In June, WWE closed an episode of Raw with a bang as the Wyatt Sicks faction made its debut. The lights went out, and then the opening note of Bray Wyatt’s theme song played on repeat before we saw a door open with a light shining.
At the gorilla position, fans saw several people laid out, some of them appearing to be dead. Nikki Cross crawled out to a lantern at the top of the stage before we saw a gorilla where Chad Gable, Gunther, etc., were shown beaten, and the set was destroyed. Erick Rowan, Dexter Luis, and Joe Gacy were all in masks.
Uncle Howdy walked up and was joined by the other members of the group. Howdy grabbed the lantern, said, “We’re here!” and turned off the lantern as the show went to black. Fans still talk about the debut.
While speaking to Alistair McGeorge of Metro, Jason Baker, a practical effects guru at Collosum Studios, discussed the process. He had previously worked with 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 plays Sister Abigail, Rowan is the Ramblin Rabbit, Lumis is Mercy the Buzzard, and Gacy is Huskus the Pig. Bo Dallas is Uncle Howdy. They’ve worked a handful of matches since making their debut.
