WWE Superstar Set For Incredible Return At No Mercy?

The Wyatt Family was officially split up during the WWE Draft back in July when Braun Strowman was drafted to Raw whilst Erick Rowan and Bray Wyatt were both chosen by SmackDown Live.

Luke Harper wasn’t drafted to either Raw or SmackDown because he was on the injured list when the draft took place, which means that he could return to either brand much like Nikki Bella did at SummerSlam back in August.

Luke Harper has officially been cleared for action now and made his return at a Raw house show earlier this week, but despite this, he could still make his WWE return on the SmackDown brand. It isn’t uncommon for superstars to switch over brands with superstars like John Cena and Seth Rollins appearing on opposite brands for dark matches after the tapings have ended.

It has been reported that Erick Rowan could be out of action for a lengthy period of time after undergoing rotator cuff surgery earlier this week which leaves an opening on the SmackDown brand.

Add this to the fact that John Cena and Dean Ambrose are set for lengthy hiatus and speculation suggests that Dolph Ziggler could leave WWE after tonight, and it seems that SmackDown definitely needs Luke Harper more than Raw.

Bray Wyatt faces perhaps his biggest test to date tonight when he attempts to go head to head with The Viper both mentally and physically. Since Randy Orton is rumoured to be the one who will step up and challenge AJ Styles in the absence of Ambrose and Cena, it seems highly unlikely that he will lose to Bray here.

This means that Bray will once again be defeated, but WWE could turn it into something positive and give him a storyline where his former Wyatt Family brother costs him the victory and then both men will have a main event level storyline for the next few months.

No Mercy has to follow up the success of SmackDown’s first exclusive pay-per-view event entitled Backlash from last month, and this could be a hard one to follow up on.

Becky Lynch is already injured and out of action for up to two months, which means that the match between the inaugural SmackDown Women’s Champion and Alexa Bliss is no longer scheduled to be happening in California tonight.

The replacement match is still yet to be announced, but could easily be revealed on the pre-show on the Network ahead of the show tonight.

Luckily for SmackDown, the next pay-per-view event is Survivor Series which is a dual brand event and it already seems to have its main event announced with Brock Lesnar and Goldberg both rumored to be a part of one of the biggest events of the year.

SmackDown has been ahead of the rating’s race ever since the draft took place and there are various reasons why SmackDown focuses on wrestling rather than promos, SmackDown has only two hours to fill and it seems to be concentrating on pushing the right people.

No Mercy needs to further prove this and then SmackDown will have to find a way to get through the next few months without their two biggest faces.

Harper would be a fantastic addition to the SmackDown brand and even though he has already teased a turn on the Wyatt Family when he and Erick Rowan were on opposing sides at Survivor Series back in 2014, this would be a much more personal storyline.

Harper has been a part of Wyatt’s family since the beginning and has won a Tag Team Championship with Erick Rowan and is a former Intercontinental Champion in his own right. If anything Harper could potentially claim that on paper he is much more successful than Bray Wyatt who is still yet to win a title in WWE and is the leader of the family.

Erick Rowan has been doing Bray’s bidding in his feud with Randy Orton over the past few weeks and even attacked The Viper a few weeks ago. Luke Harper appeared on the Raw house show days before Rowan was scheduled for surgery, so WWE could easily switch and allow him to replace Rowan in this feud or even allow for a much better feud moving forward.