Erick Rowan was recently released by WWE along with several other Superstars and employees as part of the COVID-19 purge, but right before he left he was involved with the much-maligned "mystery pet" in a cage angle.
Rowan would bring a small cage to the ring with him each week on Raw, terrifying anyone who so much as peeked beneath the covering. It was painfully obvious that this gimmick was introduced without a proper payoff in mind, and in the end, the creature was revealed to be a giant mechanical spider.
Rowan, who now goes by the name Erick RedBeard, was asked about this storyline during an interview with Sportskeeda (via PW Mania), and revealed that he had some very different ideas for what could be in the cage; some better, others... well, have a read for yourselves.
"Rowan said he sent numerous messages to then-RAW Executive Director Paul Heyman and the other WWE writers, writing out long ideas for what he thought the storyline should be. Rowan noted that he had several over the top ideas for the reveal, including one idea based off the world’s smallest woman that was featured on American Horror Story. Rowan had an idea where they would build a slightly larger pet cage, and the “little woman” would be inside of it. Rowan and the little woman would have become friends, in a relationship where Rowan locked the woman in the cage to protect her from the atrocities of the outside world. Rowan believed this would have shown a different side to his character, playing off how he was a large man and this was a small, delicate woman he was protecting.
On the day where they decided McIntyre would destroy the spider, Rowan said he wrote a long e-mail to Heyman to pitch another idea where there was no animal inside the cage, but the “worst fear” of anyone who looked in it. This was a play off how Mojo Rawley and No Way Jose had been terrified when they saw inside of the cage."
The worst fears thing might have worked, but we're not sure sticking actress Jyoti Amge in the cage would have been the best idea!
Rowan also suggested that he would have returned for a guest appearance in the recent Swamp Fight between his old stablemates Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt if his schedule had allowed for it.
What do you think about Erick's ideas for the mystery pet?