Let’s Be Honest With Each Other About Uncle Howdy

We’re coming up on nine months since Windham Rotunda passed away.

In some ways, it feels like he died yesterday, but in other ways, it feels like it happened several years ago.

Since he left us, there has been a zillion rumors and reports that his brother, the artist formerly known as Bo Dallas, will be continuing the legacy that Windham started. During Windham’s last run as Bray Wyatt, he was often joined on-screen by the mysterious Uncle Howdy character, played by Bo. With Bray no longer a part of WWE programming, could Uncle Howdy make a return?

If you’ve even casually watched WWE shows recently, you’ve seen little production glitches and QR codes appearing on the screen during random moments. All the rumors and innuendo say that those are related to Uncle Howdy’s imminent return. Same for the momentary shot of Uncle Howdy at the end of the Bray Wyatt documentary that premiered on Peacock on April 1st.

The latest buzz is that it won’t just be Uncle Howdy that is behind the glitches and codes. Instead, it will be a new stable led by Uncle Howdy, perhaps called the Wyatt 6, or something along those lines. Howdy, Alexa Bliss, Erick Rowan, Nikki Cross, Joe Gacy, and Dexter Lumis are the names being thrown around.

Let me ask you something right here and now, and I want your honest response as soon as possible. Take a look at that list of names again, and then tell me your first impression.

Here’s my first impression…

Yuck.

Hey, we’re all family here, right? We can be real with each other, right?

I want you to think back to the history of Bray Wyatt. Specifically Bray Wyatt. Not Husky Harris, Duke Rotundo, or any other name that Windham Rotunda has used in his career. Just Bray Wyatt.

If you can truly be honest with yourselves, with me, and with the rest of us… it’s totally fair to say that not everything Bray Wyatt did was a home run. Some of it wasn’t even a double. There was a lot of nonsense, and if you believe all accounts, he was directly responsible for damn near all of what you saw on television with the things his character said and did.

Windham Rotunda is viewed by many people, in and out of the wrestling business, as one of the most brilliant creative minds to ever grace the sport with their presence. Even with that said, he had a lot of “duds” in his time as Bray Wyatt.

Why, then, do people suddenly feel that Taylor Rotunda, the man behind the Bo Dallas character that people h-a-t-e-d for most of its run, can pick up where his brother left off?

Folks, I get that people are rooting for Taylor. He seems like a good guy, and with the passing of his brother, people are going to hope that he can make some magic, too, to honor his sibling in the best possible way.

I’m just not understanding where all of this faith is coming from.

Let’s go beyond that, though, and look at the rumored “Wyatt 6” cast of characters again.

Joseph Ruud, the man behind the Erick Rowan character, also seems like a good guy. Rowan is also the one member of the Wyatt Family that was never able to achieve success on his own. When he didn’t have Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Braun Strowman to lean on, what was he able to accomplish? That might sound mean, and I’m not intending it to sound like a “this guy ain’t shit” diatribe, but I’m just being honest. What has he done without any combination of those three men to work with? Unfortunately for him, Wyatt and Harper are obviously unavailable, and unless plans change, Strowman won’t be, either. What does he do?

Alexa Bliss has, at times, been one of the most popular acts in all of professional wrestling. Even her biggest detractors can’t deny that. However, I need everyone to think back to when we last saw her around… the very end of 2022 and the very beginning of 2023… by that point, any tread that was left on the tires of Alexa’s Bray-related character was worn out. Only her biggest diehard fans were still enjoying her act at that point, and a lot of people were tired of it long, long before that. Is that supposed to change if she returns and, for all intents and purposes, plays the same character with a different set of people by her side?

Joe Gacy. Ahh, Joe Gacy. What can I say about Joe Gacy that hasn’t already been said about genital herpes? Since arriving in NXT, Gacy has been compared to Bray Wyatt, and not in a favorable way. As a heel, he was the Temu version of Bray’s dark “cult leader” type of character. Now that he’s a face, he is the Temu version of Bray’s wild and kooky Firefly Funhouse type of character. He did all that without any direct connection to Bray Wyatt. How do you think it will end up looking when he’s directly connected via a stable involving the Uncle Howdy character?

