The Brawling Brutes

During the 2021 WWE Draft, Ridge Holland was drafted from *NXT* to *SmackDown*. On the November 5 episode of *SmackDown*, during a backstage interview, Holland referred to Sheamus as his idol. On the November 19 episode of *SmackDown*, Holland helped Sheamus defeat Cesaro, Ricochet, and Jinder Mahal in a four-way match, starting an alliance between the two. On January 1, 2022, at Day 1, Holland would team with Sheamus to defeat Cesaro and Ricochet; however, during the match, Holland would suffer a broken nose and would be removed mid-match.

In March, they would enter a feud with The New Day, where on the March 11 episode of *SmackDown*, Sheamus and Holland would introduce Butch as part of their stable. After an overhead belly-to-belly suplex by Holland on Big E legitimately broke the latter's neck, Big E was promptly removed from the rivalry, leaving only Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. On night two of WrestleMania 38, Holland and Sheamus defeated Kingston and Woods in a tag team match.

On the August 19 episode of *SmackDown*, Sheamus won a fatal five-way match, earning a match against Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship at Clash at the Castle. The following week on *SmackDown*, Sheamus and Gunther had a confrontation, in which Sheamus and Gunther's respective allies, Butch and Ludwig Kaiser, engaged in a brawl while Sheamus and Gunther remained motionless, staring each other down, and eventually started a slow face turn for their stable. At Clash at the Castle, Sheamus lost to Gunther, but received a standing ovation from the Cardiff crowd, cementing the stable's face turn. On the September 23 episode of *SmackDown*, Holland and Butch faced The Usos for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful after interference from Imperium. After defeating The Bloodline's Sami Zayn and Solo Sikoa in a tag team match, Holland and Butch received another opportunity against The Usos at Crown Jewel, where they failed to win the titles. Three weeks later at Survivor Series WarGames on November 26, The Brawling Brutes, along with Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens lost to the The Bloodline in a WarGames match. After regaining each other's respect at WarGames, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre reformed their on-again-off-again tag team, which they jokingly referred to by the suggestive name, "The Banger Brothers", leading to McIntyre becoming an ally of the Brutes. Over the next few months, McIntyre and Sheamus would team up, until March 2023, when McIntyre supposedly went behind Sheamus' back and challenged Gunther for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Sheamus would start to be less involved in the Brawling Brutes' other feuds against Pretty Deadly and The Judgment Day. The Brawling Brutes competed in the SummerSlam battle royal, but all failed to win. Butch would enter the *NXT* Global Heritage Invitational and would win the tournament by beating Joe Coffey in the finals. Butch would fail to beat Noam Dar for the NXT Heritage Cup. Butch then began an alliance with Tyler Bate to fight Joe Coffey's group Gallus. Ridge Holland would interfere in their match to help Butch. A six-man tag team Pub Rules match would end the feud with The Brawling Brutes beating Gallus.

On the November 17 episode of *SmackDown*, visible dissension appeared between Holland and Butch after a loss to the Street Profits. One week later, Holland walked out on Butch during a tag team match against Pretty Deadly, resulting in a loss in what would be their final match as a team. On the December 19 episode of *NXT*, Holland returned to the brand challenge its champion, Ilja Dragunov, thus confirming his departure from *SmackDown*, as well as the separation of the faction.