As noted back in July 2021, Mike Bennett revealed in an interview that early on when Bray Wyatt turned into The Fiend, there were plans to bring the Firefly Funhouse puppets to life, and to have Wyatt serve as the leader of the stable as WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was always high up on the idea of having Wyatt lead a faction. Bennett noted that there was talk of having him portray Sister Abigail, which would be interesting instead of going with a female wrestler, while Eric Young would have portrayed Mercy The Buzzard. Bennett said they were about one week away from moving forward with the plans, and he was happy with the opportunity, but then plans changed.
“It was one of those things where, You guys will play these characters.’ He’s portraying them as the puppets [in the Firefly Funhouse], but then they’ll come to life. I thought it was really cool, I was ready to sink my teeth into it,” Bennett said in the 2021 interview. “But then like most stuff there, right before it happens they’re like, ‘Oh yeah we’re not doing that anymore.’ You’re like, ‘Oh, oh OK cool. That would have been a really cool spot but I guess I’ll go sit in catering.'”
In an update, a new report from Fightful Select notes that before their WWE releases in 2020, Paul Heyman made creative pitches to put Bennett and Young with Wyatt. The pitch made it to Bennett, but not Young, and ended up getting pitched more than once, including the version that had Bennett as Abigail.
It was also revealed that there were more recent pitches for a version of The Wyatt Family, which would have also included Young.
We’ve noted how Young was brought back to WWE in late 2022, but never used on TV. He was granted his release this past spring, and returned to Impact Wrestling at Slammiversary on Saturday. While Young was never used on TV in this most recent run, WWE did have him considered for this version of The Wyatt Family with Wyatt and Uncle Howdy (Bo Dallas).
This was described as a “new-style version” of The Wyatt Family, and there were also pitches for Alexa Bliss to be involved. The creative plans were set in January, and would have kicked off after WrestleMania 39. However, Wyatt was sidelined with an undisclosed illness, and he has not been back on WWE TV since. Howdy has also been away since then.
It was noted that by the time the angle would have started, Young asked for his release, citing moral and creative reasons tied to working with McMahon as a reason he wanted to leave.
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