Luke Harper.... The Next Great "Big Man"?

[asiatic7]

If anyone has been watching Luke Harpers single matches closely, you probably noticed he has a nice little arsenal of moves! He has hard hitting "Big Man" moves like his own version of a "Clothesline From Hell", the Big Boot and the fall-away slam. He also does Lucha style moves like The Suicide Dive and a Huracanrana (or however you spell it). I'm always impressed with his matches with John Cena. I think those matches make him look very good and possibly, we are seeing glimpses of the next great Big Man in wrestling.

Luke Harper reminds me of the Undertaker in a lot of regards. He is VERY Agile for someone his size. He has a creepy persona/ring presence and he's graceful as well. He doesn't get much mic time, but I'm sure if he did we'd see and hear a good character. Luke, over time would probably be a great heel or face... these are just my thoughts and opinions.

Anyone care to share theirs?

 

[Y 2 Jake]

He's in his mid-30's. I think his WWE career ends not long after the Wyatt Family do. I just can't see him doing anything other than slipping down the card.

Which is a shame because I'm a fan of the guy and I think he quietly gets on with being one of the best things in every match he's involved in.

 

[RicSpade]

Undertaker is what in his 50's now and still moved great for his age, Luke Harper if he could stay healthy could be the next big man on 2 conditions could he cut promos post wyatts or would he need a mouthpiece like Paul Heyman, and would the crazed Luke Harper still work post Wyatts or would he need to be repackaged. If he gets repackaged they better do a good job like they did with the transition of Husky Harris to Bray Wyatt otherwise no matter how many suicide dives Luke Harper hits he'll never get back over.

 

[gh88us]

Luke Harper has the look, the craziness and agility to be the next Brusier Brody. Harper should keep the crazy gimmick and become alittle more fierce in his matches.

 

[TheHellmouth]

I really like Luke Harper a lot. I often call him the Seth Rollins of the Wyatt Family (exciting arsenal of moves and high spots that gets the crowd into the match). It's even more impressive that he would have that position in his stable given his size and his age. Unfortunately I really do not see how he could transition to a singles gimmick. His entire persona is based on being a creepy subordinate to Bray Wyatt.

If WWE wants to take advantage of his talent and have him stand on his own obviously he would have to have new gimmick. I don't think just having him go away for a while and return with a new name and look would go over well with the way the crowds are these days. Maybe they could do something similar to Luke Gallows. Luke Gallows was originally the brain dead Festus, but CM Punk under the Straight Edge Society gimmick "saved" Festus which allowed him to assume the name Luke Gallows and a less cartoony gimmick. Obviously Luke Gallows was not successful as a singles competitor and was rightfully released, but Luke Harper is so talented in the ring he might be able to make something similar work. Maybe John Cena (or any Top Tier babyface) could try and cause dissension in the Wyatt Family by telling Luke Harper a man of his talent shouldn't be subordinate to a guy like Bray which would plant the seed for an eventual Luke Harper face turn or something and assume a more normal gimmick of a brawling high flying badass, I don't know.

I really don't think their gonna do anything with him and once the Wyatt Family is done he'll probably get quietly released and Bray definitely deserves their attention as far as singles pushes go. But Harper is good enough I think he deserves a shot too.

 

[OYDK]

I think it's a little early to be calling Luke Harper the next great anything. It's undoubtable, the guy has great in ring skill and has a good look, however his age is a big factor and his gimmick is very one dimensional, which is my biggest problem with Harper right now. The guy has fallen into a trap. He's over enough now that if he were to be repackaged it would likely flop with the fans but his current gimmick doesn't allow him to do much outside of the Wyatt family.

The only way to give Harper a legitimate singles push is to slowly have him begin to act a little less insane/psychotic each week and tease that Bray is "losing his hold" on Harper. Eventually have Harper completely ignore everything Wyatt tells him and have him get some big wins "his own way". The next week you can have Wyatt blindside Harper with the Sister Abigail pitting them in a feud. The only problem I have with this is, could you imagine the verbal back and forth between Wyatt and Harper? Harper wouldn't stand a chance and it would hurt him.

