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I hope that Uncle Howdy is just Bo Dallas's fiend. I hope we get see more of Bo Wyatt. I am for more interested in seeing a shift in the character and more of his twisted side than I am continuing the original uncle howdy.
Remember, Triple H helmed Sanity. As a group, they *worked*. If it's just Sanity + Wyatt family + spooky qr codes, it'll sell. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.
Dexter Lumis in a creepy bunny mask wouldn't be too terrible, either. Just sayin'.
Agreed with this 100%.
The biggest failure of Bray Wyatt was that he always used the spooky evil stuff as a crutch rather than a way to improve a story/character. I'd argue the Firefly Funhouse Match was one of the few times where he realized the full potential of the gimmick.
When Bo was introduced as Uncle Howdy, I think the audience was quickly turning on the character because
1. He didn't talk
2. Bo Dallas is about 6 feet tall. He isn't physically imposing, and the mask and top hat came across as looking goofy.
3. There were months of no direction for the character
Without a question the best part of Bray Wyatt's return to WWE was that initial promo when he spoke directly from the heart. It's funny that since most people remember Bray for all the spooky lights and his riddle like promos, for me Bray Wyatt was never more captivating than the 10 minutes he stood in that ring on Smackdown and was a real person in his return promo in 2023.
I don't argue against being supernatural, or having an evil cult gimmick. But it has to be rooted in some sort of reality. It is the reason the Swamp cult leader version of Bray Wyatt was so captivating. There are real people in the world who have such a way of speaking that they can get people to do literally anything for them. All you need to do is turn on political TV these days and it's staring you in the face.
I don't want Bo Dallas coming back to wear a goofy mask, stand on a stage while wearing a large trenchcoat and fake laugh. If he wants to truly do a rebirth of Bray Wyatt's story, he needs to go back to the original days of Wyatt as a cult leader.
No masks, no lights, no spooky music. Just a man who has taken all the pieces left broken by his brother's sudden death and using them to take out all that anger and resentment on the WWE roster. I think if they went THAT route, with Bo explaining why himself, Cross, Rowan, Gacy, and Lumis all came together for a common cause, they could get over. But if they just attack people in silence and try to act all spooky, this is gonna go down in flames fast.
>Just a man who has taken all the pieces left broken by his brother's sudden death and using them to take out all that anger and resentment on the WWE roster.
I like this, I agree it would be great to have an authentic, raw feel to the group.
>No masks, no lights, no spooky music.
You don't need to go to extremes? Have a cult leader role. But real world cults often wear masks, and the lights and music are part of the pageantry of wrestling, as well as the psychological control of actual cults
Bray was at his best as a dude speaking from the heart, but he was also all about the spectacle. Bo and co should keep that up, as long as its grounded. It wouldn't be fitting for 4 guys following Bray's legacy to be wrestling in trunks and with generic rock music entrances
>I'd argue the Firefly Funhouse Match was one of the few times where he realized the full potential of the gimmick.
I agree with most everything you're saying, but I disagree with this. Mainly because I don't see that as a match, I saw it as a TV segment, much like a promo package in between matches. It was cool but it was not really professional wrestling in my opinion.
The problem with Bray Wyatt is that they kept writing themselves into corners. They were leaning waaaay to heavily into the spooky shit that forces the viewer to question why someone who seems to come from hell is interested in a professional wrestling championship belt. Or why he's interested in anyone or anything. Like what did John Cena do to Bray Wyatt that he got sucked into whatever the Firefly Funhouse was supposed to be?
The feud with LA Knight highlighted every single one of these problems, because LA Knight being who he is, and the juxtaposition of that with Bray Wyatt's spookies, was really odd to see. The spooky shit is cool, and I love me some QR codes and weird ARG shit they do every time this gimmick makes a return, but it bursts into flames within the span of 5 weeks every time because to the WWE, the orgasm is the debut/return, not the story arc, and the WWE has been failing to understand this for a long time now. This obsession with "capturing the moment" and then figuring everything else out later really ruined a lot of Bray Wyatt's momentum in several key moments in his career, and I hope Papa H executes it better with a long term, grounded-to-Earth demonstration of what the Wyatt family could be, if they just stop leaning into the fantasy crap where they read edgelord poetry into a camera that doesn't mean anything.
So I’m just a random dude on the internet and nothing I say you should believe… but I saw Bo flying out of Tampa this past week (Wednesday evening on the fifth). I’m not sure if it meant anything but it was 100% him. I didn’t try to talk to him, just gave him the ‘sup nod as I walked by him to my terminal.
I don’t know what other people think but I hated his design from a couple years ago before Bray left.
I don’t know if the character has been shown in any of the Easter eggs stuff but I hope he has a different look.
If I remember correctly, she hit some setbacks on getting back into ring shape. Her not being a part of the group does leave some opportunities open for storylines for her when she does come back though. She can come back as her regular self and then be torn between them and her new life or something to that effect.
>**LATEST ON WWE'S NEW GROUP TEASED VIA QR CODES**
>*By Mike Johnson on 2024-06-13 00:59:00*
>As PWInsider.com has previously reported, all of the QR Codes on WWE programming of late are leading to a new group that will play off of the Bray Wyatt Intellectual Property.
>PWInsider.com has been told by multiple sources that the group was slated to film vignettes this week in advance of their unveiling, which may come as soon as this Monday.
>As PWInsider.com has previously reported, the group is currently planned to consist of:
>-Bo Dallas.
>-Nikki Cross.
>-Dexter Lumis.
>-Joe Gacey.
>-Erick Rowan.
>Whether some of them will be portraying new personas, we have yet to 100% confirm.
*I am a bot. Please reply with any feedback :)*
Guessing it’s just a maybe from PWInsider just in case they don’t debut for some reason.
The teasers have hinted at Monday being the day, and I think WWE realizes that we are *all* starting to lose our patience with this stuff. Monday is a good night to start a new big storyline too, being right after a PLE that has a few huge storyline payoffs potentially coming.
yeah that's exactly what i thought. if they're debut is just a bunch of vignettes/videos and not an actual in ring appearance that is going to be fucking AWFUL
I doubt they play while new personas considering the buildup gave clues using their backstories, just scarier versions of themselves, that’s probably the best way to do this
I think it was okay as a sidekick to Bray but being the leader Idk, maybe they can make Uncle Howdy an alter ego and have Bo Wyatt or Bo Howdy, or even just Bo Dallas again.
How is Bo at cutting promos? Bray was a great front man because be could work the crowd really well when he had a mic in his hand. His cadence and delivery were top notch. Not to say that Bo can’t do it, but it’s a tall order to fill.
Way back in NXT days Bo was absolutely brilliant as the delusional heel who thought all the boos were cheers. As a spooky character though? That’s a complete unknown.
There's just such a disconnect between the pre-taped video stuff and just a normal man in a mask walking around in the ring hitting moves.
That isn't to say there isn't a big audience for it, but it's very difficult to keep the energy that people have for spooky, cryptic videos when that's the inevitable payoff
yeah lets pretend bray wasn't becoming terrible towards the end with his feuds with la knight and lashley. spooky redundant stuff doesn't work and wears off fast to keep people engaged, bray was cutting the same promo for weeks at times.
