The Wyatt Family The Wyatt Family was a villainous professional wrestling stable in WWE . The stable - which has the gimmick of a backwoods cult - originally consisted of the leader Bray Wyatt , and his followers Luke Harper and Erick Rowan and Braun Stowman . History . Developmental territories ( 2012 – 2013 ) . The character of Bray Wyatt debuted in Florida Championship Wrestling in April 2012 and initially associated himself with Eli Cottonwood . When WWE rebranded their developmental territory , Wyatt debuted on the fourth episode of the new " WWE NXT " , defeating Aiden English in a singles match . Wyatt is portrayed as an evil cult leader who believes himself to be more monster than human . The character drew comparisons to Max Cady of the 1991 film " Cape Fear " and Waylon Mercy . In July , Wyatt suffered a torn pectoral muscle and required surgery . Despite the injury , Wyatt continued to appear on " NXT " by founding a faction known as The Wyatt Family in November , with Luke Harper as his first " son " and Erick Rowan as his second . Harper and Rowan entered the NXT Tag Team Championship tournament to crown the inaugural champions , and they defeated Percy Watson and Yoshi Tatsu in the first round on the January 23 , 2013 , episode of " NXT " . Following a win over Bo Dallas and Michael McGillicutty in the semi - finals with Wyatt ' s interference , Harper and Rowan were defeated in the finals of the tournament by Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey . Wyatt had his first match back from injury on the February 21 episode of " NXT " , defeating Yoshi Tatsu . The Wyatt Family later assaulted Grey ( who had suffered a legitimate injury ) while Wyatt prevented Dallas from winning a NXT Championship number one contender match due to Dallas refusal to join the Wyatt Family . Dallas went on to hand Wyatt his first loss on the March 13 episode of " NXT " . On the May 2 episode of " NXT " , while Wyatt was defeated by six - time world champion Chris Jericho , Harper and Rowan won a triple threat elimination tag match by last pinning tag champion Neville to earn a shot at the titles . On the May 8 " NXT " ( taped on May 2 ) , Harper and Rowan defeated Neville and Bo Dallas , filling in for the injured Grey , to win the NXT Tag Team Championship . The Wyatt Family went on to feud with Corey Graves and Kassius Ohno , with Wyatt defeating Graves on the May 22 " NXT " , and the next week Wyatt eliminated both Graves and Ohno during an 18 - man battle royal to determine the number one contender to the NXT Championship , although he was later eliminated by Adrian Neville . On the June 19 " NXT " , the Wyatt Family defeated the team of Graves , Neville and Ohno . On the next " NXT " , the Wyatt Family , together with Garrett Dylan and Scott Dawson , attacked Graves , Neville and Ohno ; when William Regal tried to make the save , he was also overwhelmed . This led to the Wyatt Family facing Graves , Neville and Regal in a six - man tag match the next week , where Wyatt pinned Regal for the win . Main roster ( 2013 – 2014 ) . From the May 27 episode of " Raw " , WWE aired vignettes promoting the upcoming debut of the Wyatt Family . The vignettes showed the Wyatt Family ' s backwoods origins and Rowan wearing a sheep mask . On the July 8 episode of " Raw " , the Wyatt Family made their debut by assaulting Kane . The Wyatt Family continued their attacks on wrestlers like R - Truth , Justin Gabriel and 3MB ( Drew McIntyre , Heath Slater , and Jinder Mahal ) while sending cryptic messages to Kane asking him to " follow the buzzards " . Following another assault , Kane challenged Wyatt to a Ring of Fire match at SummerSlam , which he accepted . On August 18 at the pay - per - view , Wyatt defeated Kane in the Ring of Fire match , following interference from Harper and Rowan . After the match , Harper and Rowan again attacked Kane and ended the segment by carrying him away . At WWE Battleground , Wyatt ' s momentum continued with a win over Kofi Kingston On the October 11 " SmackDown " , Harper and Rowan suffered their first loss against Cody Rhodes and Goldust . The Wyatt Family ' s next feud began when they attacked Daniel Bryan and CM Punk in late October ; the feud saw Harper lose his first singles match to Punk . At Survivor Series , Harper and Rowan lost to Bryan and Punk , but the entire Wyatt Family defeated Bryan in a handicap match at , with Wyatt attempting to recruit Bryan in the previous weeks . On the final " Raw " of 2013 , Bryan defeated Harper and then Rowan in a gauntlet match so that he could face Wyatt , whereupon Harper and Rowan interfered for a