Erick Rowan Says WWE "Jumped The Shark" With The Fiend

Erick Rowan was a recent guest over at Pro Wrestling Junkies and took the time to do a Q & A with fans. In the discussion, Rowan shared his thoughts on Bray Wyatt's "Fiend" gimmick and said while he loves it, he's afraid WWE will oversaturate and ruin the special factor of it much like they did with Finn Balor's "Demon".

"We were all like brothers," Rowan said. "That also includes that some were closer than others and some got on each other's nerves, but it was a wrestling family. Some of the good stuff and the creativity that we had mostly didn't make it to the screen. I'm glad [Wyatt] is still getting his chance to show it weekly. I loved the Fiend thing, but [WWE] kind of jumped the shark with it. You can't have a bad guy that just gets killed and ran through a steamroller [in loss to Goldberg] and comes right back. You can't expect that to have longevity.

"I'm hoping all of this going in and out of the Fiend character and the Bray Wyatt Firefly Funhouse character – I hope that Fiend character only shows his face every now and then," Rowan added. "It's kind of oversaturation with it. Kind of like the Finn Balor problem. You can't have a guy that comes out as a Demon and make him lose, because that doesn't make him special. So, in that point, I'm sure he'll work his way around it. He's been doing a phenomenal job."

Rowan reflected on his time with the Wyatt Family and said it was a special group of characters that he feels couldn't have been played by any other guys.

"Wyatt Family was a one-of-a-kind thing, man," Rowan said. "To be part of it was surreal. The way all the pieces came together, it just couldn't have happened with other dudes, in my opinion. We formed a piece and it just happened to work."

Rowan discussed some of his favorite moments in WWE and said he really enjoyed teaming with Harper, now Brodie Lee in AEW, and taking on CM Punk and Daniel Bryan as well as working The Usos.

"Most default answers would be when we fought The Shield and had that feud with them because they were great moments," Rowan said. "One that always stood out to me that nobody every talks about is right after we debuted. Bray had gotten hurt, so he was sitting in the rocking chair on the ramp. Nobody ever bothered to say that he was hurt, but we ended up doing a Survivor Series match with Punk and Bryan against me and Harper, now Brodie Lee. That was a really cool moment to be in the ring with those guys. That and The Usos. Those were really cool moments."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Pro Wrestling Junkies with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.