Thursday, May 30, 2013

Wyatt Family Fantasy Booking: Our Shield Saviors

Our unlikely saviors?
Photo Credit: WWE.com
The Wyatt Family - Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan - has made its first impact on the main roster through vignettes that appeared on RAW and Main Event. Their arrival from NXT has been greatly anticipated from people who have followed them in developmental. Wyatt is a cross between Max Cady from Cape Fear and Charles Manson, and just judging from that first vignette on RAW, the creep factor is there, and it's spectacular. They're definitely going to come up and make an impact, even if it's just with us meta fans.

But how can they get over with the fans at large? There are a whole plethora of possible ways for this to happen. I have one that might seem a bit off the beaten path or even too sophisticated for WWE to pull off. Mainly, it's because it involves hot heel-on-heel action and nuanced storytelling, and well, hahahaahhahahahahhaha, oh that's rich, expecting WWE to do that.

However, what if for a second we pretend that the people booking NXT actually were able to have free reign on the main roster, or even better, what if Mike Quackenbush or a booker of similar ilk were able to come in with complete autonomy and give us the Wyatt Family as the WWE Universe's only possible hope to defeat The Shield? Obviously, there's no current combination of wrestlers right now who have been able to beat them in a traditional trios setting. Not even the Stepbrothers of Destruction have been able to put The Shield down, and they had the combination of awesome wrestling ability and synergistic teamwork going for them.

The Shield has well-oiled teamwork going for them. The only other trio currently in WWE that has that, 3MB, is comically inept at the wrestling part of things (yeah, yeah, but remember, this is a kayfabe explanation). However, the Wyatt Family? Yeah, I'm betting if any team has the combination of ability and cohesion, it's three hosses in a cult.

So, they start out in WWE by doing what most heel stables start out doing. They terrorize the babyfaces, beat people up after matches, win through subterfuge and THE DAMN NUMBERS GAME (even if those numbers are equal). But The Shield keeps winning too, and they keep accumulating titles as well. Their reign of terror continues by snagging the Intercontinental Championship as well as the Big Gold Belt at SummerSlam. They have so much hardware, and no one can stop them. Even WWE Champion CM Punk (yes, he's WWE Champion, deal with it) can't seem to shake them. Dean Ambrose isn't satisfied with just being the United States Champion. He wants the big prize.

Punk, ever the pragmatist, knows that in order to deal with a group, he needs a group. Hell, he knows it firsthand because he employed The Shield, whether he knew it or whether Paul Heyman solidified the deal behind Punk's back, to help keep his WWE Championship between Survivor Series '12 and Royal Rumble '13. His problem is that the only group he can find are these hillbilly cultists. It'd be selling his soul and WWE's soul, but it'd be the hard choice he'd have to make to rally behind them.

It takes time, lots of time, for Punk's plan to gain traction, both with the Family and with his WWE peers, who'd have to sign on as well. Finally, everyone's on board, and in one of the most fucked up, heel-on-heel tactical battles ever, the Family emerges victorious...

...and then they lord it over everyone else to the point where Wyatt gets more followers. Now, the Family is WWE's big bad. Where they go from there is something that is too rich with opportunities for me to continue on here without wasting my day. I'm also well-aware that this doesn't have the likelihood of happening of other options, options that could be great for the Family and for fans' entertainment value. But man, imagine how good it could be if it did happen like that?