He’s still got the whole wide world in his hands. Though the incomparable Windham Lawrence Rotunda, a.k.a. Bray Wyatt, is gone from this world, having unexpectedly lost his life in his sleep last August — at the young age of 36 — to a cardiac event that stemmed from a pre-existing heart condition made worse by COVID-19, his influence in the WWE is thriving by way of Uncle Howdy and the Wyatt Sicks 6.
Making their jaw-dropping return/debut on the June 17 episode of WWE RAW, led by Uncle Howdy, it’s unknown just how many fans understand the layers to this storyline and the laundry list of Easter eggs that hinted at the massacre in Corpus Christi.
SEE FULL RETURN OF THE WYATT SICKS 6 HERE.
It didn’t begin with the emergence of QR codes in episodes of RAW and SmackDown over the past several weeks. Far from it, actually, because this has been plotted, planned and schemed for over the course of years — picking up steam following Wyatt’s passing, which hints largely at “The New Face of Fear” having put the wheels in motion prior to that fateful night in August 2023.
It’s time to pull back the curtain on exactly how masterful not only Wyatt’s and Paul Levesque’s (Triple H) was pre- and post-mortem, but to also reveal who played the biggest role(s) in leading us to this fantastic point of madness and despair.
The Wyatt Sicks 6 Faction
- Uncle Howdy - Bo Dallas
- Erick Rowan - Ramblin’ Rabbit
- Dexter Lumis - Mercy the Buzzard
- Nikki Cross - Abby the Witch (Sister Abigail)
- Joe Gacy - Huskus the Pig Boy
Dallas is Wyatt’s real-life sibling, making it that much more meaningful to him to see Bray’s vision of Uncle Howdy executed to perfection, as it was. It’s clear Dallas is still suffering from the loss of his brother, and using it to drive him to potential greatness as Uncle Howdy, evidenced by a detail missed by most of the audience amidst the carnage of Monday night.
Bray Wyatt would routinely don his “Hurt” and “Heal” gloves in promos and the like, and Dallas/Howdy wore only one glove that held up the Lantern on June 17.
It was the “Hurt” glove.
The “Heal” glove was absent.
Powerful stuff, and it further indicates he’s about to go on a warpath.
Nobody is safe.
Rowan has a special stake in the emergence of this as well, which goes without saying as he’s an original and founding member of The Wyatt Family. He’s felt plenty of suffering at the hands of death as well, considering the passing of Luke Harper (real name Jonathan Huber, a.k.a. Brodie Lee in AEW) in December 2020 from a lung disorder not related to COVID-19 — idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
With two-thirds of TWF gone, there’s a ton of pressure on Rowan to carry that weight while helping Dallas and the Rotunda family heal through the manifestation of TW6.
And then there’s Nikki Cross and Joe Gacy …
Bearing the Cross
Nikki Cross, formerly WWE Women’s RAW Champion Nikki A.S.H. (Almost a Superhero), as it turns out, outside of Dallas, was arguably the most important character in weaving everything over the past several months, but her connection to it all goes back years, and it began with her friendship with Alexa Bliss — the former demented apprentice of Bray Wyatt who curiously remains absent for now.
For … now.
Cross and Bliss were best friends heading into the 2020 pandemic year, but all of that changed once Wyatt converted Bliss from babyface wrestler to a psychotic Harley Quinn-esque minion of the dark side.
Cross then made it her mission to pry Bliss away from Wyatt’s influence (talk about hindsight irony, whew).
Hmm ...
Her efforts were wildly unsuccessful, and instead led to the full-on destruction of their relationship when Bliss finally snapped and beat the daylights out of Cross on national TV.
Flash forward to late 2023, and Cross’ usually emphatically energetic disposition suddenly flipped to more of a walking trace, similar to the oxymoron of a moving catatonia, seemingly being controlled by someone or something; and it timed up with the world losing Wyatt.
Were Wyatt and Uncle Howdy possessing Cross as early as eight months ago??
