The Wyatt Family Should Become More Like Raven's Flock

[multiverseman.com]

I am a fan of the Wyatts and Bray Wyatt's work in particular. They've done a pretty good job establishing these guys. However, going forward, I'd like to see an approach applied to the stable wherein they become more like what I consider the quintissential wrestling cult stable: Raven's Flock.

The stuff Raven did here was masterful. Absolutely brilliant. Raven was a sick leader who broke his subjects through pain and psychological manipulation. He'd send them in there to take his beatings and then beat them up himself if they failed, or made the others do it for him. I'd like to see Bray progress into more of a tyrannical figure. Not completely like Raven, but somewhere in between. Perhaps he doesn't think his message is spreading fast enough, so he starts becoming unhinged and blaming his "brothers".

The stuff with Daniel Bryan is kinda what I'm talking about. The only problem was that it was Daniel Bryan, who shouldn't have been in that spot. Try it again with someone else. A lost midcarder like maybe Kofi or a monster like Big E.

 

[Zuper-Man]

I think we remember things differently. First off, Bray Wyatt is more over than Raven was. Second, outside of Raven, Erick Rowan's mask has more charisma than the rest of the Flock (except maybe Lodi). I mean, come on. Billy Kidman? Sick Boy? Scotty Riggs? Horace Hogan? The Flock sucked! Raven cut great promos and got the group over as much as he could, but when your sign guy is the second-most prominent member of the group, it can't be all that good.

 

[closet_fan]

I get what you're saying, but I don't think anyone would benefit from it outside of Wyatt.

The "nest" in ECW helped other guys to a point. But if you're thinking of WCW's flock, it didn't do anything for any of the wrestlers who "served under him" like ZM said above. The only guy I even remember from that group was Kidman.

The problem with Kofi and Big E. is, unfortunately, PC people will look at it as having racial undertones. It shouldn't be that way, but I can see uptight fans blasting it as a reminder of slavery.

 

[Pedigree1]

Remember Ravens Flock was made up of a bunch of guys who just didnt quite fit the mold.. Outsiders,and not quite normal.. No one besides Bray would benefit from this,and i honestly dont quite see this happening..

Its the wrong era for this,and people would grow quite bored of this idea awfully fast.. Closet_Fan brings up a point,if you had Big E or Kofi,in the stable,the Media,Glen Beck would bring up racial undertones and compare it to slavery.. It shouldn't be viewed that way,but it would be.. A bunch of Politically correct people would scream racism if that were to happen..

Remember Raven,at the time was a master of making his subjects bow to his will.. Whether he tortured them physically or mentally,he broke them.. Beatings were a regular thing with Raven and his Flock,and his members all loved him and worshipped him..

I get what the OP is saying,and its a good idea but wrong era for this to happen.. Not with the WWE being a public traded company,having sponsors to answer to,and a bunch of kids..

 

[Ziirox]

No.

I liked Raven and Raven's Flock in WCW. It was a great stable, and it did it's purpose of putting over Raven as a top (mid card) guy. He was important only because his stable.

The Wyatt Family is more of cult than a group of misguided souls with no purpose. They stay with Bray because there is a unwritten or unsaid love that a cult leader has from it's followers. Rowan and Harper believe in Bray Wyatt and his message. There will eventually be some kind of back story about why Harper and Rowan are in the Wyatt Family. Raven's Flock was just full of guys that weren't playing any kind of role in WCW before hand. When people joined the Flock, no one really took any notice either. It was a mid card stable. The Wyatt Family is already leaps and bounds ahead of the Flock. Wyatt has been an integral part of television since his debut too. The best thing Raven and the Flock was ever a part of was Raven losing the U.S. title to Goldberg during his streak. Harsh, but they were fairly irrelevant for the most part. Wyatt is a future WWE World Champ. Raven was barely ever pushed. It was gimmick that was barely given enough time because of the clusterf**k roster and air time that was WCW. If it wasn't the nWo or Goldberg, it didn't matter. The Wyatt Family (namely Bray), has legions of fans despite being "heels" on television, and the sub members are actually being pushed towards championships. I don't remember a member of the Flock (when they were actually a member) doing anything for themselves that didn't somehow wind up being about Raven.

