If you hate how Bray Wyatt is being booked on WWE television, wait till you hear about his house show weekend

Many fans have been scratching their heads, or pulling out their hair, trying to understand WWE's use of Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan over the course of the last couple months - and especially the weeks since SummerSlam, where they were again served up to John Cena as essentially enhancement talent.

It's hard to believe that the Eater of Worlds was even in the Money in the Bank ladder match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, let alone that there were persistent and loud rumors from oft-reliable sources that Bray Wyatt would win those belts at the June pay-per-view (PPV).  Or that his tag-teaming followers were picked by many to unseat The Usos at several points during their long feud with the pairs' division champs.

While we await tonight's steel cage match between Wyatt and Chris Jericho, wonder what went wrong, and worry that what seemed like a worthy follow-up to the successful character launch of The Shield is turning into one of the greatest wasted opportunities in recent history, I submit this past weekend's house show results for consideration.

On both the Saturday, September 6th show in Dayton, Ohio and yesterday's State College, Pennsylvania event, the Family were defeated by Jimmy & Jey Uso, and The Great Khali in six-man action.

No great shame in losing to the tag team champions, and it's not anything new for Harper & Rowan.  But the Punjabi freakin' Playboy?

This upcoming weekend's WWE Live in White Plains, New York bills Bray in a match against The Big Show, who today's rumor round-up pegs as the Hell in a Cell challenger for Brock Lesnar.  House shows are by no means a guarantee of how Raw or Smackdown will be booked, but they're often a testing ground for future in-continuity angles, and if the Show as #1 contender rumors are true, it's unlikely Wyatt is being used as anything other than a résumé booster for the World's Largest Athlete.

Win or lose against Y2J tonight, it doesn't seem like WWE has plans to treat Bray Wyatt as a main eventer any time soon.

Are we overreacting again, Cagesiders?  Is there a quick path back to respectabilty for The Wyatt Family, or have they been sufficiently damaged that it will take a long time and a lot of work to rebuild their credibility?