When we are talking about WWE the first country that comes to our mind with the abundance of wrestlers is the United States. It is not surprising, however, that European countries also tend to be popular. A lot of people in Europe are active viewers of wrestling.
Nordic countries cannot boast plenty of wrestlers, but one of them, Erick Rowan, who is technically American, has roots in Norway and is still loved in his native country. In this article, we will talk about his exotic and “weird” career.
The Wyatt Family
At the very end of 2012, Erick Rowan, whose real name is Joseph Charles Ruud, (he has recently changed his name to Erick RedBeard) joined the Wyatt Family, in which he teamed up with Luke Harper. In January, they participated in the tournament for the first NXT Team championship where they reached the final but lost to Adrian Neville and Oliver Gray. However, a few months later, Rowan and Harper took revenge on the Britons, taking away their team championship at the NXT show in early May.
The end of May brought the Family a debut on RAW. On May 27, their debut gloomy promo was shown on the air of the red brand show.
For 6 weeks, video promos were shown on WWE broadcasts in which Eric began to appear in a sheep mask.
Meanwhile, on the NXT, the team managed to win several victories over the grouping of faces that included Corey Graves, Adrian Neville, and Kassius Ohno, but then still lost their titles to the Neville and Graves team on the show on June 20.
The Family debuted on RAW on July 8, 2013, when the Wyatt Family attacked Kane. Within a few weeks, they made several more attacks on the mid and low card wrestlers, which invariably culminated in Wyatt’s prowls facing Kane. The result of this short feud was a match at SummerSlam, where Bray defeated the opponent in the Ring of Fire gimmick match, after which Rowan and the Family took him backstage, and Kane disappeared from WWE stories for a long time.
We have mentioned at the beginning of the article, that even though Rowan is a US citizen for a long time, he never forgot his true origins and roots. If you look at him he is an obvious example of a Viking. And Norwegians adore vikings. His career and style sparked interest in Norway among youngsters to start watching the WWE. Supposedly, because of his influence, even the gambling industry was affected and best betting sites in Norway, known among local citizens as beste betting sider, decided to offer sponsorship opportunities to the American. You will agree that it is truly an incredible move from such a massive industry.
On Smackdown which aired on October 11, the team’s small winning streak was interrupted by a loss to Cody Rhodes and Goldust.
Afterward, Wyatt began a feud with Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, which led to the match at the PPV Survivor Series, in which Luke Harper and Eric Rowan lost to Punk and Brian. On December 2 RAW, Rowan lost the match to Daniel Bryan. On SmackDown on December 13, he lost to Daniel Bryan, but now in DC. At TLC, the Wyatt family as a whole defeated Daniel Bryan in a handicap match. On SmackDown on December 20, Eric Rowan and Luke Harper defeated the Rhodes Brothers. On RAW on December 30, he again lost the match to Daniel Brian.
Solo performances
Eric Rowan made the face turn by joining John Cena’s team at Survives Series. Cena’s team almost lost, until Sting intervened, who conducted a reverse DDT on Triple H and helped to win the match.
On January 5, a team from Ryback, Dolph Ziggler, and Erick Rowan defeated the boss’ team again. In Royal Battle 2015 Rowan came out at number 6 but was almost immediately knocked out by Curtis Axel. On January 22, at SmackDown, Bray Wyatt wanted to reunite the Wyatt Family. A week later, on January 31, he defeated Curtis Axel on Main Event and at Fastlane, he joined the team with Dolph Ziggler and Ryback against Seth Rollins, the Big Show and Kane in a team battle, but lost.
He also participated in the Andre Giant Memorial Battle in WrestleMania but was taken out.
Reunion with Luke Harper
In May 2015, he reunited with Luke Harper on the team when he attacked Fandango after his match with Harper, making a heel turn.
The Bludgeon Brothers
In 2017, Harper, along with his longtime teammate and rival Erick Rowan, made his debut in the new gimmick – The Bludgeon Brothers. At first, defeating only local wrestlers, Harper and Rowan gradually ascended to the top of the Blue Brand team division. At Fastlane 2018, Harper and Rowan intervened in the title fight between The New Day and the current team champions at the time, The Usos, beating all five participants in the confrontation, which obviously meant that The Bludgeon Brothers were seriously involved in the race for the belts. At WrestleMania 34, Harper and Rowan, without any particular problems, dealt with the New Day and The Usos in a three-way team match, taking away the championship belts from the latter.
Supporting Daniel Bryan and speaking with him as a team
On January 27, 2019 at the Royal Rumble, Rowan returned after an injury and attacked AJ Styles, which helped Daniel Bryan win and defend the title.
On May 7, 2019, at SmackDown, he fought in a team with Daniel Bryan against the Usos for the vacant SmackDown team titles, which the Hardy Boyz vacated a week earlier, due to Jeff’s injury. Brian and Rowan defeated the Usos and became SmackDown team champions. For Rowan, this was the second time with the title.
He also participated in the Norwegian reality show Alt for Norge, in which he took third place. In 2014, made his WWE 2K15 debut as a playable character.