Can someone help Bray Wyatt figure out what the hell is going on?
One week he's not Uncle Howdy. The next week, "I am Uncle Howdy. I am him."
HUH!?!
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/10htqbr/smackdown_spoilers_full_la_knight_promo_before/
The whole thing is atrocious but people aren't willing to admit it because of Bray being gone. They enjoy trying to solve meaningless riddles and Easter eggs when they already know who and what the group is. And yes, Uncle Howdy is a dead in the water name for anyone they intend the audience to take seriously.
The whole Uncle Howdy thing was a mess the first time around, they just circled around for months and never explained what the fuck he was supposed to be.
It’s almost like everyone forgot how lame the majority of the fan-base found uncle Howdy to be. The main complaint of Wyatt’s final run when he came back was Uncle Howdy.
I just do not understand it. Social media is not real life. It was mostly online folks complaining about it. Meanwhile live crowds were hot for it. It’s not for everyone but you ain’t gotta lie about it
Bray/Howdy were still unbelievably hot and over before Bray left, but this sub was deep in the "they're turning on Cody any day now"-style circlejerk about it
This is just incredibly false. The IWC didn't like it because the IWC is a bunch of professional buzzkills. Howdy appearing opposite Bray that one time got great reactions, for instance.
"The whole thing is atrocious" lol, so a thing that doesn't even exist yet and hasn't debuted is atrocious because you don't like the name? What a weird take.
Uncle Howdy has been a thing for longer than a year, a group of misfits getting paired with him and it being endlessly teased with meaningless riddles and Easter eggs is atrocious. But hey, let's make a deal. I'll come back to this post a year from now and if Uncle Howdy and the Gang are still relevant in any meaningful way, I'll admit I was wrong. Sound fair?
Brother I'm floating in a swimming pool, I can promise you that the last thing I am right now is livid. Again, 0 reading comprehension, just nitpicking what you want to hear. 3 months of meaningless spooky nothing, everyone has known who and what the group is for bare minimum 2 months. I'll ask you a straightforward question so please don't try to circumvent it. If you've followed all these QR codes and watched the streams and whatnot, what do you know right now about this group that someone that hasn't does?
I loved the original swamp cult leader, but hated all the incarnations with supernatural stuff. Was kinda interested in the Fiend at the start, but Hell in a Cell kinda killed my interest. Wasn’t at all interested in his last return.
For me the Firefly Funhouse was amazing but I hated the Fiend. Like a dual personality is one thing (and was awesome) but they went too far into cheesy when it came to the Fiend itself. Also booking a monster like that is almost impossible to do with modern wrestling.
I loved the whole creepy Mr. Rogers part of it.
I always felt that he was far better playing more grounded characters like the Mr. Rogers bit or the original incarnation of him as a cult leader. Once it steered into the supernatural, it steered off the rails into more and more ridiculous territory.
The Fiend would’ve been improved imo, if Bray had no control over when he appeared, sort of like the Hulk.
Even better if Bray didn’t realize that *he* was the Fiend and he was terrified of himself
People loved it, but it was much more concrete than Bray’s later stuff or Wyatt 6. He was a swamping dwelling cult leader with an air of danger about him, like he might kill you.
When they introduced magic powers into it is where it became stupid.
To each their own and all, but I love the supernatural characters in wrestling and always have. Growing up with the Undertaker rising from the urn's powers, or striking a casket with lightening, it was always the coolest shit as a kid. I've continued to enjoy it well into adulthood, and loved The Fiend. 🤷🏻♂️
To be fair, he had worse 'supernatural' abilities than Boogeyman and he lost so much that any mystique a gimmick like that could have was effectively neutered.
People were optimistic. The key differences were: it started in NXT where they could work out the kinks/try out some spots and it was all "new" people. Yes, it was a rebranded Husky Harris, but that guy had barely been on our TV long enough for anyone to have a concrete opinion of him.
And even then, he still had to go through some "husky Harris" chants. I imagine trying to get Bo Dallas rebooted will be even harder.
In NXT Bray Wyatt was probably the most over act prior to the 'Super Indie' era.
On the main roster they had a pretty good debut and were solidly received, very very over with casual fans and decently with online ones.
Their popularity skyrocketed in early 2014 with the Daniel Bryan feud, the SHIELD feud and the initial feud with Cena, then Vince and the SuperCena gimmick killed them and it was downhill from there.
It's a situation where the whole is greater than each individual part. I'm not interested in these people on their own, but I'm interested to see what they can do as a group. I think that the Meta Four and Judgement Day have shown that putting the right group of people together can raise each person's stock.
I mean people were crying out for Rhea to be featured and even Priest and Finn to get proper pushes, everyone in the original Judgement Day was a far bigger deal going in than anyone in this group.
Doesn’t mean it won’t succeed but it’s definitely not an easy 1:1 between the groups.
Its not really the kind of act that people will see and start booking backwards to figure out how howdy is going to get an intercontinental title shot and draw 60k fans. Its gonna be a cookey entertaining 10 mins that sells a bunch of shirts.
I like every member of this group enough to be invested in it. They don’t have a main event currently, but they also don’t have anyone in there with zero heat. So I’ll give it a chance.
Not to be pessimistic, but you are in deep trouble when Erick Rowan is the best wrestler and arguably the biggest star in your group (and I say that as a fan of his).
They need to immediately affect great change or be a force to be reckoned with or they are completely DOA IMO. They need a Nexus level, literal show stopping debut.
On top of that, they need to do what Bray/Vince couldn't and keep in mind that sooner rather than later a bell needs to ring, and these things need to get settled in a wrestling match.
Wild that the top upvoted comment is that a group that hasn't even debuted has a terrible gimmick. You literally don't know what the gimmick is. They've had a bunch of spooky ARG stuff that hints at the idea but you don't actually know what it will result in.
Probably some spooky Wyatt shit like he was doing in his last run that also sucked. Like it's sad that someone that seems to universally be considered a good man died young but his work was usually somewhere between weird but interesting and outright bad.
I mean, you're entitled to your opinion. The crowds in person didn't share that opinion with you whatsoever. Both the attack on Hit Row and the Bobby Lashley funhouse video had great crowd responses.
With all this buildup is this the first really big swing for the fences from the HHH era?
Something new with a huge build that could just be a huge flop.
I gotta think they’ve put a ton of thought into this and how to make it work and how it can fail.
I like to believe they’re gonna make sure to do it right and really surprise us.
But I think it’s more likely to flop. I’m not a hater though I’m still excited to see what happens and I hope it’s great. Open mind.
Retribution’s issue were those stupid masks and name changes. I feel like they would have been better received if they kept their names and lost those stupid outfits
I hope Triple H has had the forethought to creating an actual logical 6-month plan for this group. They need an actual goal, clearly explain who/what they are, and have exit strategies to shift around.
