Joe Gacy Recalls the Origins of the Wyatt Sicks, How He Got Approached About the Stable

During a recent interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, former WWE Superstar and Tag Team Champion Joe Gacy discussed the origins of the Wyatt Sicks and how the group made their official debut on Monday Night Raw in June 2024. Below are some highlights from Insight:

Joe Gacy on How He Was Approached About the Wyatt Sicks

“Yeah, so I think I do think powers that be kind of knew what was coming. So my tail end of my run at NXT was a little bit of almost like, yeah, do what you want. So for a little bit of time there, I kind of just had fun. I did me, and Shawn Michaels had his input. Obviously, it was mostly his idea, but he kind of let me loose a little bit, I think for the first time, because I feel like he probably didn’t even know when the call-up or when it was actually going to happen. Because when I first heard it was supposed to happen sooner. So a guy named Rob Fee, who was in creative, reached out to me and kind of gave me the heads up and was like, ‘Hey, don’t be upset if your time on NXT TV starts going down a little bit. This is what’s coming.’ So he kind of gave me the heads up about it, and I was like oh, okay. And then at that point, it was like months. It was months later that any movement happened on it. But yeah, I mean, I think it was more of a, ‘Hey, this is the idea. This is what they want to do.’ I’m just like, oh, this is crazy. Yes, let’s do this.”

On How Fans Reacted Wildly to Their Debut

“So I guess leading into that was a whirlwind for me because I was a fresh call-up from NXT. First thing I do is get put in this position where I’m in this group, a legacy group, with Taylor and all the other guys and Nikki. So going in, it was a big deal, and it was a lot of excitement, and I think leading up to the day it was all excitement, and then the day of when we got there, and we put our gear on, and we were rehearsing, it started slowly setting in how heavy it was. We rehearsed that one shot so many times before the show, I’d say 10 times maybe. Then when it was go time, that was the moment I got nervous. I felt fine up until then, and then as soon as we were ready to go, the nerves hit me, and I realized the weight of what we were doing in this situation.”

On How Their Debut Hit It Out of the Park

“It could not have gone better for us, especially my debut on the main roster. I don’t think a lot of people get to say that they had such a huge, successful main roster debut. So it was heavy, but as soon as the moment was done, everyone was happy. It was such a feeling, like I can’t even fully describe how it felt, and I think even like the weeks following after that, it was still crazy to me that I was in this position doing this, being a part of this legacy, and continuing it. I mean, I’m here now, still looking back going it almost doesn’t feel real that it happened. I guess because it was so fast as well. But yeah, it’s very, very wild.”

On What They Were Told Was the Inspiration of the Group and How They Paid Homage to the Wyatt Family

“Yeah, I think that was kind of the pitch was we’re continuing on the legacy, and the whole idea of the group was, and I don’t think this was ever conveyed properly through promos or anything on TV, was really the idea is that each member of the group, we are who we used to be. I was the same Joe Gacy from NXT at the time, but the whole idea was that Bo Dallas was now in this place he’s in, becoming Uncle Howdy, split personality. It’s almost like a cult idea where he kind of convinced us hey, we can have this family together, and the idea was he pushed these, you know, lack of a better term, characters on us because they were from the Firefly Funhouse.

“So, in his mind, the crazy side of Bo Dallas saw, for instance, me as Huskus, like I was the puppet of Huskus, just brought to life, sort of. So, as the idea for the group was we were all kind of in on it. I know I’m Joe Gacy, but I’m also using the live puppet Huskus as far as a personality. So I know it’s a little complex, I guess, to explain on TV, but I don’t even think we touched upon that like at all. But the whole idea was it started as we’re going to be a family. We are a chosen family together, and we were supposed to stick by each other. We never even wanted to tease any kind of like animosity or anything like that. So I think they just wanted us to be psychopaths essentially.”

The entire Wyatt Sicks, including Joe Gacy, were released by WWE earlier this year.