Nearly one month into 2026, WWE Friday Night SmackDown has undergone a massive transformation. While much of 2025 was plagued by criticisms of bland storylines, stagnant character development, and a lack of creativity, the brand has found its spark again.
The shift is obvious, fueled by the arrival of fresh stars like Trick Williams and Jordynne Grace. The show has reclaimed its sense of unpredictability, best displayed by the shocking sight of Jacob Fatu costing Cody Rhodes the WWE Undisputed Championship to crown Drew McIntyre, proving that SmackDown has regained its spark.
However, despite all the positives we have seen, some of the creative ghosts of 2025 continue to haunt the product. One of the primary concerns lies with The Wyatt Sicks. While they currently hold the WWE Tag Team Championships, the storytelling surrounding the faction has seemed hollow and without purpose.
Fans still see massive potential in the group, but are becoming increasingly frustrated. Unless WWE fixes the creative disconnect that has so far carried over from 2025, they risk turning this high-concept faction into an afterthought.
Humble Beginnings
The Wyatt Sicks originated from a framework that Windham Rotunda, better known as Bray Wyatt, teased after making his return to WWE in late 2022. Following Windham’s shocking death on August 24, 2023, his brother, Taylor Rotunda, known professionally in WWE as Bo Dallas, chose to carry the torch, honoring Windham’s legacy by bringing the faction to life using the extensive notes and blueprints his brother left behind.
Handpicked by Bray Wyatt, the faction features Uncle Howdy (Bo Dallas), Erick Rowan (Rambling Rabbit), Nikki Cross (Abby the Witch), Dexter Lumis (Mercy the Buzzard), and Joe Gacy (Huskus the Pig Boy).
The group’s name carries deep significance, as the number 6 represents the five active members of the team, joined by the spirit of Bray Wyatt himself. The “Sicks” spelling is a play on “Wyatt 6” that highlights the group’s “sick” and horror-inspired elements that define them.
After months of teasers that featured cryptic QR codes, distorted broadcast glitches during live shows, and an eerie “The Nightbird” digital campaign, the group finally made its physical debut on the June 17, 2024, episode of Monday Night Raw.
In one of the most cinematic sequences in WWE history, the group tore through the backstage area, the visual of Chad Gable unconscious and with a bloodied head making it look like a crime scene. They would also attack backstage crew, security guards, and ransack the famous “Gorilla Position”, with smashed monitors and scattered debris.
Despite an incredible debut, the faction’s momentum has noticeably stalled. Even with Dexter Lumis and Joe Gacy capturing the WWE Tag Team Championship, the group has felt increasingly watered down. Things have felt flat, and the team has been looking surprisingly weak since entering a feud with Solo Sikoa’s newly formed faction, The MFTs.
It’s time to look at how The Wyatt Sicks can move past this slump and evolve into the main-event threat they were always meant to be.
Become True Heels
First, it is crucial that once they finish their faction vs. faction feud with The MFTs, The Wyatt Sicks become true, ruthless heels and begin targeting top babyface talent. The creepy visual characters the group portrays – especially their entrance and debut – logically suggest they should evolve into a terrifying, unpredictable band that leaves fans constantly anticipating their next move.
One aspect of The Wyatt Family’s success was the sheer terror surrounding their ability to target the superstars fans loved most. 2014 saw two instances of this, with the group targeting John Cena and Daniel Bryan.
Having a faction like The Wyatt Family go after guys like Cena and Bryan showed just how over the group was, and how much confidence the company had in them to do a superb job of executing a hypnotizing story. Every week, fans tuned in to see what the faction would do next.
One wrestler in particular who would be a perfect candidate for The Wyatt Sicks to target is Cody Rhodes. He is no longer champion and is now seen as the company’s top babyface, a position that would therefore exponentially boost the status and popularity of The Wyatt Sicks.
In keeping with the lore around the group, Uncle Howdy’s motive for selecting a target usually revolves around those who abandon family. Rhodes went through a period in his career where he abandoned his name, switching to the Stardust persona.
Having the group as quasi-heels or tweeners is preventing fans from truly uniting around them as top talents, and a solidified heel turn will evolve The Wyatt Sicks into the terrifying band of creepy misfits everyone loves to hate.