Dexter Lumis was a cult (no pun intended) favorite when he was in NXT. Then he got called up to the main roster and he died several slow deaths as he was shoved out in front of crowds who didn’t know him at all. On pure physical looks alone, he would be a great fit for anything resembling the Wyatt Family, as he has the “psycho serial killer” thing down pat. I’m merely wondering if another round of “who the fuck is this guy” questions are what he needs in his career. Outside of two random battle royal appearances, he hasn’t wrestled on television since March 2023, so there’s no shortage of main roster fans who either don’t remember him, or simply don’t know him to begin with.

Nikki Cross is, admittedly, an interesting name to discuss. She has done very well playing “crazy” characters in other stables, of course, so this could… should… be right up her alley. My main concern with her is that she was never able to recover from what the Nikki A.S.H. character did for her crowd reactions. It should’ve been something fun and kid-friendly, but it backfired, and it ended up giving her little-to-no reaction on a weekly basis, even though she was given the biggest push of her career during that time period. That lack of reaction has carried over since the A.S.H. character went away, and now, she damn near seems to be persona non grata on WWE programming. She hasn’t wrestled in over six months, and that last appearance came in a battle royal. The last time she wrestled more than one time in a single month of television was July 2023, and one of those was a Tag Team Turmoil match where, once again, the company just needed a bunch of extra bodies thrown in. If you strip away all of the “extra bodies” matches, you have to go back to 2022 to find when she was even remotely active on television. Realistically, how much of a crowd reaction is she expected to get when she hasn’t been “relevant” in that long?

If this was all PURELY on looks and physical traits alone, any combination of the aforementioned wrestlers would make for a great Wyatt-type stable. Lumis looks like has human corpses buried beneath his house. Rowan looks like he helped put them there. Cross is as unpredictable as it gets when it comes to the women of WWE. Bliss lures you in with how innocent she can be, and seems like the type of siren that lures you to your doom. Gacy is a member of the WWE roster.

Unfortunately, it isn’t PURELY based on looks and physical traits alone.

We miss Bray Wyatt. I get it. We miss Windham Rotunda. I get it. It has many of us hopeful for what may be to come with Uncle Howdy and anyone that may or may not be involved with his return.

If you’re looking for a positive… and after all of my negativity here, you should be… you can be thankful that the one person who made all the final decisions for almost all of Bray Wyatt’s career isn’t there anymore. For years, we got to see a bunch of wild creativity from the Bray character, only for it to largely go nowhere, with him losing feud after feud after feud, only to randomly target someone else each time he lost. You could probably make a top ten list in column or YouTube form of the biggest bungles in Bray’s career that Vince McMahon was solely responsible for. With Vince out of the way, the more optimistic folks out there might feel that anything even remotely resembling Bray Wyatt and his vision will be treated infinitely better.

I hope so.

I’ve been very complimentary of Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s time as the head of creative for WWE. His run hasn’t been perfect, but he has helped to right many of the wrongs that have made WWE’s product so poor over the last few decades. I would love to be proven wrong on this, but I’m just not sure he can “save” this idea of a new Wyatt-related group. I’m worried that it will be yet another example of a “lesser copycat” group that we’ve seen a bunch of times in wrestling history. Oh, you really liked that one thing, huh? How about we give it to you again years later, only with different names, less of a story, and an obvious nostalgia play fueling the entire thing? Would you like that?

I want to hear from you now.

First and foremost, what do you think we’ll get from Uncle Howdy? Will it be just him, or will there be others that follow him? Secondly, what do you WANT to see from Uncle Howdy? Are you looking forward to any of this stuff happening, or do you think any success will be a long shot? As always, hit me up in the comments section below, or on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), and let me know what’s on your mind.

Now, let’s get to my Weekly Power Rankings, before we finish things up with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this column together.

Weekly Power Rankings

Kazuchika Okada vs Dax Harwood: This was a weird reason for Tony Khan to warn everyone about a significant television overrun, but hey, at least the match was really good. I’m just not a fan of any wrestling promotion doing something like that. It’s one step away from going “hey, you’ll want to make sure you watch the last 15 minutes of our show because we have a very big surprise debut you’ll want to see” and ruining something special.