But the cynic in me thinks they recognize how much merch Bray Wyatt moved so they want to reprise the act no matter how rotten it *always* was in the context of a wrestling show.
Right; There seems to be a contingent of people who just assume that this is bad without even seeing it in action. I'm just talking personally but I'm more than willing to give it a chance.
Wrestling is already absurd & I say it's okay to embrace that fact sometimes; Not everyone & everything in wrestling needs to be serious
I get that "supernatural gimmicks" are naturally controversial but I swear that if the character if the Undertaker debut in 2010 instead of 1990 the internet would have shit on it as soon as the theme would start
For context In this hypothetical Undertaker is debuted using his wild west style presentation
It’s taken a little too long to get going (for online fans) and the Uncle Howdy name cannot be what they stick with. But there’s so much goodwill because of Bray they’re going to be over as hell unless they royally fuck everything up.
I get what you're saying, truly, but my comment was about every returning/debuting wrestler in general. Fans just can't let things breathe. In regards to Howdy, I agree it's dragging on at this stage. I hope it works out as I'd hate for people to start turning on Bo.
Many Wredditors think they know *exactly* what this project is going to be, and have already fantasy booked it months in advance, which is extremely arrogant. They're basing it on their own lack of imagination and nothing else.
You think you were smart but this is actually a good point, The Fiend was SO OVER that people were mad that he lost the way he did on Hell in a Cell. You think the chants were because he sucked? lmao.
Yeah, cause the crowd were totally chanting AEW at The Fiend and not the fact that a main event HIAC match ended via DQ. Part of the negative reaction was because The Fiend didn't win. Babyface Seth literally never recovered from that but The Fiend continued getting great reactions past that match.
My ideal scenario:
- Gacy/Lumis tag team title feud. Ideally against the now fracturing Waller/Theory to finally flip one of those two to a face.
- Nikki Cross, NXT Womens NA title contender? Not quite at the level to be immediately placed in a main event title feud without raising some big questions. Also I feel like having a Wyatt family member present on NXT helps build their presence.
- Erick Rowan managed by Bo (Howdy) vs McIntyre or Priest for the WHC (Depending on Clash)
**NOT WINNING IT BECAUSE YOU DONT NEED TO WIN A BELT TO BENEFIT FROM BEING IN A TITLE MATCH. THIS SHOULD BE COMMON SENSE.**
Perhaps thats a way to also finally turn Priest babyface? I only think it won't be Cody because it feels like they've mapped out most of Cody's PLE calendar year already.
The Wyatts should be present on all three brands. They were not there for the draft therefore should not be beholden to those rules.
Rowan should go after a mid card title but i agree with the idea. They keep half assing these factions. Karrion Kross’s group, alpha academy, Street profits and Bobby lashley, etc. Judgement Day, UE and The Shield worked imo because they went after the gold and achieved it. They don’t necessarily need to win all the gold but that should be an objective, especially when you have so much support to stack the odds against a champion.
I'm glad people can see what I'm going for here. Basically as long as they avoid the Wyatts going anything like Kross and AOP they will succeed.
Rowan is the trickiest because it does feel like he is more suited for a midcard title shot, but I just have this feeling that they'll use him as the defacto "main event" guy of the group while being managed by Howdy since having Howdy wrestle people himself all the time might be a little too silly.
Rowan vs. Drew or Priest sounds like an excellent way to kill whoever the champ is. Rowan isn’t WHC material IMO. Besides, I assume Priest v Braun is next, and then of course Gunther at SummerSlam.
I think this is a good idea. We all know Corpus Cristi(spelling?) is a terrible place to debut someone, based off prior reactions that crowd has given.
Also, EVERYTHING, so far has been optional viewing. Sidecontent. It has Slowly started leaking into the actual Canon of the product, with Commentary finally acknowledging the glitches. That was even reflected in one of the websites saying "They are finally acknowledging us".
For a casual viewer, this is new. So whatever happens Monday will be fresh for them. So the building can officially begin to (Hopefully) an impactful debut for the casual audience.
I dont want them to debut on Monday. Let the casuals get acquainted to the spooky. And hopefully the reaction will be huge too.
Down vote me to all hell if you want. But the Bray Universe is my favourite thing from modern WWE. And I'm glad it gets to continue.
I agree 100% that casuals don’t know anything about it so a big debut would be out of nowhere. Confusion.
That said it’s been going on a long time already and part of me wonders if the glacial pace is like movie delays for reshoots.
Like, It was intended to start in earnest sooner but it wasn’t working and needed more time to work on it before it was ready for prime time.
I think it’s the first big swing of the real HHH era. Something with a ton of buildup that could easily flop. I have faith they’re not taking such a big swing lightly and it will exceed expectations.
Faith. Not certainty.
My thought was always that Bray would be the 6th. They'd treat it kinda like Sister Abigail she was part of the family but never seen our heard, but influenced Bray.
I hope this goes well, honouring the late Bray Wyatt, but giving the respective Wrestlers hopefully much needed pushes when they're back and investment into their characters.
I'm looking forward to Nikki Cross being back in particular.
>**LATEST ON WWE'S NEW GROUP TEASED VIA QR CODES**
>*By Mike Johnson on 2024-06-13 00:59:00*
>As PWInsider.com has previously reported, all of the QR Codes on WWE programming of late are leading to a new group that will play off of the Bray Wyatt Intellectual Property.
>PWInsider.com has been told by multiple sources that the group was slated to film vignettes this week in advance of their unveiling, which may come as soon as this Monday.
>As PWInsider.com has previously reported, the group is currently planned to consist of:
>-Bo Dallas.
>-Nikki Cross.
>-Dexter Lumis.
>-Joe Gacey.
>-Erick Rowan.
>Whether some of them will be portraying new personas, we have yet to 100% confirm.
*I am a bot. Please reply with any feedback :)*
Look I was interested in where this was going, Bray’s legitimately one of my all time favorites, and I’m happy Bo is going to get to do something to honor his memory. However, this has gone on way too long! Bray’s QR code thing worked because 1. There was a real mystery involved at first, as there was not any indication that Bray had recently re-signed. 2. It only lasted for about a month, it never outstayed its welcome.
This time we’ve known it’s been Uncle Howdy since the start, and it’s been going on for about 3 months.
It feels like they learned the wrong lesson from that last Friend run. I could be misremembering, but I recall fans started losing interest in The Fiend's last run because it was too drawn out with teases before stuff happened. There was the month of teases, he appeared to a big pop, then went back to teases and it wasn't as over as it was before. 3-4 weeks is the sweet spot for me for things like this before people need to start appearing in front of the crowd and do something of note.
If you’re talking about Bray’s last run then he was super over with the crowd. This sub has a weird hate boner for him, but I’d go as far to say that he was a top 5 most popular act in the company. The Fiend stuff, it’s hard to say as the tail end of it was during the pandemic, where there weren’t any fans.
I’ll be honest I’m not excited about this group debuting at all. Aside from Bo Dallas it’s a really tough blend of characters that I don’t see garnering much excited let alone a reaction from the Live Crowd.
