Down with the Machine

he’s finally back

no i’m not crying you’re crying

I’m not usually one for theme mashups, especially ones that are with a non-wrestling related song but FOR GODS SAKES LISTEN TO THIS

I actually didn’t watch the video with the audio on until AFTER I’d made that post, lol. I was doing something else and listening to Wrestling Observer Radio when I saw someone mention the video, and was only going to watch it quickly before going back to what I was doing, so I muted it and kept WOR on. But then I got sidetracked and ended up spending an hour plus watching/capping it.

But anyways, they’ve used the first verse with imagery of Erick in at least one promo; I can’t find it right now but it was shortly after they debuted, I remember Bray was sitting on a porch swing. It might have been NXT only? EDIT : found it.

Also, because I’m not familiar with the song beyond the first verse, I just looked up the lyrics, and noticed the second verse, “He followed her to school one day, Which was against the rule, It made the children laugh and play, To see a lamb at school.“ And I immediately remembered this promo which uses wording very similar to those lyrics. The third verse could be interpreted into when he broke away from and then re-joined Bray.

If you just watch it and maybe pause a couple times, you’ll probably get the impression that Erick is murdering women for some reason and collecting their hair. However there’s one big, interesting piece of the puzzle that you only see/can read clearly if you pause at the right time:

That article is about someone with the last name Rowan and a first name ending with N, aged 47, who seemingly murdered a woman in her late 30s. Now, Erick is clearly not that old. (Here’s the larger image where the text is legible, since tumblr resized it.)

So taking that into account; my theory is that when Erick was a child his father murdered his mother, then some years later he escaped from prison at which point a now adult Erick murdered him. Erick collecting women’s (who he’s apparently murdered) hair, and what is seemingly a doll that he’s made or a corpse he’s keeping (it looks like a young girl but never moves, so I’m guessing it’s not living) are “tributes” to his mother. That also fits with the existing backstory/character traits of him being childlike and innocent, but also a possibly sociopathic monster. It would also explain why he’s with the Wyatts, they’re the family he never had.

Here’s some of the other screenshots I took, for reference:

EDIT: I just realized that in the above pic the middle photo is a family portrait; with a young-ish boy on the left with his eyes colored black, a woman sitting in the middle with marker scribbles covering her face, and a man on the right whose face is torn from the photo.

The rebellious teen years have arrived.