Individualize Each Character
One of the most legitimate complaints about the way that WWE has handled The Wyatt Sicks has been their inability to create and execute proper storylines about virtually every member of the group. Outside of Erick Rowan, who is already known due to his history with The Wyatt Family, and Uncle Howdy, WWE has essentially left the rest of the faction to perform as mere props.
In doing this, it has not only left many fans to wonder why the majority of the members are part of the group, but also simply what their names are. It would be a safe bet that a large number of fans most likely have no idea what the names of half of the group are, unless they were to conduct a Google search.
That fact alone speaks volumes about WWE’s inability to construct these individual characters properly. Considering two of the lesser-known members are the current WWE Tag Team Champions (Lumis and Gacy), yet most fans probably could not name them, shows just how significant a problem this is.
In contrast to what WWE hasn’t done with The Wyatt Sicks, WWE did an impeccable job with its storytelling behind The Wyatt Family. It put a spotlight on each of the three members of Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan, and the late Luke Harper. Even when the team, years later, added Braun Strowman to the group, he was given a proper story that allowed fans to feel connected.
WWE needs to go back to the drawing board and reconstruct each member, explaining why Bray Wyatt hand-picked them, what their role is within the faction, and even why they are dressed the way they are. Perhaps an Alexa Bliss sub-plot for a few months, drawing on not only her popularity as well as her history with Bray Wyatt, could be just enough to instantly elevate The Wyatt Sicks and inspire fans to stay connected to them.
Inflicting Change on Their Opponents
Lastly, a point not mentioned frequently, but one that would help fans identify with the elements of psychological torture that The Wyatt Sicks should adopt, is the faction’s inability to inflict lasting change on their opponents following a feud.
In direct contrast to specific feuds, The Wyatt Family inflicted lasting effects on their opponents; The Wyatt Sicks have not inflicted this upon their “victims.” For example, following their feud with Chad Gable, there was no sign of change in Gable’s antics or personality.
Meanwhile, The Wyatt Family, and more particularly Bray Wyatt, were successful in achieving this “damage” in several instances. The first was with Daniel Bryan; Bray Wyatt spent months attempting to break Bryan spiritually, and eventually succeeded when Bryan joined the family.
Despite the fact that he only lasted as a member of The Wyatt Family for a few weeks, it added a darker layer to Bryan’s character when he turned on Bray Wyatt in the famous steel cage segment. He was no longer just known for his infamous “Yes” chant, but for his toughness and ruthlessness.
The second instance was at WrestleMania 36, where Bray Wyatt, using his infamous “The Fiend” gimmick, took John Cena on a twisted journey of Wyatt’s interpretation of Cena’s career, and through multiple alternate realities in a Firefly Fun House match.
The ending of this bout had a profound effect on Cena; following the match, he evolved from an unstoppable, superhero-style babyface into a more vulnerable, almost less confident version of himself, who not only appeared less often, but also won far fewer matches.
Adding this element to The Wyatt Sicks would provide an amazing layer to the faction. An example of a current superstar the group can target to have the kind of effect that Bray Wyatt had on Cena is Roman Reigns.
Having Uncle Howdy peel back the layers of Reigns’ career from times when he was a member of The Shield, his “Big Dog Era,” which was widely criticized by fans for feeling he was too forced as a superhero/babyface, and his manipulation of his two cousins Jimmy and Jey Uso, would be highly entertaining.
In the end, The Wyatt Sicks don’t just represent a wrestling faction, but they are also the last part of the emotional legacy that Windham Rotunda, better known as Bray Wyatt, left behind. By allowing the group to ditch the monotony of being generic “spooky” mid-carders who lose big matches, and transition them into a dominant and terrifying faction, WWE can successfully rebuild The Wyatt Sicks into what fans were hoping for from day one.
To fix The Wyatt Sicks, WWE must balance the group from being seen as a tribute act into a dominant and terrifying team that has fans scared for their favorites on a weekly basis. By doing this, they can successfully create them into the prodigy that Bray Wyatt once envisioned and believed in.
However, without a drastic pivot toward more disciplined storytelling and a more dominant presence in the ring, they will be remembered as a missed opportunity. WWE needs to fix The Wyatt Sicks now – before the lanterns go out for good.
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