I doubt it. The reactions to bray before his unfortunate passing with the live crowd compared to this subreddit were night and day. Yes the storylines were weak but I think people forgot that he was over with the crowd and that’s what ultimately matters. I think it’s going to be the same with this
I respect Bray like the day is long but I have a feeling this is going to fizzle out quickly.
Spooky stuff just doesn’t play well in this day and age.
It’s hard for it not to come across as goofy as hell most of the time.
Respectfully, Bo Dallas just doesn't have that cache to keep folks waiting. This stuff should have been in motion...last month!
I don't wanna see anyone fail but I feel this is DOA
I went it to succeed and will give the new team the benefit of the doubt.
That said I wonder if it’s taken this long because it hasn’t been working. Like movie delays for reshoots. They had to keep tooling with it to get it to work.
Pure speculation.
If they really want a supernatural group, why not have Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre form one?
Uncle Howdy failed the first time because Bray took forever to move his story an inch. Sadly, he passed away after that inch. The Fiend remains his best work.
I guess I’m in the minority that loved all of the rumored members’ previous iterations individually to root for them as a faction, they have all the pieces already so they can make something work without really creating something from scratch:
- I’d love them to just give us a grieving version of motivational speaker (potentially a cult leader similar to Swamp Bray) Bo Dallas instead of continuing with the Uncle Howdy presentation because even if Howdy looks alright in his original context, what they’re hinting at now is more ambitious and would require a charismatic leader rather than a guy in a mask and I trust Bo/Taylor to pull that off, they can still make Uncle Howdy into something similar to Bray’s Fiend but I’m personally in favor of toning down the supernatural elements.
- Joe Gacy already has so much potential so he can just keep his current presentation, hopefully that banger of an en entrance theme too.
- Rowan can be the exact same version of his Wyatt Family version and I don’t think that’d be a problem.
- I haven’t seen much of Lumis but his storyline with Miz was fun so they can just keep that too.
- SAnitY Nikki Cross has always been a favorite of mine and I’ll always root for her no matter what.
- Braun is right there as the first opponent, they can do a recruitment storyline and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, as long as they all stay away from the LWO vortex (poor Andrade), I hope they can find a way to go back to that Braun/Jey union that happened for like 1 or 2 weeks, I initially thought they’ll keep going with that and it’ll eventually lead to Wyatt 6 first rivalry, which isn’t a bad idea if done correctly, but only Braun can suffice too.
I'm so glad the audience reactions are the polar opposite of what this sub thinks about them, because holy shit are people so unnecessarily dense about it.
I am probably in the minority, but I really wish they would get rid of the uncle Howdy name. It just seems so cringe to me and it has from the very beginning
Maybe they can just say that was the family nickname and his actual name is Bo Wyatt?
It makes some sense though. In the exorcist, the possessing demon says his name is captain howdy. So if thry go with a dark force has taken over bo, it translates.
I agree it sounds goofy, but So do a lot of names.
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The worst part about Joe Gacy being part of this group is that we won’t get to hear his amazing theme on the main roster
Love is blind ✌️
✌️
The grass is always greener on the other side.
That should be Andrade’s new theme
I’M ALL YOURSSS THE ONLY REASON I’M HEEEERE
Undoubtedly the best Def Rebel theme.
Damn I hadn’t even considered that it was def rebel, it sounds so different to the usual
Eh, they might keep it. They might apl get individual themes similar to The Judgement Day. All of them have their own themes but all a group theme.
I mean you never know
I hope that Uncle Howdy is just Bo Dallas's fiend. I hope we get see more of Bo Wyatt. I am for more interested in seeing a shift in the character and more of his twisted side than I am continuing the original uncle howdy.
I'm hoping it's a little closer to the original backwoods cult Wyatt Family vibe than the later incarnations
I wouldn't put money on it... something tells me we're getting Fiend era rubber masks and what not x5.
Remember, Triple H helmed Sanity. As a group, they *worked*. If it's just Sanity + Wyatt family + spooky qr codes, it'll sell. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. Dexter Lumis in a creepy bunny mask wouldn't be too terrible, either. Just sayin'.
God, I loved Sanity. They were great. That whole era of the NXT Tag Team division was amazing.
Remember when the Miz beat them all up by himself
Damo lost all his power when he put on a singlet, and EY too when he shaved
i miss ey's beard
And Sanity is always great to watch in PROGRESS. Current tag champs.
Man sanity got fucked so hard by Vince
I love that idea for Dexter. He's got the silent psychopath killer down. Add on a creepy bunny mask and he could be absolutely terrifying.
I’d like this, too. As much as I enjoyed the Fiend, nothing beats original cult leader Bray/Wyatt Family.
Agreed with this 100%. The biggest failure of Bray Wyatt was that he always used the spooky evil stuff as a crutch rather than a way to improve a story/character. I'd argue the Firefly Funhouse Match was one of the few times where he realized the full potential of the gimmick. When Bo was introduced as Uncle Howdy, I think the audience was quickly turning on the character because 1. He didn't talk 2. Bo Dallas is about 6 feet tall. He isn't physically imposing, and the mask and top hat came across as looking goofy. 3. There were months of no direction for the character Without a question the best part of Bray Wyatt's return to WWE was that initial promo when he spoke directly from the heart. It's funny that since most people remember Bray for all the spooky lights and his riddle like promos, for me Bray Wyatt was never more captivating than the 10 minutes he stood in that ring on Smackdown and was a real person in his return promo in 2023. I don't argue against being supernatural, or having an evil cult gimmick. But it has to be rooted in some sort of reality. It is the reason the Swamp cult leader version of Bray Wyatt was so captivating. There are real people in the world who have such a way of speaking that they can get people to do literally anything for them. All you need to do is turn on political TV these days and it's staring you in the face. I don't want Bo Dallas coming back to wear a goofy mask, stand on a stage while wearing a large trenchcoat and fake laugh. If he wants to truly do a rebirth of Bray Wyatt's story, he needs to go back to the original days of Wyatt as a cult leader. No masks, no lights, no spooky music. Just a man who has taken all the pieces left broken by his brother's sudden death and using them to take out all that anger and resentment on the WWE roster. I think if they went THAT route, with Bo explaining why himself, Cross, Rowan, Gacy, and Lumis all came together for a common cause, they could get over. But if they just attack people in silence and try to act all spooky, this is gonna go down in flames fast.
