Luke Harper Talks Adding A Woman to the Wyatt Family & Vince McMahon Yelling at Him

WWE Superstar Luke Harper recently appeared as a guest on Chris Jericho’s popular podcast, “Talk Is Jericho.” During the interview, the Wyatt Family member talked about his time as Intercontinental Champion, valuable advice he received from John Cena, getting yelled at by Vince McMahon, and the possibility of adding a woman to the Wyatt Family.

Harper’s comments on Vince McMahon lacing into him backstage upon not speaking in a southern accent during a pre-match promo:

“I won the Intercontinental title, I beat Ziggler for it. Yeah, I thought it was great. I thought everything was good. (I) came to the back and Vince yelled at me because I didn’t speak in a southern accent, so (it) kind of put a damper on things for a little bit. I had to say, ‘I’m a team player’ (in the pre-match promo), but I had to say it southern because that was his vision of me and it might still be. I hope not. Yes, and our vision of it is our people come from everywhere. (Bray Wyatt’s) message is nationwide. He’s from the bayou, but us, his followers, aren’t necessarily. We kind of pick and choose where he got us.”

Harper was upset during his short time as Intercontinental Champion because he felt that he didn’t really get a chance to do anything with the title. He defeated Dolph Ziggler for the IC belt upon joining The Authority on the November 17, 2014 edition of Raw, and then lost it back to Ziggler at the TLC pay-per-view only 27 days later:

“I was pissed because I thought I didn’t get a fair run with (the title), really. I hadn’t really done anything with it. I thought ‘this is bullshit.’ So I remember talking to Dolph and I said, ‘hey man, I want to do something special here because I’m pissed.’ It was in Cleveland (Ohio), his hometown, so it was, like, again, a perfect storm of stuff.”

Discouragement was really getting the best of Harper after dropping the IC belt. He talked about how, after losing to Ziggler at TLC, John Cena gave him some valuable advice about moving forward that sticks with him to this day:

“I was told by one of the top guys in the business, John Cena, that if you have an at bat and you hit a double or something or you hit a single, you’ll get another at bat, so that (has) always been my mindset now. When I get the ball, do what I can with it. Control what I can control. And if I can go out there and do something special, then, that makes them happy and it makes everybody happy, I’ll get another at bat.”

Lastly, Harper talks about the possibility of adding a woman to the Wyatt Family; agreeing with Jericho that adding a “creepy girl” to the faction could be interesting:

“New blood. I’ve always said that, I thought with a cult like that, we should always have kind of (new members joining) and (grow) bigger. I think (adding a woman) gives us more diverse things and more ways to go instead of just saying, ‘hey, we’re going to beat you up.’”

Mark’s reaction:

Until reading Harper’s comments, I totally forgot that he was Intercontinental Champion. So, it makes sense that he was upset with the way it went because it was obviously not very memorable. I think Harper is a very underrated in-ring wrestler. Standing 6 foot 5 inches, weighing 275 pounds, the guy could really move and is surprisingly light on his feet. I find the way he gets booked to be kind of annoying as he’s sort of the expendable member of the Wyatt Family who takes all the pinfalls. I know someone’s got to be that guy but I feel that the Wyatt Family should just be booked more strongly in general.

It doesn’t surprise me that Vince got upset over something as small as Harper’s pre-match promo. The members of the Wyatt Family never really speak that much anyway so I don’t see why it’s that big of a deal. Like Harper said, Harper’s followers come from all corners of the world, not just the bayou. It’s also nice to hear a pleasant John Cena locker room story as it seems like the only Cena locker room news that ever makes its way to the internet is how much he buried this guy or that guy.

I think new blood for the Wyatt Family, especially a woman, would be a great addition to the faction. Adding a woman brings a fresh new element to that team that we have yet to see. However, if the Wyatt Family were to hypothetically add a woman to the faction, I would like the additions of the group to stop there. I think five members would be enough as I wouldn’t want to see the group grow too big ala nWo. Then again, maybe WWE can find a way to make it work that’ll change my tune.

Would you like to see the Wyatt Family add a woman to their stable? If so, should they stop there or keep recruiting more wrestlers for the ‘family’? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Side note: Enjoy this picture of young Luke Harper, it’s gold. Nice to see him representin’ American Gladiators.