 

[CalciferBoheme]

He no doubt has the potential for that label, but I'm really curious to see how his career will go. He will have to get away from Wyatt eventually, but I hope it's not too soon.


As mentioned, he's 34. However, if he can stay healthy he probably has another 10 years to achieve greatness. I hope he can.

 

[Notorious718]

I do like Luke Harper a lot. In fact, out of the two big men in the Wyatt Family, I find him to have slightly more of an upside than Eric Rowan. But that might just probably be because Harper has actually been given the mic and Rowan is just there to beat the tar out of people. As mentioned, Harper moves well in the ring and is surprisingly agile for a guy his size. The problem is, just as it is with Rowan, that I don't know what role Harper could play following the Wyatt family split (which mind you, I don't see happening for a long time). I'm not sure how engaged I would be if he were to take part in a feud while striking out on his own.

People also mention his age. 34? In the grand scheme of life, he is a young man but in professional sports, he's probably going down the final stretch. However, there is truth in the phrase "age is nothing but a number." If he can stay healthy then I don't see why he can't be around for another decade.

 

[resignedknight]

I was just thinking the other day that if you booked it right Harper could really come into his own as a blue collar hero. I think at some point he should split from Wyatt in a short but fiery feud and then he should go on a rampage against all the flamboyant comedy heels like Fandango, Adam Rose, even Goldust if he turned his character a little more old school (Not to digress, but I haven't seen anybody point out that Goldy's character now makes no sense. It's like he's just Cody's brother and regular guy who just happens to dress in all gold and wear ridiculous face paint. WTH is that?)

When I was a teenager in the Attitude Era, I had a friend whose dad, a great guy but a total hyper-masculine redneck, would wander into the room and when Goldust was on, Al Snow was talking about head, or whatever, he would just say "what the hell is that?" and shake his head and leave the room. I would like to see Harper come out every week and beat up the guys that would make my friend's dad shake his head. Hell maybe you could take it a step farther and have him beat up all the old-school cartoon characters like Kane, too. I think it could work.

 

[laodaron]

He seems like a pretty good worker, but he's too indie fed for me. He makes too many attempts at trying to impress with spots instead of telling the actual story in the ring. I don't dislike him at all, and I think he's a perfect Wyatt lackey...I just don't see him having what it takes to move on solo.

 

[Raptor93]

Hes good but I think wyatt will be there ahead of him, Bray may not be as agile as harper but his mic skills are superb and that will put him ahead of alot of people harper included. Not to mention no new big guy has really made it and stayed ( emphasis on stayed not just gotten a push) as a main eventer since batista in 2005. WWE has a bad habbit of rushing big guys while harper hasn't been rushed he hasn't been focused on ether.

 

[bioshock]

Not sure I'd say "big man" hes only around 6'7 at best, wiki claims 6'5, google claims 6'7 so I wouldn't really put him there with Undertaker who is all of 6'10. But he is still a big guy, but lets not forget Bray isn't tall and neither is Cena at around 6'2.

Size aside he is in that ball park that Vince loves around 6'5 and up, and he could be 6'1 or 7'1 it doesn't matter he has some good moves, and can wrestle. Sky is the limit for him, I think he could stick around at least another 8 years at a high level given hes only 34 years old. Given the gimmick the Wyatts have, he could branch off to have some kind of Undertaker type gimmick.

And for those who think he will be gone when Wyatts are split, I don't see that. Unlike other big guys WWE has had, this guy can wrestle a good match, and puts his body on the line, unlike other bums who come down the pike who were 6'7 and bigger (besides Mike Awesome of course the most skilled of the big guys and worst used by WWE/WCW).

 

[CM Steel]

Luke Harper does kinda remind me of old school Bradshaw with those clotheslines. I'm not trying to compare Luke Harper to JBL at all. But whenever Harper does go solo from the Wyatt family I can see big things from this big man. And big Luke is on positive terms with the people that he works with. Maybe down the line in the future he could be seen in the main event scene with Bray Wyatt or a Roman Reigns. But only time will tell.