disqualification and beat him down . A frustrated Bryan finally gave up and gave in to join the Wyatt Family . However , after Bryan joined them , the Wyatt Family could not find success . This caused Wyatt to punish Bryan , leading to Bryan attacking all the other members of the Wyatt Family on the January 13 Raw to signal him breaking free of the group . At the Royal Rumble , Wyatt defeated Bryan in a singles match , while both Harper and Rowan entered the Royal Rumble match and they managed two and zero eliminations respectively before they were eliminated . Also at the Royal Rumble event , the Wyatt Family cost John Cena his WWE World Heavyweight Championship match against Randy Orton . On the January 27 " Raw " , the Wyatt Family attacked Bryan , Cena and Sheamus during an Elimination Chamber qualifying match against the Shield , thus awarding Bryan ' s team a disqualification win and the Chamber match slots . The Shield wanted revenge , so a six - man tag match was set up between the Shield and the Wyatt Family at the Elimination Chamber event , which the Wyatt Family won . Later at the same event , the Wyatt Family ' s interference caused Cena to be eliminated from the Elimination Chamber match . On the March 10 " Raw " , the group confronted Cena and Hulk Hogan , with Wyatt claiming that both Cena and Hogan were " liars " , using their heroic personas as facades . This prompted Cena to challenge Wyatt to a match at WrestleMania XXX , which Wyatt accepted . With Cena successfully resisting the urge to become a " monster " and overcoming interference from Harper and Rowan to defeat Wyatt at WrestleMania . The feud continued after WrestleMania based on the story that Wyatt was capturing Cena ' s fanbase , which was exemplified by Wyatt leading a children ' s choir to the ring on the April 28 episode of Raw , with the children later putting on sheep masks . At Extreme Rules , Wyatt defeated Cena in a steel cage match , after repeated interference from the rest of the Wyatt Family and a demonic child . Cena ' s feud with Wyatt continued with a Last Man Standing match being set up for Payback . At the pay - per - view , Cena buried Wyatt under multiple equipment cases to win the match and end the feud . After defeating Sheamus and the Tag Team Champions The Usos , Wyatt Family interrupts by the Returning Chris Jericho as well as The Miz and hits Sister Abigail to Chris Jericho . Bray Wyatt appears after defeating The Miz from Chris Jericho and Bray Wyatt accepts that will face Chris Jericho at Battleground 2014 which is accepted . Feud with Dean Ambrose and break up . The Wyatt ' s last televised match while together as a trio aired on the September 17 episode of SmackDown , when all three Wyatt Family members defeated Big Show and Los Matadores . They were then taken off television . From September 29 , videos were shown of Harper and Rowan being " set free " . All three members of the Wyatt Family returned to television on their own and apart from each other , confirming the end of the group . Wyatt returned at Hell in a Cell on October 26 , attacking Dean Ambrose . Rowan returned on the October 31 episode of SmackDown and later turned face by joining John Cena ' s team at Survivor Series , whilst Harper returned on the November 10 episode of Raw and aligned himself with The Authority . Return and Braun Strowman . At Raw , August 24 , Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper took on Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose in a Tag Team Match . The lights went out for a minute and a huge man appeared and made short work of Reigns and Ambrose . Bray Wyatt later introduced the new Wyatt Family Member as “ The Black Sheep ” Braun Strowman . Erick Rowan return and feud with Undertaker . At Hell in a Cell 2015 Undertaker wrestled against Brock Lesnar . After the match , which Brock Lesnar won , The Wyatt Family appeared ( with the returning Erick Rowan ) and attacked The Undertaker . The Wyatt Family carried him away after the beatdown . From this moment , the Wyatt Family contains 4 members : Bray Wyatt , Luke Harper , Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman . Face Turn and Feud with The League of Nations . On April 7 episode of Smackdown , the Family turns face for the first time in their WWE career as a faction ( second turn for Rowan ' s case ) after they attacked The League of Nations . Next week on Raw , the Family saves their former rival Roman Reigns from the League , as well as Wyatt and Reigns teams up to defeat Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio later that night , thus cementing their face turn .