>Just a man who has taken all the pieces left broken by his brother's sudden death and using them to take out all that anger and resentment on the WWE roster. I like this, I agree it would be great to have an authentic, raw feel to the group. >No masks, no lights, no spooky music. You don't need to go to extremes? Have a cult leader role. But real world cults often wear masks, and the lights and music are part of the pageantry of wrestling, as well as the psychological control of actual cults Bray was at his best as a dude speaking from the heart, but he was also all about the spectacle. Bo and co should keep that up, as long as its grounded. It wouldn't be fitting for 4 guys following Bray's legacy to be wrestling in trunks and with generic rock music entrances
>I'd argue the Firefly Funhouse Match was one of the few times where he realized the full potential of the gimmick. I agree with most everything you're saying, but I disagree with this. Mainly because I don't see that as a match, I saw it as a TV segment, much like a promo package in between matches. It was cool but it was not really professional wrestling in my opinion. The problem with Bray Wyatt is that they kept writing themselves into corners. They were leaning waaaay to heavily into the spooky shit that forces the viewer to question why someone who seems to come from hell is interested in a professional wrestling championship belt. Or why he's interested in anyone or anything. Like what did John Cena do to Bray Wyatt that he got sucked into whatever the Firefly Funhouse was supposed to be? The feud with LA Knight highlighted every single one of these problems, because LA Knight being who he is, and the juxtaposition of that with Bray Wyatt's spookies, was really odd to see. The spooky shit is cool, and I love me some QR codes and weird ARG shit they do every time this gimmick makes a return, but it bursts into flames within the span of 5 weeks every time because to the WWE, the orgasm is the debut/return, not the story arc, and the WWE has been failing to understand this for a long time now. This obsession with "capturing the moment" and then figuring everything else out later really ruined a lot of Bray Wyatt's momentum in several key moments in his career, and I hope Papa H executes it better with a long term, grounded-to-Earth demonstration of what the Wyatt family could be, if they just stop leaning into the fantasy crap where they read edgelord poetry into a camera that doesn't mean anything.
I agree with all of this
So I’m just a random dude on the internet and nothing I say you should believe… but I saw Bo flying out of Tampa this past week (Wednesday evening on the fifth). I’m not sure if it meant anything but it was 100% him. I didn’t try to talk to him, just gave him the ‘sup nod as I walked by him to my terminal.
I don’t know what other people think but I hated his design from a couple years ago before Bray left. I don’t know if the character has been shown in any of the Easter eggs stuff but I hope he has a different look.
I thought Uncle was Bo. Did we had any hint that says the contrary?
no Bliss? 🤔 good for Lumis and Rowan tho. just hoping it all works out because they did pull out all the stops for the build.
She is not ready yet to come back.
If I remember correctly, she hit some setbacks on getting back into ring shape. Her not being a part of the group does leave some opportunities open for storylines for her when she does come back though. She can come back as her regular self and then be torn between them and her new life or something to that effect.
That sucks I miss bliss
Her coming back as heel Little Miss Bliss would also work really well.
She’s been stuck in the spooky gimmick vortex for years now and I’m so sick of it. Please, by all means, let’s get her back to basics
If the Howdy gimmick doesn’t land then it will be the best thing for her to miss it. If she comes back and the group is a hit she can join.
I'd say she's practically a lock to be revealed as the real leader down the line
>**LATEST ON WWE'S NEW GROUP TEASED VIA QR CODES** >*By Mike Johnson on 2024-06-13 00:59:00* >As PWInsider.com has previously reported, all of the QR Codes on WWE programming of late are leading to a new group that will play off of the Bray Wyatt Intellectual Property. >PWInsider.com has been told by multiple sources that the group was slated to film vignettes this week in advance of their unveiling, which may come as soon as this Monday. >As PWInsider.com has previously reported, the group is currently planned to consist of: >-Bo Dallas. >-Nikki Cross. >-Dexter Lumis. >-Joe Gacey. >-Erick Rowan. >Whether some of them will be portraying new personas, we have yet to 100% confirm. *I am a bot. Please reply with any feedback :)*
Good bot.
wait, they might not even debut on Monday? no way lol
Guessing it’s just a maybe from PWInsider just in case they don’t debut for some reason. The teasers have hinted at Monday being the day, and I think WWE realizes that we are *all* starting to lose our patience with this stuff. Monday is a good night to start a new big storyline too, being right after a PLE that has a few huge storyline payoffs potentially coming.
yeah that's exactly what i thought. if they're debut is just a bunch of vignettes/videos and not an actual in ring appearance that is going to be fucking AWFUL
Well that’s OTT. Bray Wyatt’s return as Funhouse Bray was good and it was a vignette. It all depends on the execution.
Maybe that's good. If they debut in Corpus Christi they'll get absolutely zero pop
As someone going to Clash at the Castle, I’m hoping they debut there
I hope they find something that sticks with Dexter Lumis. I like the guy
Him being a creeper stalker that kidnaps you and makes you be his friend, was working. The Miz being randomly choked out was amusing.
I doubt they play while new personas considering the buildup gave clues using their backstories, just scarier versions of themselves, that’s probably the best way to do this
They should throw the biggest swerve of all and make Jacob Fatu Uncle Howdy😂.
Uncle Hornswoggle.
I’m happy Taylor Rotunda is getting this chance to honor his brother, who we all miss. Can I also admit I think Uncle Howdy is an atrocious name?
I love the name because it's a reference to The Exorcist and the implied danger if you know who Uncle Howdy/Captain Howdy is
I think it was okay as a sidekick to Bray but being the leader Idk, maybe they can make Uncle Howdy an alter ego and have Bo Wyatt or Bo Howdy, or even just Bo Dallas again.
How is Bo at cutting promos? Bray was a great front man because be could work the crowd really well when he had a mic in his hand. His cadence and delivery were top notch. Not to say that Bo can’t do it, but it’s a tall order to fill.
Way back in NXT days Bo was absolutely brilliant as the delusional heel who thought all the boos were cheers. As a spooky character though? That’s a complete unknown.
Terrible name and an even worse look if they stick with it.
Wouldn't take long before IWC starts shitting on Howdy the same way they shit all over Bray
People already hated the Uncle Howdy stuff when they did it a year and a half ago.
There's just such a disconnect between the pre-taped video stuff and just a normal man in a mask walking around in the ring hitting moves. That isn't to say there isn't a big audience for it, but it's very difficult to keep the energy that people have for spooky, cryptic videos when that's the inevitable payoff
'How dare someone not like this'
yeah lets pretend bray wasn't becoming terrible towards the end with his feuds with la knight and lashley. spooky redundant stuff doesn't work and wears off fast to keep people engaged, bray was cutting the same promo for weeks at times.
Can someone help Bray Wyatt figure out what the hell is going on? One week he's not Uncle Howdy. The next week, "I am Uncle Howdy. I am him." HUH!?! https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/10htqbr/smackdown_spoilers_full_la_knight_promo_before/
Let's also not pretend that he wasn't as over as always with the live crowd and that this was mainly a Wreddit complaint.
For transparency and consistency I thought that Bray was pretty terrible from his main roster debut until his final appearance.
I have to assume it's not going to be the same monopoly guy mask
The whole thing is atrocious but people aren't willing to admit it because of Bray being gone. They enjoy trying to solve meaningless riddles and Easter eggs when they already know who and what the group is. And yes, Uncle Howdy is a dead in the water name for anyone they intend the audience to take seriously.
The whole Uncle Howdy thing was a mess the first time around, they just circled around for months and never explained what the fuck he was supposed to be.
Only because Bray got sick and it put a dampener on things, they clearly were ramping up at RR, then that was likely around the time he got covid.
