Luke Harper Is the Most Underrated Guy on WWE’s Roster

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When The Wyatt Family first debuted on WWE programming in 2013, they were a true force of nature. Bray Wyatt’s hypnotic bravado paired well with the rugged, backwoods look of his towering henchmen, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. A lot’s changed in four years, but while Wyatt’s act has grown formulaic and Rowan has struggled to find his footing on his own, one thing has remained the same: Harper is a real gamer.

Standing at 6’5″, 275 pounds, he’s technically a “big man,” though he doesn’t really wrestle like one. If you’ve followed any of his career prior to WWE, you already know that he’s an incredibly well-spoken, literate human being. But, to this point, his promos don’t really allow him a full opportunity to show his personality.

It’s clear that at one point, Vince McMahon saw potential in Harper as a singles competitor. Late in 2014, they experimented with splitting up The Wyatt Family. Harper had a singles run that saw him join ‘Team Authority’ for Survivor Series. The guy even had a brief run as Intercontinental Champion. But, The Wyatt Family eventually reunited. And, then, split up again, and all the while, Harper was in and out of tag team runs with Rowan.

Finally, in late 2016 and early 2017, it looked like the big machine was going to get behind Harper. Randy Orton joined The Wyatt Family alongside Wyatt and Harper. But, in the storyline, Harper never truly trusted Orton. It caused high tension between he and Wyatt.

Harper was finally breaking free from Wyatt’s shadow, and he took up a feud with Orton. The two had a tremendous pay-per-view bout at Elimination Chamber. When Orton executed his double cross, it looked like Harper was going to be caught up in the triangle. Wrestlemania 33 was approaching, and the show of shows was calling his name. At one point, Harper was a prime candidate for the WWE Championship match. A triple threat between Harper, Orton, and Wyatt….that might have saved what ended up as an atrocious title match.

This quick history lesson sort of illustrates my point. No matter where they book him, the guy shines.

But, lately, he hasn’t been able to shine….because they simply aren’t booking him. Rumors are surfacing that he will come back a repackaged man on the SmackDown Live brand. My hope is that they recognize the potential of this guy and put him in a big time program. Hell, why not have a Harper-A.J. Styles feud for the United States Championship? But, it’s much more likely that he’ll return to pair up with Rowan yet again. That’s how the rumors are going, anyway.

I don’t even necessarily object to that. If they can make both of these guys feel fresh, and get far, far away from The Wyatt Family branding, I’d be okay with it. Make these guys a main event act and give them a lengthy run with the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.

Harper has earned at least one big time run. He actually cracked my top 10 WWE superstars list in 2014, though I don’t have a link for it because the site I was writing for at the time has since been deleted. But, he killed it, and his Ladder Match with Dolph Ziggler at TLC that year for the Intercontinental Championship was incredible. His work with Orton – solid.

Are we ready to start #GiveHarperAChance yet?

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. A strong advocate of GSD (get shit done) and #BeBetter, he’s down to talk Tennessee Titans and Alabama Crimson Tide football over a beer any day. Check him out covering the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley@WrestlingNewsCo

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