Erick Rowan: Vinter, Chess Master, Classically Trained Guitarist

[Big Red Machine]

Remember how they said this once, and then it came to absolutely nothing, and now he's back to right where he was before with no explanation?

Just wanted to bring that up as an indictment of WWE creative and their ability to do anything properly.

[NWK2000]

You know what doesn't help matters? The fact that Rowan is the drizzling shits and not worth the money it would cost to film the vignettes of him doing those things, or the training Rowan would need to do those this effectively.

[Big Red Machine]

You know what doesn't help matters? The fact that Rowan is the drizzling shits and not worth the money it would cost to film the vignettes of him doing those things, or the training Rowan would need to do those this effectively.

Well they agreed with you in part, obviously, because they didn't film any vignettes. They just told us this crap. Maybe there was one backstage thing where he was in the background, playing chess with someone.

[NWK2000]

I just find it funny that you care enough about Rowan to be mad that the creative team couldn't be arsed to follow up on his exposition. What about the time they passed up on building the character of Dean Ambrose when he escaped a hospital and just re-appeared?

[Big Red Machine]

I just find it funny that you care enough about Rowan to be mad that the creative team couldn't be arsed to follow up on his exposition. What about the time they passed up on building the character of Dean Ambrose when he escaped a hospital and just re-appeared?

You've got me all wrong. I don't give a sh*t about Erick Rowan. I just get upset at bad creative, and stuff that is a complete and total waste of time, and stuff that hurts the product. Eric Rowan is an amazing example of this:
They bring him up and put him in the Wyatt Family and it works. Then they decide to break up the Wyatt Family with LITERALLY ZERO STORY, simply because their mindset is "well... they've been together for a year already. We need to break them up." Then, to give Rowan some "character," they make up all of this UTTERLY RIDICULOUS SH*T about him being a vintner, a chess master, and a classically-trained guitarist... and yet never get around to answering the f*cking obvious question- the question that should have been the first thing they thought of when they decided to do any of this: "if he has all of this going for him, why did he join the Wyatt Family in the first place? And why did he leave?" That is such a level of either laziness or incompetence that it offends me. And the saddest part about it is that all of this was done to try to give Rowan some "character," but answering those questions would have been the thing they could have done that would have given Rowan much more character than anything else. It's the difference between "giving someone a character" and actually attempting to develop a character.
So they do all of this sh*t... and then Rowan is suddenly teaming with Harper again with no explanation, and then they're both suddenly back with Bray again, with no explanation in Rowan's case and very little in Harper's (and I'd bet you ANYTHING that the little bit of explanation we got in Harper's case was Harper and/or Bray's idea, not creative's).
It infuriates me because THEY COMPLETELY FAILED AT EVERY SINGLE STEP OF DECISION-MAKING:

1. They had an act that was working, so they decided to break them up for no other reason than "they're been together for a while already." Who gives a sh*t how long they've been together if it's working?!
2. The idea that barely over one year is "too long" for a stable to be together is utterly ridiculous, especially with an act that felt as different and fresh as the Wyatt Family did.
3. They did they a break-up that took a guy with NO PROMO SKILLS WHATSOEVER and broke him away from two guys who can cut good promos, then expected him to stand on his own.
4. The break-up had absolutely zero repercussions.
5. It happened with no build-up
6. It got no explanation, which completely destroyed any chance of trying to develop these characters
7. They gave this guy this utterly ridiculous character that no one believed and seem like a joke from day one
8. They just brought the group back together with no explanation, once again passing up a chance to develop these characters.

With Dean they passed up a chance to do something they don't normally do anymore (tell the story of a recover from an injury), and while I do wish they'd do that more often, it's not creating a negative so much as it is not utilizing what you have in order to make a positive. The Rowan thing was about ninety-million negatives. I'd fire someone for f*cking up the way they did with Rowan. With Dean, it wouldn't even bother me.

[NWK2000]

I remember that with relative fondness mostly because Harper actually benefited from it (being one of the featured heels in Survivor Series 2014) and that match was amazing. Plus Rowan and Harper together weren't too heavily featured post Wyatt breakup, so it didn't bother me.

[Big Red Machine]

I remember that with relative fondness mostly because Harper actually benefited from it (being one of the featured heels in Survivor Series 2014) and that match was amazing. Plus Rowan and Harper together weren't too heavily featured post Wyatt breakup, so it didn't bother me.

I don't think Harper benefited at all. Yeah, he got put in a big match and even got a four-week IC Title reign out of it... but did it really do anything for him? That title reign ended less than a year ago, and I don't think I've even heard them mention it on TV since WrestleMania. Where did he go after that? Nowhere. Just like Erick Rowan didn't go anywhere after that match and just like Mark Henry didn't go anywhere after that match, and Ryback didn't really go anywhere after that... and if we're honest with ourselves, Dolph Ziggler, the big babyface star of the match who, as JBL said on commentary, had a "career-defining performance" in that match, didn't go anywhere after that.
The only people who benefited from that match were Cena, Big Show, Rollins, Sting, and Triple H- the guys WWE wanted to push anyway (Rusev didn't benefit from it, but it didn't hurt him, either). And MAYBE it helped Ryback get more over as a babyface.

[WrestlingJoker]

I actually like Rowan, even though he looks like the kind of guy you'd see standing in an isle at Wal-Mart muttering crazy shit under his breath.