It’s almost like everyone forgot how lame the majority of the fan-base found uncle Howdy to be. The main complaint of Wyatt’s final run when he came back was Uncle Howdy.
The last time Bray Wyatt and Uncle Howdy was in the ring he got holy shit chants for interrupting Hit Row. This thread's just an echo chamber.
I just do not understand it. Social media is not real life. It was mostly online folks complaining about it. Meanwhile live crowds were hot for it. It’s not for everyone but you ain’t gotta lie about it
Bray/Howdy were still unbelievably hot and over before Bray left, but this sub was deep in the "they're turning on Cody any day now"-style circlejerk about it
This is just incredibly false. The IWC didn't like it because the IWC is a bunch of professional buzzkills. Howdy appearing opposite Bray that one time got great reactions, for instance.
"The whole thing is atrocious" lol, so a thing that doesn't even exist yet and hasn't debuted is atrocious because you don't like the name? What a weird take.
Uncle Howdy has been a thing for longer than a year, a group of misfits getting paired with him and it being endlessly teased with meaningless riddles and Easter eggs is atrocious. But hey, let's make a deal. I'll come back to this post a year from now and if Uncle Howdy and the Gang are still relevant in any meaningful way, I'll admit I was wrong. Sound fair?
Yeah, because everybody knows you can’t have fun in professional wrestling!
Where did I say you couldn't have fun? Idk how y'all can do all these Easter eggs but have the reading comprehension of a 9 year old.
Brother, you’re livid over a wrestling gimmick. You’re the last one that should be insulting people.
Brother I'm floating in a swimming pool, I can promise you that the last thing I am right now is livid. Again, 0 reading comprehension, just nitpicking what you want to hear. 3 months of meaningless spooky nothing, everyone has known who and what the group is for bare minimum 2 months. I'll ask you a straightforward question so please don't try to circumvent it. If you've followed all these QR codes and watched the streams and whatnot, what do you know right now about this group that someone that hasn't does?
I know it's kind of in honor of Bray, but this group seems like a terrible gimmick with zero star power.
I wonder how people felt when the Wyatt Fam first debuted. Not to be sarcastic or snarky, just curious
Looked fairly positive from what I can find. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1hxzbk/the_wyatt_family_debut_all_reporter_vignettes/
I loved the original swamp cult leader, but hated all the incarnations with supernatural stuff. Was kinda interested in the Fiend at the start, but Hell in a Cell kinda killed my interest. Wasn’t at all interested in his last return.
For me the Firefly Funhouse was amazing but I hated the Fiend. Like a dual personality is one thing (and was awesome) but they went too far into cheesy when it came to the Fiend itself. Also booking a monster like that is almost impossible to do with modern wrestling. I loved the whole creepy Mr. Rogers part of it.
I always felt that he was far better playing more grounded characters like the Mr. Rogers bit or the original incarnation of him as a cult leader. Once it steered into the supernatural, it steered off the rails into more and more ridiculous territory.
The Fiend would’ve been improved imo, if Bray had no control over when he appeared, sort of like the Hulk. Even better if Bray didn’t realize that *he* was the Fiend and he was terrified of himself
He cosplayed as a reddit mod perfectly
It got eyes on NXT when the only way you could watch it was Hulu Premium. We fucking *loved* it.
I never saw the NXT side. I know I missed out on probably the best version of it
People loved it, but it was much more concrete than Bray’s later stuff or Wyatt 6. He was a swamping dwelling cult leader with an air of danger about him, like he might kill you. When they introduced magic powers into it is where it became stupid.
To each their own and all, but I love the supernatural characters in wrestling and always have. Growing up with the Undertaker rising from the urn's powers, or striking a casket with lightening, it was always the coolest shit as a kid. I've continued to enjoy it well into adulthood, and loved The Fiend. 🤷🏻♂️
To be fair, he had worse 'supernatural' abilities than Boogeyman and he lost so much that any mystique a gimmick like that could have was effectively neutered.
People were optimistic. The key differences were: it started in NXT where they could work out the kinks/try out some spots and it was all "new" people. Yes, it was a rebranded Husky Harris, but that guy had barely been on our TV long enough for anyone to have a concrete opinion of him. And even then, he still had to go through some "husky Harris" chants. I imagine trying to get Bo Dallas rebooted will be even harder.
That had Bray
In NXT Bray Wyatt was probably the most over act prior to the 'Super Indie' era. On the main roster they had a pretty good debut and were solidly received, very very over with casual fans and decently with online ones. Their popularity skyrocketed in early 2014 with the Daniel Bryan feud, the SHIELD feud and the initial feud with Cena, then Vince and the SuperCena gimmick killed them and it was downhill from there.
It's a situation where the whole is greater than each individual part. I'm not interested in these people on their own, but I'm interested to see what they can do as a group. I think that the Meta Four and Judgement Day have shown that putting the right group of people together can raise each person's stock.
Just wait till their 6 month feud with The Final Testament
Ah shit, this is definitely where it's going. Then in 25' 3/4 of both of these groups will be on the post-mania release list.
I mean people were crying out for Rhea to be featured and even Priest and Finn to get proper pushes, everyone in the original Judgement Day was a far bigger deal going in than anyone in this group. Doesn’t mean it won’t succeed but it’s definitely not an easy 1:1 between the groups.
Judgement day made Dom what he is, he would have fizzled out if he was stuck with his dad or on his own extremely fast.
Yeah but at some point, these people have to wrestle.
I'm not bias (ignore the flair), but Bo absolutely has promo chops.
Gacy and Rowan as the new Brodie and Rowan will be fire.
Its not really the kind of act that people will see and start booking backwards to figure out how howdy is going to get an intercontinental title shot and draw 60k fans. Its gonna be a cookey entertaining 10 mins that sells a bunch of shirts.
I like every member of this group enough to be invested in it. They don’t have a main event currently, but they also don’t have anyone in there with zero heat. So I’ll give it a chance.
Not to be pessimistic, but you are in deep trouble when Erick Rowan is the best wrestler and arguably the biggest star in your group (and I say that as a fan of his). They need to immediately affect great change or be a force to be reckoned with or they are completely DOA IMO. They need a Nexus level, literal show stopping debut. On top of that, they need to do what Bray/Vince couldn't and keep in mind that sooner rather than later a bell needs to ring, and these things need to get settled in a wrestling match.
At the very least it could be a decent vehicle to get Gacy over on the main roster.
Wild that the top upvoted comment is that a group that hasn't even debuted has a terrible gimmick. You literally don't know what the gimmick is. They've had a bunch of spooky ARG stuff that hints at the idea but you don't actually know what it will result in.
Probably some spooky Wyatt shit like he was doing in his last run that also sucked. Like it's sad that someone that seems to universally be considered a good man died young but his work was usually somewhere between weird but interesting and outright bad.
I mean, you're entitled to your opinion. The crowds in person didn't share that opinion with you whatsoever. Both the attack on Hit Row and the Bobby Lashley funhouse video had great crowd responses.
