WWE concluded an episode of Raw with a bang in June, when the Wyatt Sicks faction debuted. The lights went out, and the first note of Bray Wyatt’s theme song played repeatedly before we witnessed a door open with a light shining.
At the gorilla position, fans noticed several people lying down, some of whom appeared to be dead. Nikki Cross crawled out to a lantern at the top of the stage before we saw Chad Gable, Gunther, and others beaten and the set destroyed. Erick Rowan, Dexter Luis, and Joe Gacy were all wearing masks.
Uncle Howdy approached and was joined by the other members of the group. Howdy grabbed the lantern, stated, “We’re here!” and turned it off as the show faded to black.
Jason Baker, a practical effects guru at Collosum Studios, spoke with Metro‘s Alistair McGeorge about the process. He had previously worked alongside Bray Wyatt.
“Let me think of the best way to say this without getting in trouble,” he said. “It was amazing being part of a night where WWE was firing on all cylinders. We had that whole thing set up in like, 15 minutes. Paul [Levesque, Triple H] came in earlier that day and was like, ‘This is what we should do.’ Everybody was like, ‘Yes, sir, we’re going to do it and it.’ The fraction of error is so – when you actually step back and think about it, that is insane, to do that long of a tracking shot with so many variables and so many people and so many things, and do it live in one take. We all know that he has that faith in us. So by proxy, everybody wants to do the best job that they can humanly possible, because having a boss that actually cares about you. You want to return that tenfold.”
Cross portrays Sister Abigail, Rowan as the Ramblin Rabbit, Lumis as Mercy the Buzzard, and Gacy as Huskus the Pig. Bo Dallas is Uncle Howdy. They’ve worked a few matches since making their debut.
