After months of build-up, The Wyatt Sicks made their official debut on June 17, 2024, and it was certainly a memorable one. It was a haunting and terrifying visual that showed the group violently attacking the backstage crew and Chad Gable. Immediately, Bo Dallas, Erick Rowan, Dexter Lumis, Nikki Cross, and Joe Gacy made a strong impression. And came across as a serious main event-level threat that would dominate the WWE landscape for months or years to come.
The Wyatt Sicks Debut All Was Style With Little Substance
Fast forward to four months later, and what was an awesome WWE debut has become one of the worst introductions of the year. The problem with The Wyatt Sicks debut is that it seemed that Triple H wanted to have his cake and eat it too. Triple H created this terrifying group who ran roughshod over the backstage personnel.
This is a strong warning to the roster, just like when Nexus destroyed John Cena, The Straight Edge Society, and everything at ringside that wasn’t glued down. This debut should’ve sent shockwaves throughout the entire WWE locker room. Instead, it was business as usual the next night on NXT.
Imagine if Shawn Michaels enforced heavy security due to the attack from the Wyatt Sicks? This group didn’t have any allegiance to RAW, so they could’ve done the same thing on NXT and Smackdown. This angle should’ve been treated as something HUGE; Wrestlers should’ve been looking over their shoulders hoping to not be the next victim. Nick Aldis, Ava Raine, and Adam Pearce should’ve been acting extremely cautious and nervous over what the unpredictable group could do next. This would’ve massively put over The Wyatt Sicks and their incredible debut would’ve had more impact.
The business-as-usual approach cheapened their debut. For God’s sake, these employees and Chad Gable looked dead! How could this incident be treated as something minor? I know that WWE isn’t a place where cops or the law in general exists, but the lack of follow-up to such a powerful introduction was disappointing.
If WWE never intended for the Wyatt Sicks to be in the main event, then they should’ve scaled back on the attack. Drop the massacre angle and simply go after Chad Gable. That makes more sense. The reason the Wyatt Sicks targeting Gable was sound, but what about everyone else who was lying dead in production?
Did they screw over their families too? This was an incredibly heelish act. The scope of their debut should’ve focused on Chad Gable alone. Would it have been as cool as their original introduction? Probably not. But storytelling-wise, it would’ve made more sense. And the massacre on RAW 6/17 wouldn’t have looked hokey and out of place in foresight.
It felt as if Triple H put all of his energy into the debut of the Wyatt Sicks and then didn’t have much of a follow-up. Granted, the interviews after their debut were great and their matches against Chad Gable were fun, but they were clearly spinning their wheels after Uncle Howdy beat Gable in a singles match.
The Follow-Up Has No Purpose
But it isn’t just the debut that was bad. Had WWE actually followed up with something compelling then it would be easy to forgive their debut. In the first couple of weeks, The Wyatt Sicks showed so much promise. The videos of each of the Wyatt Sicks members explaining how they got to where they are were masterful.
It added depth to each one of these characters and gave hints to their weaknesses that could’ve been exploited in another feud. The problem is that these videos served as nothing more than a pointless epilogue that doesn’t have much more meaning than what was said during that video.
I can’t stress enough just how compelling the Wyatt Sicks as a group is. There’s dozens of stories that you can tell with these characters, but unfortunately, it doesn’t feel that WWE understands what to do with them.
I’m still intrigued by Bo saying that the work isn’t done.
What work?
What were the original plans going forward?
From the outset, it seemed like nothing. The Wyatt Sicks haven’t been injured for the entire time that they were out, so injury is not the issue here. Their feuds with American Made and The Final Testament had interesting aspects to them; and there was a good way of diving deeper into both teams while keeping the grounded nature of it.
But everything was kept surface level. Both of these feuds had a compelling moment; I especially loved why they went after the Miz and Chad Gable. But the story with the Wyatt Sicks going after traitors or liars like Miz and Chad Gable just stopped for no good reason.
The Final Testament beat the Wyatt Sicks! Yet, that win did nothing for either faction. Now the Wyatt Sicks have been tossed into the tag team division without any resemblance of the story that they started over a year ago.
Embrace These Characters
The Wyatt Sicks shouldn’t be blending in with the tag team division. This is no disrespect to any of the Smackdown tag teams as they’re all very talented, but WWE has done a piss poor job with character work and storytelling when it comes to tag teams.
The Wyatt Sicks seem to be stuck there because they simply have nothing else for them to do. At this point, they feel like a pointless cash grab. They’re there because fans clearly enjoy the gimmick and will buy the merchandise. But WWE has seemingly stripped all the fun lore that Bray Wyatt first introduced.
Hopefully, this is a case where I’m talking out of my ass. But it’s officially been a year since the group made their debuts so it’s fair to give a detailed assessment. There’s still potential in the Wyatt Sicks. Creative just has to get on board with who they are as characters.
Embrace these zany characters. Embrace the crazy and outlandish moments. Embrace the brilliant world building that had fans hanging on Bray’s every word as The Fiend.
Storytelling doesn’t have to be perfect to get over. That’s the case with The Wyatt Sicks. Even though the faction is a hot act in the eyes of many fans, it can’t be ignored that their first year has been lackluster at best. It’s a shame as the debut created a nice buzz that had an unpredictable feel to it. Now, The Wyatt Sicks are nothing more than a mid-card act who should be so much more.