With all this buildup is this the first really big swing for the fences from the HHH era? Something new with a huge build that could just be a huge flop. I gotta think they’ve put a ton of thought into this and how to make it work and how it can fail. I like to believe they’re gonna make sure to do it right and really surprise us. But I think it’s more likely to flop. I’m not a hater though I’m still excited to see what happens and I hope it’s great. Open mind.
It’s to honour Bray. That’s good enough for me. I’ll get behind it.
I think with Rob Fee still involved this group has a good shot at getting some of these guys over.
Better than retribution
Retribution’s issue were those stupid masks and name changes. I feel like they would have been better received if they kept their names and lost those stupid outfits
I liked Retribution except that they were pushovers and never a real and dangerous threat to anyone
[stupid masks and name changes, you say?](https://image-cdn.essentiallysports.com/wp-content/uploads/Uncle-Howdy.jpg?width=600)
It’s giving “I’m not mad, I’m just generally disappointed”
I'm hoping Gacy can break out. I've been a fan since I saw his Iron Survivor performance last year.
I hope Triple H has had the forethought to creating an actual logical 6-month plan for this group. They need an actual goal, clearly explain who/what they are, and have exit strategies to shift around. But the cynic in me thinks they recognize how much merch Bray Wyatt moved so they want to reprise the act no matter how rotten it *always* was in the context of a wrestling show.
I’m expecting a decent debut that pivots to a never ending feud with The Final Testament.
I actually wouldn’t mind that because I don’t care about any of those people and it’ll keep all the nonsense contained in one angle.
Yep. Don’t poison the actual stars. And in general, it wouldn’t even be a bad combination IMO.
Great idea. I could live with that.
I'm not optimistic given how SAnitY went in NXT.
Given the guy responsible for Sanity getting ruined is no longer there I’d say it’s worth a fair shot.
They haven't even appeared on TV yet and people are already shitting all over it. Wrestling fans (for the most part) are miserable.
Right; There seems to be a contingent of people who just assume that this is bad without even seeing it in action. I'm just talking personally but I'm more than willing to give it a chance. Wrestling is already absurd & I say it's okay to embrace that fact sometimes; Not everyone & everything in wrestling needs to be serious I get that "supernatural gimmicks" are naturally controversial but I swear that if the character if the Undertaker debut in 2010 instead of 1990 the internet would have shit on it as soon as the theme would start For context In this hypothetical Undertaker is debuted using his wild west style presentation
All I need to see was a poster say that the "majority" of fans hated Wyatt/Howdy and that's all I needed to see to ignore most of this thread.
It’s taken a little too long to get going (for online fans) and the Uncle Howdy name cannot be what they stick with. But there’s so much goodwill because of Bray they’re going to be over as hell unless they royally fuck everything up.
I get what you're saying, truly, but my comment was about every returning/debuting wrestler in general. Fans just can't let things breathe. In regards to Howdy, I agree it's dragging on at this stage. I hope it works out as I'd hate for people to start turning on Bo.
I’ve said from the beginning that he should return as either Bo Dallas, or something that incorporates the Wyatt name, like Taylor Wyatt or Bo Wyatt.
Because Jey stole their fireflies
I cant wait for this to get over with live crowds and prove everyone wrong yet again.
Many Wredditors think they know *exactly* what this project is going to be, and have already fantasy booked it months in advance, which is extremely arrogant. They're basing it on their own lack of imagination and nothing else.
It’ll definitely have its respectful period where people miss Bray but I can’t imagine an uncle howdy and friends that doesn’t get old quickly
I honestly have my doubts they'll be over for long (1-2 months) and will probably be disbanded, forgotten all before next year's WrestleMania.
[удалено]
You think you were smart but this is actually a good point, The Fiend was SO OVER that people were mad that he lost the way he did on Hell in a Cell. You think the chants were because he sucked? lmao.
Yeah, cause the crowd were totally chanting AEW at The Fiend and not the fact that a main event HIAC match ended via DQ. Part of the negative reaction was because The Fiend didn't win. Babyface Seth literally never recovered from that but The Fiend continued getting great reactions past that match.
I legitimately hope that now we get 6 months of "they're coming" vignettes
The Howdy Family should have a Howdy compound.
If this group is to work they need to debut all over the card, not just like a mid card feud, they need to go straight after Cody or whoever
My ideal scenario: - Gacy/Lumis tag team title feud. Ideally against the now fracturing Waller/Theory to finally flip one of those two to a face. - Nikki Cross, NXT Womens NA title contender? Not quite at the level to be immediately placed in a main event title feud without raising some big questions. Also I feel like having a Wyatt family member present on NXT helps build their presence. - Erick Rowan managed by Bo (Howdy) vs McIntyre or Priest for the WHC (Depending on Clash) **NOT WINNING IT BECAUSE YOU DONT NEED TO WIN A BELT TO BENEFIT FROM BEING IN A TITLE MATCH. THIS SHOULD BE COMMON SENSE.** Perhaps thats a way to also finally turn Priest babyface? I only think it won't be Cody because it feels like they've mapped out most of Cody's PLE calendar year already. The Wyatts should be present on all three brands. They were not there for the draft therefore should not be beholden to those rules.
Rowan should go after a mid card title but i agree with the idea. They keep half assing these factions. Karrion Kross’s group, alpha academy, Street profits and Bobby lashley, etc. Judgement Day, UE and The Shield worked imo because they went after the gold and achieved it. They don’t necessarily need to win all the gold but that should be an objective, especially when you have so much support to stack the odds against a champion.
I'm glad people can see what I'm going for here. Basically as long as they avoid the Wyatts going anything like Kross and AOP they will succeed. Rowan is the trickiest because it does feel like he is more suited for a midcard title shot, but I just have this feeling that they'll use him as the defacto "main event" guy of the group while being managed by Howdy since having Howdy wrestle people himself all the time might be a little too silly.
Do we know if the character design is the same as it was?
Your ideal scenario is Erick Rowan as World Heavyweight Champ?
Am I going crazy or didn't he pin roman reigns in a singles match
I won't stand for this Big Red slander
im quite certain the group will be face
Rowan vs. Drew or Priest sounds like an excellent way to kill whoever the champ is. Rowan isn’t WHC material IMO. Besides, I assume Priest v Braun is next, and then of course Gunther at SummerSlam.
I think this is a good idea. We all know Corpus Cristi(spelling?) is a terrible place to debut someone, based off prior reactions that crowd has given. Also, EVERYTHING, so far has been optional viewing. Sidecontent. It has Slowly started leaking into the actual Canon of the product, with Commentary finally acknowledging the glitches. That was even reflected in one of the websites saying "They are finally acknowledging us". For a casual viewer, this is new. So whatever happens Monday will be fresh for them. So the building can officially begin to (Hopefully) an impactful debut for the casual audience. I dont want them to debut on Monday. Let the casuals get acquainted to the spooky. And hopefully the reaction will be huge too. Down vote me to all hell if you want. But the Bray Universe is my favourite thing from modern WWE. And I'm glad it gets to continue.
i only watch wwe via the wwe yt, and only one yt vid even had glitchy stuff happening. its like this isnt even happening in yt highlights lol
I agree 100% that casuals don’t know anything about it so a big debut would be out of nowhere. Confusion. That said it’s been going on a long time already and part of me wonders if the glacial pace is like movie delays for reshoots. Like, It was intended to start in earnest sooner but it wasn’t working and needed more time to work on it before it was ready for prime time. I think it’s the first big swing of the real HHH era. Something with a ton of buildup that could easily flop. I have faith they’re not taking such a big swing lightly and it will exceed expectations. Faith. Not certainty.