Jey Uso vs Ilja Dragunov: I’ve seen a ton of anger and frustration due to the result of this match, and frankly, I don’t understand why that is. There’s no way Dragunov should’ve won this match. Yes, you could’ve made the argument that these two shouldn’t have faced off at this point at all, but that wasn’t the debate. The argument was that Dragunov should’ve defeated Jey, which would give us Dragunov vs Gunther on tonight’s episode of Raw. As I’ve said, why in the hell would WWE want to give away the first main roster match between Dragunov and Gunther on a random episode of Raw in May? In what would does that even begin to make sense. That’s a pay-per-view match, and it should be built up as such. Clash At The Castle is a little under a month away. Money In The Bank is about six weeks away. SummerSlam is about two-and-a-half months away. Bash In Berlin is a little more than three months away. That last one makes the most sense to me. Dragunov was raised in Germany, and both men essentially made their names in the country, especially in Westside Xtreme Wrestling. If you put Dragunov vs Gunther on the Bash In Berlin card, that crowd is going to lose their minds.

Kofi Kingston vs Gunther: I was hoping Rey Mysterio would’ve defeated Kofi at the house show to earn this spot against Gunther. Nothing against Kofi. We’ve just seen Kofi and Gunther on opposite sides of a match five times since the one and only time we saw Rey and Gunther face each other on television. With that said, this was a really enjoyable match, even if the outcome was never in question. Kofi really brought the heat, and Gunther was… well… Gunther.

Jon Moxley & Bryan Danielson vs Jeff Cobb & Kyle Fletcher: Jeff Cobb is entirely too talented to be losing as often as he does. He’s 3-5 in AEW, which isn’t terrible, I suppose, but those three wins have taken place on Rampage, and really, what does winning on Rampage mean? He shows up, does some spectacular power moves, loses unless the match is on Rampage, and moves on. That’s it. He should be doing more.

Randy Orton vs Carmelo Hayes: Orton has been wrestling since approximately 1964. At what point will his opponents learn not to attempt moves off the top rope or in any sort of springboard situation? They make for some amazing highlight reel RKO knockouts, and this match was no different, but come on now… start using your brains, folks.

Bianca Belair vs Tiffany Stratton: The current Bianca Belair vs The next Bianca Belair. Fun stuff here. They already have a lot of in-ring chemistry together, and I think they could have a fun feud in the future with the roles reversed, with Bianca as the heel and Tiffany as the face.

Charlie Dempsey vs Tony D’Angelo: The journey of the Heritage Cup continues to be one that I’m not 100% invested in, but on the bright side, the live NXT crowds are finally starting to come around to the matches. That’s a good sign. I liked the potential of Dempsey as the champion, but the super popular Tony D is only going to add prestige and interest to the Cup.

New Catch Republic vs AOP vs The Creed Brothers vs Finn Balor & JD McDonagh: Is it just me, or does it seem like WWE has a three or four-way match to name #1 contenders for titles on a damn near weekly basis these days? Far more often than not, the matches are entertaining, but that’s really uninspired writing.

Je’Von Evans vs Oro Mensah: What is inspired is the way NXT has been handling Je’Von Evans in his brief time on the brand. He still has “Future NXT Champion” written all over him.

Iyo Sky vs Shayna Baszler: I continue to wait for Shayna Baszler to be treated better on the main roster now that Triple H is running things. It’s a good thing I’m not holding my breath, or I would’ve died several deaths by now.

This Week’s Playlist: “Atavista” by Childish Gambino… “Human Sacrifice” by Childish Gambino… “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” by Luke Combs… “Win Wit Us” by 42 Dugg… “One Of Those” by Glasses Malone, Xzibit & Kurupt… “Bring ‘Em Out” by Glasses Malone, Lil Wayne & Cam’ron… “Don’t Wake The Dead” by PAIN… “Monsters” by Visions Of Atlantis… “I Luv Your Girl” by The Dream… “What Happened To That Boy” by Baby & Clipse… “Wobble Wobble” by 504 Boyz… “Players Holiday” by TWDY, Too $hort & Mac Mall… “Forever and Ever, Amen” by Randy Travis… “Neon Moon” by Brooks & Dunn… “Carrying Your Love With Me” by George Strait… “Wink” by Neal McCoy… “Take It Easy” by Eagles… “More Than A Feeling” by Boston… “Even Flow” by Pearl Jam… “All Apologies” by Nirvana… “Dammit” by blink-182… “Gone Away” by The Offspring… “Wicked Game” by HIM… “Faithfully” by Journey… “Right Here” by Staind