena was injured in earlier in the year, the fans said "hell no" and there was mass protest from the IWC, as many felt that Taker couldn't get a good match out of him and would possibly be injured while trying to do so. When Meltzer reported that the match was no longer on the board, many breathed a sigh of relief — only to panic even more when he said the current plan was to push Strowman into a title program with Roman Reigns after 'Mania and, provided that goes well, a possible match with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam. The IWC immediately announced that they were okay with Reigns again if that were the case. (Fortunately, Strowman was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap after separating from the Family in 2016.)
• Tear Jerker: On December 26, 2020, Luke Harper, who was going by Brodie Lee at the time of his AEW run, passed away at the age of 41. The Wyatt Family would lose an irreplaceable member and brother.
  • Less than 3 years later, on August 24, 2023, Bray Wyatt suddenly passed away at the age of 36. In just a few years, the Wyatt Family had already lost half of their members, and more devastatingly, the faction's namesake leader and influential figure. Rowan's appearance at WWE's on-air tribute to Bray also gave a stark reminder that in just the past few years, he'd become the only one left out of the group's original lineup, way too soon and too young for that to have even been thinkable.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • If there is something in which people are unanimous is that Bray Wyatt and his faction were one of the best gimmicks in WWE in years, if not decades. Their blend of mind games and brute strength, their classic yet well executed gimmick, their looks and entrance, their fast improving wrestling ability, and especially the insane charisma of their leader; all seemed tailor made to be a long lasting success, like a villainous, collective version of The Undertaker and his mythology. And yet, the WWE bookers fell again into their classic tendencies: after some promising starts and feuds, they ended up turning Bray and the family into cannon fodder for John Cena, Randy Orton and the rest of eternal veterans, and ultimately tried The Rockers's method and split up the Family (twice!) in a very random attempt to create individual stars, despite the fact Wyatt is a much less believable villain without henchmen at his side. While the erratic course of the Wyatt Family has given out some high points, like Braun Strowman and some of their individual tenures, it is a huge difference from what a sustained smart booking would have surely created.
  • Wyatt being an excellent talker with a cult leader gimmick could be a chance to introduce many up and coming wrestlers as part of his Wyatt Family. They would both benefit from this system, as the presence of henchmen would make Bray stronger in his personal stints, while their time in the family would give them time to develop their skills from silent brutes into their own characters. And when they reached their limit, Bray could individually "free" them to the world, or they could rebel against the group and break free, which would then give the bookers chances for simple but powerful revenge storylines. Similarly, established wrestlers without direction or goal might also capitalize on it, either by being corrupted and recruited by Bray or by feuding against lesser members of the family. This is precisely how stables are often used in Japanese pro wrestling, especially in promotions and eras where faction warfare is prevailing, but apparently just not what the WWE bookers are willing to do (among other things, because it would need to keep the Family united for several years instead of using it to play The Rockers's star-building method every time a booker feels like).
  • The fact that the crowd all lights their phones up and Michael Cole literally says lol he calls these his "fireflies" guarantees that they have turned fan favourites and such they will never be the creepy, off kilter faction that they should. They are mass market as it gets, which is only the tip of the "Wyatts are being wasted" iceberg (Losing constantly, not being scary, no meaningful feuds, stealing peoples' powers only to have them revert back within 2 days, and more! Next time, on Raw!)
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Just imagine if the Family had abducted Bo Dallas (Bray's Real Life brother, though not acknowledged as such) and turned him from a clueless goof who tells people to "Bolieve" into an unpredictable ass-kicker, like when Kevin Sullivan turned "Maniac" Mike Davis into "Dusty Rhodes," or Raven toughening up Billy Kidman in WCW in 1997-1998.
  • Imagine if Luke Harper had used his IC Title reign as a springboard to the WWE World Heavyweight Title while still part of the Family, with Bray as his mouthpiece. That would have been The Authority's WORST NIGHTMARE, since the Wyatt Family were so drastically antithetical to the Authority's boring corporate image. The Authority didn't get along with John Cena, Daniel Bryan or Paul Heyman, but, at least, they understood them. Instead of The Authority's chosen Champion dressing up in a suit for promos and public appearances, you'd have the dirty, creepy, weird Wyatt Family, with Harper saying nothing and Bray cutting his bizarre promos.

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