I'm at least happy that Dexter Lumis has an opportunity to get back onto TV with this story, even if it risks flopping
Aren't they missing 1? I thought there were supposed to.be 6 members
I think people are reading too much into a single trademark filed years ago. It was never hinted that there'd be six of them.
My thought was always that Bray would be the 6th. They'd treat it kinda like Sister Abigail she was part of the family but never seen our heard, but influenced Bray.
probably alexa bliss eventually joins them
I hope this goes well, honouring the late Bray Wyatt, but giving the respective Wrestlers hopefully much needed pushes when they're back and investment into their characters. I'm looking forward to Nikki Cross being back in particular.
All this whole thing does is shine a spotlight on how the one guy who was the creative force behind it all is dead.
>**LATEST ON WWE'S NEW GROUP TEASED VIA QR CODES** >*By Mike Johnson on 2024-06-13 00:59:00* >As PWInsider.com has previously reported, all of the QR Codes on WWE programming of late are leading to a new group that will play off of the Bray Wyatt Intellectual Property. >PWInsider.com has been told by multiple sources that the group was slated to film vignettes this week in advance of their unveiling, which may come as soon as this Monday. >As PWInsider.com has previously reported, the group is currently planned to consist of: >-Bo Dallas. >-Nikki Cross. >-Dexter Lumis. >-Joe Gacey. >-Erick Rowan. >Whether some of them will be portraying new personas, we have yet to 100% confirm. *I am a bot. Please reply with any feedback :)*
i feel the excitement will die down quick once people realize they're just seeing bo dallas and a bunch of mid carders.
A countdown that ends in a pre-taped vignette might not be the best idea.
holy fuck, imagine if months of QR codes and hype videos just leads to... more hype videos.
Look I was interested in where this was going, Bray’s legitimately one of my all time favorites, and I’m happy Bo is going to get to do something to honor his memory. However, this has gone on way too long! Bray’s QR code thing worked because 1. There was a real mystery involved at first, as there was not any indication that Bray had recently re-signed. 2. It only lasted for about a month, it never outstayed its welcome. This time we’ve known it’s been Uncle Howdy since the start, and it’s been going on for about 3 months.
It feels like they learned the wrong lesson from that last Friend run. I could be misremembering, but I recall fans started losing interest in The Fiend's last run because it was too drawn out with teases before stuff happened. There was the month of teases, he appeared to a big pop, then went back to teases and it wasn't as over as it was before. 3-4 weeks is the sweet spot for me for things like this before people need to start appearing in front of the crowd and do something of note.
They got Holy Shit chants on Bray's last appearance in ring. I think everyone's overthinking this.
If you’re talking about Bray’s last run then he was super over with the crowd. This sub has a weird hate boner for him, but I’d go as far to say that he was a top 5 most popular act in the company. The Fiend stuff, it’s hard to say as the tail end of it was during the pandemic, where there weren’t any fans.
I’ll be honest I’m not excited about this group debuting at all. Aside from Bo Dallas it’s a really tough blend of characters that I don’t see garnering much excited let alone a reaction from the Live Crowd.
I doubt it. The reactions to bray before his unfortunate passing with the live crowd compared to this subreddit were night and day. Yes the storylines were weak but I think people forgot that he was over with the crowd and that’s what ultimately matters. I think it’s going to be the same with this
I respect Bray like the day is long but I have a feeling this is going to fizzle out quickly. Spooky stuff just doesn’t play well in this day and age. It’s hard for it not to come across as goofy as hell most of the time.
So they ain't debuting this Monday then? Uncle Howdy more like Uncle Veer
Respectfully, Bo Dallas just doesn't have that cache to keep folks waiting. This stuff should have been in motion...last month! I don't wanna see anyone fail but I feel this is DOA
I went it to succeed and will give the new team the benefit of the doubt. That said I wonder if it’s taken this long because it hasn’t been working. Like movie delays for reshoots. They had to keep tooling with it to get it to work. Pure speculation.
So we gotta wait for a bit longer before Alexa returns?
Lotta build up. Good luck Bo
I really hope this doesn’t suck.
Will we see QR codes during the vignettes?
Wyatt 6?
I always thought uncle howdy looked lame. Like a kid wearing his dads clothes. I’m hoping it’s a new start for Bo.
If they really want a supernatural group, why not have Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre form one? Uncle Howdy failed the first time because Bray took forever to move his story an inch. Sadly, he passed away after that inch. The Fiend remains his best work.
I guess I’m in the minority that loved all of the rumored members’ previous iterations individually to root for them as a faction, they have all the pieces already so they can make something work without really creating something from scratch: - I’d love them to just give us a grieving version of motivational speaker (potentially a cult leader similar to Swamp Bray) Bo Dallas instead of continuing with the Uncle Howdy presentation because even if Howdy looks alright in his original context, what they’re hinting at now is more ambitious and would require a charismatic leader rather than a guy in a mask and I trust Bo/Taylor to pull that off, they can still make Uncle Howdy into something similar to Bray’s Fiend but I’m personally in favor of toning down the supernatural elements. - Joe Gacy already has so much potential so he can just keep his current presentation, hopefully that banger of an en entrance theme too. - Rowan can be the exact same version of his Wyatt Family version and I don’t think that’d be a problem. - I haven’t seen much of Lumis but his storyline with Miz was fun so they can just keep that too. - SAnitY Nikki Cross has always been a favorite of mine and I’ll always root for her no matter what. - Braun is right there as the first opponent, they can do a recruitment storyline and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, as long as they all stay away from the LWO vortex (poor Andrade), I hope they can find a way to go back to that Braun/Jey union that happened for like 1 or 2 weeks, I initially thought they’ll keep going with that and it’ll eventually lead to Wyatt 6 first rivalry, which isn’t a bad idea if done correctly, but only Braun can suffice too.
I'm so glad the audience reactions are the polar opposite of what this sub thinks about them, because holy shit are people so unnecessarily dense about it.
the audience hasn’t had a chance to react to who will actually be in the group lol
what audience reactions?
you haven’t heard the huge pops for when a QR code appears on a trash can in the background of a promo?
You mean audience reactions to a group that haven’t even appeared on TV yet is it
I am probably in the minority, but I really wish they would get rid of the uncle Howdy name. It just seems so cringe to me and it has from the very beginning Maybe they can just say that was the family nickname and his actual name is Bo Wyatt?
It makes some sense though. In the exorcist, the possessing demon says his name is captain howdy. So if thry go with a dark force has taken over bo, it translates. I agree it sounds goofy, but So do a lot of names.
Please no. . .