After requesting his release from WWE earlier this year, Luke Harper is reportedly back on the road. Here are five possible opponents for him whenever he returns to television.
At the beginning of 2017, Luke Harper looked like a big deal. He played a pivotal role in the build to WrestleMania 33 after Bray Wyatt became WWE Champion, as he never trusted Randy Orton’s intentions in pairing up with Wyatt during the fall. Harper put on stellar matches on the Road to WrestleMania, including bouts with Orton and AJ Styles.
It seemed like Harper could even get into the ‘Mania 33 title match to make it a Triple Threat, and the match would have been undoubtedly better with him in the mix; Wyatt vs. Orton ended up flopping.
But nothing came of Harper’s strong string of performances in the first half of the year. The same can be said in 2018 when Harper joined forces with former Wyatt Family member Erick Rowan to form The Bludgeon Brothers. Yes, they won the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, but injuries and strange booking prevented them from really doing anything of note as a team.
So it comes as no surprise that Harper requested his release from WWE in April after even more frustrating booking from WWE, whose creative “had nothing” for him. And yet, it wasn’t surprising to see WWE NOT grant his request.
PW Insider’s Mike Johnson now reports that Harper is back on the road for the first time since requesting his release in the spring. Though he hasn’t appeared on WWE television for nearly a year, it’s always nice to bounce around ideas for a few dream matches for whenever Harper makes a return to television.
So here are five possible matches for Harper – one of the most underrated men in WWE.
Bray Wyatt
WWE haven’t given fans a renewed rivalry between these two former cult members, even as Luke Harper and Erick Rowan were thrown into a tag team together with a bizarre gimmick. A meaningful feud with Bray Wyatt could be cathartic for both superstars, and it could be the rivalry we never got to see from these two after WrestleMania 33.
Wyatt is in the midst of a career revival of his own, having shined as the host of the creepy children’s show “Firefly Fun House”. Although it’s hard to believe, Wyatt is somehow stranger than ever, even if he claims to be a man who has changed for the better.
Harper and Wyatt undoubtedly have great chemistry in the ring together, and Harper probably hasn’t missed a beat. Their styles mesh so well together, which isn’t a surprise given that they spent so much time tagging together as part of one of WWE’s most powerful factions.
This match wouldn’t be anywhere near a title picture, but they could have a great series of matches on Raw. WWE fans want to be reminded of how good Harper is in the ring, and his character work is also quite good. A feud with Wyatt would bring out the best in the (hopefully) returning superstar.
Roman Reigns
Although Roman Reigns is way out of Luke Harper’s league, we’ve seen Roman put on great matches with literally anyone on the roster. Remember that time he made Jinder Mahal look like a star months before Mahal touched the WWE Championship at Backlash post-WrestleMania 33? Plus, you can’t tell me a match against Harper would be a worse usage of Reigns’s time than, say, a feud with an ego-tripping Shane McMahon.
Reigns is one of the best wrestlers on this planet. Few have mastered the art of selling nearfalls quite like Reigns, who is one of the most giving top stars in the history of this business – maybe THE most giving.
A one-off match between Harper and Reigns would be a ton of fun. No, there wouldn’t be a title on the line, and there wouldn’t even be a series of matches. No way. Reigns is honestly too good for that right now.
But it’s about more than that. Heck, it’s about more than just a one-off match. It’s about Harper facing one of WWE’s top guys and showing both the fans and the suits backstage that he can succeed in a match and capture the crowd’s attention against a guy on Reigns’s level.
Oh, and a throwback to the old Wyatt Family vs. The Shield days never hurt anyone.
Finn Balor
Finn Balor is no longer the Intercontinental Champion after losing the title on the Extreme Rules pre-show to Shinsuke Nakamura, and there’s a good chance he wins it back as The Demon at SummerSlam. Apparently Balor has a really, really good record at SummerSlam as The Demon.
Anyway, Balor vs. Luke Harper absolutely qualifies as a match diehard WWE fans would highly anticipate. I’d say these two men’s in-ring styles would match perfectly, as Harper is one of the most athletic big men in the company and Balor is one of the company’s best athletes, period.
Furthermore, Balor can work just as stiff as Harper, putting in hard strikes to match Harper’s power. This could be a match that starts slowly with Harper trying to dominate with his size, but then it could quickly become an all-out, fast-paced clinic in pro wrestling that showcases all of Harper’s best qualities inside the ring.
Harper just needs one great opponent to remind fans what he’s capable of in the ring, and perhaps a match or two with Balor could remind WWE fans of his old, acclaimed rivalry five years ago against “The Show-Off” Dolph Ziggler.
I’m sure fans wouldn’t mind if, like the Ziggler vs. Harper rivalry of yore, this Harper vs. Balor match was for the Intercontinental Championship in the fall. Can you say, Open Challenge?
Ali
I’ll always shill for Ali at any opportunity I get, because Ali is one of the absolute best in the business. Whether it’s his phone promos about being the light or serving as a police officer to change the system of within, Ali is a consistent source of enlightenment in a world that seems perpetually dark.
Meanwhile, Luke Harper is at his best when he portrays sinister, mysterious darkness. It is impossible to put Harper in a box as a performer, because his character work is almost ethereal in its bizarreness. Just like that sentence.
Ali is unlike the vast majority of performers Harper has faced in his career, because he truly is one-of-a-kind (obligatory Rob Van Dam shoutout). I’d love to see Ali sell like crazy for Harper, powering up before the two start engaging in a battle of pure athletic ability. We would see Ali taking every shot Harper can possibly throw at him, dishing it back just as forcefully.
There would be a lot of pride on the line for both performers, as Harper and Ali hold nothing back in the ring. Years from now, this could end up being a “Hidden Gem” match for fans trolling the WWE Network on a lazy Sunday afternoon before a Pay Per View.
Trust me, you want this match, too.
Aleister Black
Honestly, judging by the quality of his match against Cesaro at Extreme Rules, which was something of a wXw throwback, Aleister Black could be one of the best upper mid-card television wrestlers in WWE. And the same could be said of Luke Harper, if WWE were to believe in him even the slightest.
Harper vs. Black could be an excellent, hard-hitting match with plenty of nail-biting nearfalls that would serve to put over Harper as a competitor, even if the crowd essentially knows that Black is winning as the rising star against the 39-year-old veteran who requested his release.
Still, Black and Harper can easily get the fans to suspend their disbelief en route to a show-stealer. This match wouldn’t have the upside of, say, Wyatt vs. Harper or Ali vs. Harper in terms of longevity as a hidden gem match, but it would surely be a quality bout at worst.
Like Black, Harper basically never has a bad singles match when given time, and all these two performers would need is 10 minutes to tell a nifty story in the ring with a couple of highlight-reel spots thrown in. The gamesmanship between both performers could be just as good, as few are better at playing subtle mindgames than Harper.