It’s been one of the more odd, mysterious, yet tantalizing storylines in the WWE for some time. The unfolding tension and drama surrounding the rise and seeming fall of the Wyatt Family. And the next brutal chapter unfolds this Sunday as two “brothers”, the Viper Randy Orton and the Enforcer Luke Harper, fight for the honor of the Family’s mentor and guiding light, Bray Wyatt.
Back in October of last year, following weeks of mind games and torture at the hands of the Wyatt Family, WWE’s Apex Predator Randy Orton, a 12-time WWE World Champion, seemingly succumbed to the abuse and joined his captors. During a match between Kane and Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton came down to the ring to seemingly aid his partner in the war against the Wyatts, The Big Red Machine. The crowd was excited to hear his music as Kane was being doubled teamed by Wyatt and his henchman, Luke Harper. But instead of evening the odds, Orton landed an RKO on Kane, turning to swear his allegiance to Bray and the Family. “If you can’t beat them,” Orton later said. “Join them.”
For weeks, fans waited for the ruse. Surely Orton wouldn’t just turn his back on everything and follow such a mad man as Bray Wyatt? After all, Orton clearly didn’t need the help. In his 14-year career, Orton was one of the WWE’s most decorated warriors. Apart from his aforementioned 14 World title reigns, he also held Intercontinental and World Tag Team gold. The Wyatt Family themselves had yet to wear any sort of WWE title in their five year existence (although Bray and Harper did hold the NXT Tag Team titles, and Luke Harper did win himself the Intercontinental Championship during his first departure from the Family). But Orton didn’t seem to be in the Family against his will. In fact, he seemed to relish in it. With his veteran abilities and Bray’s mind, the Wyatt Family finally won WWE gold, when Orton and Wyatt won the Smackdown Tag Team titles in early December. And that’s when the trouble started.
Since Bray Wyatt first created his Family back in NXT in 2012, Luke Harper had always been Wyatt’s right hand man, his confidante, his Enforcer – the hulking bearded Arn Anderson to the insane depravity of Wyatt’s Ric Flair. But as the Wyatt Family began to gain new found momentum with Orton in the fold, Wyatt began to lean more heavily on Randy Orton than Luke Harper. And Harper began to take exception to it. While Bray seemed to welcome Orton into the Family unconditionally and unequivocally, Harper watched the Viper with distrust, disdain and disgust. And that tension never subsided. In fact it grew more and more.
Harper’s distrust began to poison the chemistry of the Family, with miscommunication after miscommunication costing the Wyatts matches and ultimately the very titles they’d finally won. Tensions boiled over and soon Harper and Orton were scuffling as much with each other as they did their common enemies. Both men continued to lay their allegiance to the Family’s head, Bray Wyatt, but neither wanted to share that love either. For Orton, it seemed like he was holding that love over Harper’s head, while Harper held on to the devotion he had shown Bray for the better part of five years.
A few weeks back on Smackdown Live, Bray Wyatt had had enough. He forced his two fallen “sons” to take their differences to the ring, in a smashmouth affair that saw both big men have a physical affair that could have easily gone either way. But in the end, it was the 14-time World Champion Randy Orton who pinned Luke Harper and with a kiss on the forehead and a Sister Abigail, Bray Wyatt handed out his punishment to the treason within the ranks of Luke Harper.
But Harper seemed hellbent on warning Wyatt that Orton could not be trusted. That Orton was indeed a snake waiting to attack, that Orton was more sinister than even the New Face of Fear imagined. He tried again and again to assist Wyatt but he was rebuffed each time. And while in each case, despite seemingly outcast from the Family, he refused to lay a hand on Bray Wyatt. His allegiance was still to Wyatt himself and the greater cause.
Until this past Friday on Smackdown Live, when Harper stormed the ring at the end of the main event between Randy Orton and his long-time rival John Cena. With both Orton and Wyatt beating down on a fallen Cena, Harper came in and not only confronted Wyatt once again, but this time levelled his former mentor with a crushing Lariat.
This Sunday, with Bray Wyatt locked in the Elimination Chamber going for the WWE Championship, Luke Harper has got his wish. He will be facing off against the man who destroyed his world and his Family, Randy Orton. Their previous Smackdown Live encounter a few weeks back was an astounding tease for a match that many had never considered, but at it’s end were left craving more. And this Sunday we will get it.
With Randy Orton heading to the main event of WrestleMania 33 following his unexpected win at this past Royal Rumble, Orton will not be taking this fight lightly. Harper came very close to beating Orton on Smackdown and someone looking to headline the Grandest Stage of Them All isn’t going to want to walk into that arena on a losing streak. But Harper may just be right. What if this was Orton’s plan all along? Orton couldn’t break the Family from the outside before – maybe he just changed his strategy and decided to poison it from within? Rowan was now gone. So now was Luke Harper. All that remained was Bray and his new found son.
But while Luke Harper’s instincts may in fact be correct, Randy Orton will most likely prove to be too dominant a force. But these two are going to go at it in a physicality unlike we’ve seen from Randy Orton since his days in Evolution. And Luke Harper will show all the tools that many of his fans from his Brodie Lee days have longed to see once more. This will be a war. One that Harper hopes that his own sacrifice will open the eyes of his creator Bray Wyatt to the true Face of Evil in this story…The Viper himself.
Main Photo: WWE.com