 

[shafe_41]

Seems like a pretty terrible idea.

The Flock was made up of a bunch of nobodies that couldn't hold their own so there was strength in numbers. Raven looked good as a mid-card heel and that's about it. It wouldn't benefit anybody in the stable but Bray, and he doesn't need a bunch of nobody henchmen to do his bidding for him. Terrible idea because Bray is better than that. Next.

 

[J.J.]

If Bray has a good thing going for him now as he is, why the need to alter him or the Wyatt's? If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Nobody outside of WCW's version seen much success afterwards. Kidman was a mainstream fixture and great to the Cruiserweight division, decent early run in WWE.

Saturn has the mop, right? Decent in singles action for a while part of Radicalz. Seemingly disappeared after that.

What was so unique about the Flock other than them sitting on the front row? Or in the middle of the pool at Club LaVela(any of you WCW heads remember that?)

Raven was great on the mic and was unique in his own way. But no need to mirror his stable after a stable that was never over.

 

[Aquaman6686]

If by "more like Raven's Flock" you mean "not on WWE TV", I'm all for it. All three of the Wyatt members are god-awful wrestlers who never should have made it out of developmental.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The group is working well as a three but I do see it needing a fourth permanent member sooner rather than later, the idea of a cult is it grows... it is with the fans but not within WWE.

I always thought AJ was perfect for them with the "twist" that A actually stands for Abigail... but I could see Paige going into the Linda Kasabian role for Bray in the coming weeks. That could be very interesting although it would be very dark for a guy they are threatening to turn face. Does Bray need a Harley Quinn type? or would that suit Ambrose better? He is the TittyMaster after all...

The Flock was just down to WCW only valuing factions at the time, so every one was in some kind of group, be it the Flock, NWO, Filthy Animals etc... The Family is different, infact, now the Shield has split, Evolution is not together in full and 3MB are gone they are the MAIN faction in WWE.

If you are going to add a male member of the group to be the 4th guy, there are some potential choices below:-

Kofi - Least likely and I get the "racism" point, but this could be WWE's way of disproving it by having Kofi used in this way. However, they know his value in the role he plays... he is today's Tito Santana and I don't really see him wanting to risk the extra he makes from merch etc at this stage. If he was gonna be pushed it would have happened... better to be employed and able to sell some shirts in the midcard/featured seriously at 2 PPV's a year than try something new and it kill that.

Bo Dallas - The natural move and one that still makes a lot of sense to me... they are real brothers but Bray and Bo seem to be two sides of the same coin... Bray preaches about the negativity and corruption while Bo preaches the positives... what if Bo-Leive was actually the same as Bray was espousing, just worded differently?

Curtis Axel - Let's face it the son of Curt has not really done much lately and is not benefitting at all from that connection... Rybaxel is on it's last legs with them seemingly about to split. He's the perfect guy, pun intended for Bray to recruit... everyone lets him down and abandons him... Bray offers him a "family" in the Wyatts... hell even bring Larry in to do the "please come home" thing...

Before Stardust, Cody was perfect too for similar reasons... Cody bearded, bedraggled and finding a "new family" and changing his name to Wyatt from Rhodes would have been interesting, and set a good edge to a feud with Dustin... but Stardust is awesome and far, far better... I don't even see he and Goldie feuding now, they'll just be a "super team" for the next year or two till Dustin retires and Cody can "take the mantle".

Kane - The obvious choice and still the major payoff... remember when they dragged him away? when they wanted to take the machine down from the inside? Well Kane has been on the inside now for a year... Steph thinks SHE unleashed the demon... but they could easily twist it and have Bray have been pulling his strings all along.

