Luke Harper Beats Erick Rowan at WWE Backlash 2017

In a clash of former Wyatt Family brothers, Luke Harper defeated Erick Rowan on Sunday night at WWE Backlash.

WWE provided a look at Harper after the win:

Wrestling Inc and Kevin Berge of Bleacher Report provided their initial reactions to the match: 

Rowan and Harper have a long history together as they first joined forces in NXT under the guidance of Bray Wyatt in 2012.

They were soon elevated to the main roster, and over the past few years, their allegiance to Wyatt has been an off-and-on storyline.

Wyatt's move from SmackDown Live to Raw as part of the Superstar Shake-up has left Harper and Rowan to their own devices with the blue brand.

Most recently, Rowan returned from injury to help the Eater of Worlds against Randy Orton, while Harper broke away from Wyatt and freed himself from his former master's influence.

Although Rowan and Harper haven't been a regular part of SmackDown programming as of late, they faced each other a couple of weeks ago in a match won by Rowan after he raked Harper's eyes.

Rowan and Harper have both been singles competitors before, but they have enjoyed varying degrees of success.

Harper won the Intercontinental Championship in 2014; however, his title reign was short, and he was never able to gain much momentum.

During that same time, Rowan was given the character of a secret genius who could solve a Rubik's Cube quickly and enjoyed fine wine, but that didn't last long either.

Both Superstars have struggled to exit the considerable shadow cast by Wyatt, and while the SmackDown Creative team hasn't shown a commitment to utilizing them significantly, Sunday's match represented an opportunity.

There are spots to be seized near the top of the card on SmackDown, as evidenced by the fact that Jinder Mahal was elevated from out of nowhere to face Orton for the WWE Championship.

Harper was in the WWE title mix in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania, as he and AJ Styles were co-winners of a Battle Royal originally meant to determine a No. 1 contender.

It seemed as though WWE was considering a Triple Threat match between Orton, Wyatt and Harper at WrestleMania, but Harper instead lost to Styles and dropped back down the card.

A win over Rowan may be exactly what Harper needed to get back on track and could very well be the first step toward an upcoming push.

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