10 Primary Dynamics in WWE Royal Rumble 2017 Match
By Adam O'Brien
WWE.com
3. The Wyatt Family reaches its boiling point
After losing to Randy Orton on this week’s SmackDown Live, it looks as though Luke Harper has been excommunicated from The Wyatt Family.
Bray Wyatt hyped the match-up as a platform for Orton and Harper to settle their differences in, going on to say that once the bell rings, The Wyatt Family will be stronger than ever before. It wasn’t until he nailed Sister Abigail on Luke Harper after the match, however, that we learned what this really meant.
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By the looks of things, Bray Wyatt saw his post-match attack as “taking out the trash”, with Luke Harper’s defeat making him the weak link of the faction. Now, we head into the Royal Rumble on Sunday with a completely different Wyatt Family dynamic than expected. Harper, assuming he won’t take too kindly to being shunned by his mentor, will probably be going to San Antonio with vengeance on his mind.
At the same time, it’s hard not to look at this result and believe that this is what Randy Orton wanted all along — to infiltrate The Wyatt Family so that he can isolate Bray Wyatt before he turns on him himself. By that point, Harper won’t come crawling back because he knows that Wyatt considers him expendable.
It’s a story based on spectacular long-term psychology if this does happen to be the case, which makes the prospect of a three-way dance between these men that much more exciting. The alliance of The Wyatt Family with Randy Orton involved has been a treat to watch, and now that it might be coming to an end very soon, the renewed rivalry — hopefully between all three men — is going to be fantastic.
Of course, that all comes down to what happens when Harper, Orton, and Wyatt come face-to-face in the Alamodome, and the truth behind Tuesday’s attack is revealed.