Heath Slater/Clem Layfied - This one is a little more "out there" but they have been using Heath as a jobber for some time now, but he does have an interesting wrinkle from the JBL and Cole show as "Clem", JBL's nephew... the Wyatts could manipulate him into the family and then JBL is the guy who is trying to get his "kin" back... not anywhere near as good as the other scenarios but Slater would perhaps fit the beard/bedraggled look and has a style/build different to the others to make it not just seem like a group of monsters.

I watched the movie Southern Comfort the other night, which is a massive influence on the Wyatt's and the key is that there are going to be Wyatts everywhere, hiding in plain sight... you only really saw the Cajun threat at the end of that movie, just when you thought it was all safe, they revealed themselves... so hopefully soon we start seeing some guys revealing themselves... not in an Aces and Eights way... but subtlety, after all the fans are well and truly drinking the Koolaid... it's crazy that no one on the roster is...

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

The Wyatt Family is working well as it is, there's no need to over-saturate the faction with more wrestlers, whether established or NXT rookies. One of the best things about the Wyatts' run so far is that we've learnt so LITTLE about their agenda and their back story. It is very much a slow burn development - which is good as it adds to the intruige and longevity of the gimmick. Had we known by now, less than a year in, who 'Sister Abigail' is or how Bray Wyatt asserts mental control over Harper & Rowan, I believe the gimmick would be, at best, on its last legs already. By drip-feeding the audience, we yearn for more: hence, the Wyatt story is one of the more compelling acts in wrestling today IMO.

The Flock, on the other hand, were a bunch of jabronis only out together in WCW to replicate Raven's Nest from ECW. But where Paul Heyman used the Nest to build and develop *most* of the members, WCW had neither the time nor inclination to do the same with the Flock, culminating in barely any relevance for them. Even Raven was phased out after the split. Kidman and Saturn achieved a modicum of success, the rest faded into obscurity. Certainly not a 'great' faction by any stretch of the imagination.

The only similarity between the Flock & the Wyatts has been the addition of a member: Daniel Bryan being beaten into submission was a rehash of Scotty Riggs being drawn into the Flock in 1997. Hopefully that will remain the only similarity...

 

[Trot]

Lucky Dixie dosnt read these forums, your the type of business changer she needs in creative

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

I disagree with everyone saying this is a terrible idea. Also, people underrate the WCW version of The Flock. Sure, it wasn't as good as the Nest in ECW, and WCW ultimately screwed up the angle. But both Saturn and Kidman got over and had successful careers mostly due to what they did with Raven in The Flock.

I think if the Wyatt Family ever get more members, Bray could easily do something like the OP stated above. Becoming more tyrannical and manipulating his own guys to follow him. That's the entire gimmick after all, isn't it? That these guys are brainwashed under Bray's message, and his entire purpose is to do the same to the WWE and the fans?

They could do something like they did with Bryan, where some upper midcarder is slowly turned into a Wyatt member against their will. Part of match stipulations or whatever, where if he loses he needs to join the family. Forced to do the bidding of Bray. Then over time, it stops being against his will and he legitimately becomes brainwashed. But you never really know if he's legit brainwashed or if he's going to destroy the group from within. This is the same angle WCW ran with Raven and Saturn in 1998.

Likewise, if they EVER wanted to turn Luke Harper or one of the other guys face... after years of abuse and manipulation from Bray Wyatt, Harper suddenly turns on him and "breaks free" from the family. The same way Kidman did at Fall Brawl 1998, which ended up getting him super over as a cruiserweight face.

So, I don't think this is a bad idea at all really. But it requires maybe 1 or 2 new members into the group. Maybe one legit Wyatt and one that they turn into a Wyatt. It adds depth and evolution to these characters, and if they did it in a smart way - they could create 1 or 2 new stars out of it, in addition to Bray himself.