Dutch feels things were leaning towards the dubbed ‘Wyatt 6’ becoming a reality.
The Righteous (Vincent & Dutch) have consistently been featured on Ring of Honor programming under the AEW regime. The duo, alongside Bateman and Vita Vonstarr were a part of ROH pre-AEW and held the company’s World Six Man Tag Titles.
They were brought back to Ring of Honor at Supercard of Honor 2023. Dutch was a guest on Developmentally Speaking and confirmed that The Righteous is signed to AEW.
Everything’s going great, couldn’t be better. We’re officially signed with AEW now. So, yeah, it’s a big deal. Big deal for us and we wanna create something that people haven’t seen in a long time. I know we’re gonna be getting comparisons to The Wyatt Family and all this and that but, everything’s been done already and there will never be another Bray Wyatt. Nothing will ever compare to him or his creativity or the way that his brain works. Nobody will ever be like him ever again and like I said, we’re always gonna be getting the comparisons but the stuff that we have in mind for our future is brand new and exciting stuff and some fun stuff on the way hopefully.
Earlier in the conversation, a focus point became the late Windham Rotunda a.k.a. Bray Wyatt. Dutch spent time with him in WWE developmental. He stated that Rotunda was kind and he was under Rotunda’s tutelage. Dutch remembers Windham’s ‘Axl Mulligan’ character and wrestling him in a singles match.
He recounted Rotunda testing out the Mandible Claw as a finisher, but Dutch has a weak stomach so he kept gagging. He almost threw up, so Windham told him he wanted to get himself DQ’d because he could feel himself about to throw up as well.
Seeing Windham — Bray Wyatt was there my first day (in WWE developmental) and I mean, you’ve been hearing all the stories over the last week or so about how humble and how nice he is which is 100 percent the truth, because he came right up to me and he was like, ‘You don’t look like you belong. You look like you belong with me,’ and you know, the same body type, same builds. So he immediately took me under his wing and made me feel comfortable and yeah, it was a great experience with him… We tagged a little bit here and there, which was fun. We only got to work each other I think once and this was during a time period where he had just gotten — he was on the main roster but got called back down to developmental for whatever reason and he didn’t really have any ideas — he had some ideas. So, he wanted to put himself in a mask. So, it was kind of, I guess, a prequel to what The Fiend would eventually be. But he put himself in like a slipknot mask and wore jeans and a Misfits t-shirt and called himself Axl Mulligan and I remember we had one match together. It was on a house show and he knows this, I have a very weak stomach. Just very, very, very weak stomach when it comes to certain things. So, he was testing out the Mandible Claw as a finish and like I said before, we’re very similar so he also has a weak stomach when it comes to certain things too. So we’re in the match and he’s like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna give you the Mandible Claw.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So he does it to me and I just start gagging and he’s whispering in my ear, he’s like, ‘Dude, you gotta stop. You gotta stop it,’ and I can’t and I’m starting to salivate and everything and then all of a sudden, I can hear him start gagging and he’s like, ‘Whatever. Just DQ me right now. Just DQ me. I can’t take this’ so I had to get him off of me and get DQ’d just so the both of us wouldn’t throw up in the middle of the ring so…
Following up on that, Dutch was asked if there is any truth to the rumor of a Wyatt 6 faction in WWE. He said it seemed like things were headed in that direction and thinks it would have been great.
Dutch commented on being at NXT in December 2022 along with Vincent. Both talents could be seen in the crowd at an NXT on USA Network show. He stated that the ball was rolling on the idea and then it wasn’t. Dutch confirmed that it was Wyatt’s idea and added that he does not think he’d be in the position he’s in now with AEW without Wyatt because of the buzz they created.
I don’t know if we’ll ever know (if there was any truth to the Wyatt 6 group). But, definitely seemed like it was leaning in that direction. Definitely seemed like it was leaning in that direction and I think it would’ve been great. I mean, we were down there in NXT for a week or so back in December and yeah, the ball seemed to be rolling at the time and then it kind of just got stopped for whatever reason. I mean maybe it was the illness that he had, whatever, I’m not 100 percent sure. I don’t know if we’ll ever know but, it was definitely a possibility… Oh yeah (it was Wyatt’s idea). We talked a lot about ideas and stuff and all that and never came to fruition but, the ideas and stuff that — it was being thrown around. It was being thrown around.
Like I said in my Twitter post, I don’t think that I would be in the position that I am now with AEW if it wasn’t for him and we created that buzz on social media for X amount of months whether it happened or not, like I said, everything happens for a reason. So I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him right now so…
The Righteous were in action on the 9/1 edition of AEW Rampage. They competed in a tag team Battle Royal to determine who would challenge Adam Cole and AEW World Champion MJF for the ROH World Tag Team Championships at All Out.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Developmentally Speaking with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
