Luke Harper and Erick Rowan | |
---|---|
Tag team | |
Members | Harper/Luke Harper Rowan/Erick Rowan |
Name(s) | Bludgeon Brothers Luke Harper and Erick Rowan The Wyatt Family |
Billed heights | Harper: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) Rowan: 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) |
Combined billed weight | 590 lb (270 kg) Harper: 275 lb (125 kg) Rowan: 315 lb (143 kg) |
Debut | June 22, 2012 |
Disbanded | October 14, 2019 |
Years active | 2012–2014 2015–2016 2017–2019 |
Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, also known as The Bludgeon Brothers, were an American professional wrestling tag team in WWE. They were also known as being members of the cult faction The Wyatt Family, led by Bray Wyatt.
After work at house shows from June 2012 to November 2012, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan made their televised debut as a tag team in January 2013, under the leadership of Bray Wyatt as a part of The Wyatt Family stable. Together, they won the NXT Tag Team Championship in May 2013. They moved to the main roster later that year, eventually starting a feud against each other following the split of The Wyatt Family in late 2014. The duo would reunite in May 2015 and subsequently reconcile with Wyatt, reforming The Wyatt Family. Harper and Rowan suffered injuries during the group's revival, causing the duo to go inactive in 2016.
The duo reunited as a team in October 2017 under the new moniker The Bludgeon Brothers, with their ring names shortened to simply Harper and Rowan. They would go on to capture the SmackDown Tag Team Championship in April 2018 at WrestleMania 34. After losing the titles that August, they spent time apart due to injuries, ultimately reuniting in September 2019, dropping their Bludgeon Brothers gimmick and re-using their original ring names. However, this would be their last time teaming together, as during the 2019 WWE draft, Rowan was drafted to Raw while Harper remained on SmackDown. Harper was then granted his release from the promotion in December due to creative differences, while Rowan was subsequently released in April 2020 due to budget cuts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following their respective releases from WWE, Harper signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Brodie Lee, while Rowan began working on the independent circuit under the ring name Erick Redbeard. On December 26, 2020, Harper unexpectedly died; during an AEW tribute show on December 30, Rowan appeared for the first time in the promotion and paid tribute to his former tag team partner by holding up a sign in the ring that read: "Goodbye for now, my brother. See you down the road."