Flash forward to late 2023, and Cross’ usually emphatically energetic disposition suddenly flipped to more of a walking trace, similar to the oxymoron of a moving catatonia, seemingly being controlled by someone or something; and it timed up with the world losing Wyatt.
Were Wyatt and Uncle Howdy, possessing Cross as early as eight months ago??
As it turned out, the answer was f–k yes.
Cross’ hiatus thereafter built plenty of suspense that it might be her in the bone-chilling videos attached to the QR codes, though there was also rightful wonder regarding the status of Bliss, who could still appear at any time and whose continued silence could be for two reasons:
To make for another explosive chapter in The Wyatt Sicks 6, and she potentially needs more time in her grieving process, considering just how close she was to Bray Wyatt.
Either way, we patiently await the return of the dark queen.
And if you want proof that Wyatt was potentially pulling strings on all of this prior to his death in August, look no further than an episode of WWE Raw in February 2023. That’s when Dexter Lumis, the eventual Mercy the Buzzard, began hinting at an eerie fascination with Cross (as I said, she’s long been involved in this plan) in an exchange with Candice LeRae and Johnny Gargano.
It was so odd for Lumis, of all people, to cut such a promo, but now it all makes sense. He was already being recruited to join The Wyatt 6, but he first had to begin paying homage to the eventual Abby the Witch (Sister Abigail), as a part of his rite.
This occurred only four months after Wyatt made his return to WWE in an emotional way — delivering a tear-fueled thank you to his Fireflies for supporting him through everything, including his struggles with mental health.
His return was also tied to not only the “Passing of the Torch” from The Undertaker on the 30th Anniversary of WWE RAW, but Wyatt also revealed the masked entity known as, you guessed it: Uncle Howdy.
That iteration of Howdy was exactly as he is now, though he was psychologically torturing Wyatt to keep him from escaping the dark side, constantly haunting his thoughts and appearances.
And, not long after, Cross, Lumis and others began their descent into madness, and not only on RAW, but on NXT as well.
The way this was all strung together was nothing short of ... Fiendish.
Asylum Joe
While Cross, Lumis and Bliss were all battling Demons on RAW, there was something strange happening on NXT by way of Joe Gacy, a former cult leader in his own right.
Gacy, the founder of the Schism, began to show signs of a change around the same time that Cross’ trance-like state took hold of her, making this a cross-brand storyline that no one could piece together until it was time for it to all make sense.
Once Gacy detonated the Schism, his insanity began to take hold of him, and swiftly, constantly displaying paranoia and dementia in his new solo character that left many not only dumbfounded, but outright terrified.
Schism ended in September 2023, by the way.
HMMMM ...
Gacy’s final match in NXT was against Shawn Spears not long after madness took over him completely, as you can see in his entrance to the match at NXT Stand and Deliver in February 2024.
Since then, the WWE has been completing his addition to The Wyatt Sicks 6 as Huskus the Pig Boy, a masked character that stems back years in Bray Wyatt’s influence, particularly in the Firefly Funhouse — originally portrayed as a demented doll (as each character initially was) in the pre-pandemic seasons of WWE RAW.
By now, you’ve hopefully picked up on just how many levels there are and have been that led up to what we were all blessed enough to witness on June 18 in Corpus Christi, Texas.
There’s now a metric ton of pressure on Triple H, the WWE and the entirety of The Wyatt Sick 6 to deliver a follow-up and storyline(s) that take full advantage of the massive amount of momentum created by the build-up and legendary payoff.
This will go down as one of the best lead-ins in the history of wrestling, and feels every bit (and looks) like a Hollywood horror production with Wes Craven and Stephen King manning the inkwell.
And while we impatiently await the next chapter, to see who their victims will be — keeping in mind that SmackDown is due for a massacre of some sort as well — we can all agree on one thing, right here and right now when it comes to the brilliance of Bray Wyatt:
He’s still got the whole world in his hands.
::: FULL CALENDAR FOR WWE EVENTS HERE.
>
