Erick Rowan could be the next member of the Wyatt family to make his return to WWE, following Bray Wyatt’s return at Extreme Rules this past weekend.
Wyatt had been released in July 2021, reportedly over his high-dollar contract and creative disputes with then-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.Amid reports that a new Wyatt faction could be in the works, it was reported that his real-life brother Bo Dallas is heading back to WWE.
During a recent interview with Steve Fall for NBC Sports Boston, Rowan said he is not opposed to a return to WWE.
“There’s always [an] opportunity and my story within wrestling, that character of Erick Rowan or Erick Redbeard, it has so much left to tell and talk about. I think when I stepped aside when Covid happened and people were let go, I wasn’t ready for my story to stop.”
Erick Rowan
Rowan was released from WWE on April 15, 2020, in the first of what would be waves of mass releases over the next two years.
Feuding with Rollins
Mere weeks before his release from WWE, a storyline began that saw Rowan carry a covered cage around wherever he went.
Anyone who peered under the cover would be horrified by what they saw, but the eventual reveal was far less impressive. Rowan’s monster turned out to be little more than a very fake-looking spider, which wasn’t the original plan.
“Seth Rollins was the big babyface at the time and I was told it’s going to be a pet rat. Which was great because it tied into my last feud where I tried to kill a man, this being Roman Reigns, with a vehicle. I was like ‘great, probably got a court-appointed therapist who told me to get a therapy pet.’
“Seth backstage was going to curb-stomp it by accident. I was like this is a great idea to start a feud even though I’ve got to carry around the cage and not really tell a story for a couple of weeks. But he turned heel close to a few weeks after that and it just kept getting extended… you could picture it all you want along the ride but that’s what it was and I’m sorry people didn’t like that.”
Instead of a feud with the former Universal Champion, Rowan’s rat became a spider, which was crushed by Drew McIntyre in March 2020.
The Dark Order
In December 2020, the wrestling world lost Brodie Lee, who had worked with Rowan in WWE as Luke Harper (later just Harper.)
In a tribute episode of AEW Dynamite, Rowan (working under the name Erick Redbeard) appeared alongside the Dark Order, Lee’s stable.
Speaking about the group, which has carried on despite Lee’s passing, Rowan said he did not share an interest in joining.
“It was never a conversation. I was doing and pursuing my own things and I don’t know, just it was it was never a thing. I didn’t want to be that guy that distracts and always made you remind people of a loss especially that quickly and with the Dark Order. I wanted nothing to do with it and that’s not to say that I’m better or not. ]
“What I’m saying is I didn’t want anything to do with it because that’s his legacy. If it’s going to fizzle out I want it to fizzle out but he made it and created that in such a quick amount of time. I want that to be the memory of him.”
After appearing for the Brodie Lee memorial Dynamite, Rowan has competed twice for AEW, first in a losing effort at AEW Revolution 2022, where he teamed with PAC and Penta Oscura, and on an August 2022 Rampage, teaming with Danhausen.
