Pro-wrestling star Erick Redbeard recently spoke with Sports Illustrated about his time in WWE, which includes thoughts on his sheep mask and how it became his signature look for the Wyatt Family faction. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
How he tried a Viking gimmick at first:
“I was doing all these different gimmicks, and I tried a Viking gimmick. I was told that would never make any money, which is funny three or four years later, there’s the Viking Raiders and they’re great. So I tried all these different things, and I did all these promos with Windham and Jon.”
Says Wyatt went to a halloween shop and got him the sheep mask, which Dusty Rhodes initially disliked:
“Windham went to a Halloween shop and got all these masks—and one was a sheep mask. I tried all the masks on promo day, and I tried all these different mannerisms and characteristics. But back then, Dusty Rhodes didn’t want me to cover up my face. He said I was ugly enough without the mask [laughing], meaning I had a unique face.”
On his debut with the Wyatt family, where he had the Sheep mask:
“Fast-forward, I debuted with the Wyatts in NXT. No one told me I was debuting that night at Full Sail. I had blue jeans, but I didn’t want to do that because that’s what Jon was wearing and I didn’t want to wear trunks, but I was lucky to have that jumpsuit in my trunk. It’s funny how things come together. When we filmed our Wyatt Family vignette, I decided to bring all those masks. So it just happened to be a series of funny coincidences.”