WWE Missed Opportunities: Injury to Erick Rowan May Cost Team Title Run

According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, Erick Rowan is going to miss roughly the next six months after suffering a torn biceps. It's conceivable to believe he'll be out longer.

That is a crushing blow for him and tag team partner Luke Harper.

Harper and Rowan had recently been reunited after having singles runs. Harper proved that he could handle the singles division, becoming Intercontinental champion. But that wasn't the case with Rowan, who floundered on the roster without his tag team partner.

The fact that Rowan couldn't get over as a singles wrestler was likely one of the biggest reasons the team was put back together. But that wasn't a bad choice, since the team probably should have never been split in the first place.

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Bad news for Erick Rowan's immediate future with injury. Just when #WWE gets their act together in putting Harper/Rowan back together...

— Justin LaBar (@JustinLaBar) June 25, 2015"

As part of the Wyatt Family, Harper and Rowan became one of the best tag teams on the roster. The matches they had with The Usos were some of the best tag team matches in recent memory, and the team was deserving of a run with the tag team titles as a result.

Surprisingly, the team never won the titles. But after they were put together again, a title run seemed all but imminent.

Together, Harper and Rowan make for a very physically imposing and unique tag team. Despite being two of the bigger men on the roster, they are both innovative in the ring. For my money, they're the best tag team WWE currently has.

Taking a look at the current title holders—The Prime Time Players—Harper and Rowan had to be one of the teams next in line for a run with the gold.

With Tyson Kidd and Jey Uso also injured, two more teams are out of the running for the time being. If The New Day isn't going to get the belts back, it's very likely Harper and Rowan would have eventually taken them off Titus O'Neil and Darren Young.

But what now? What will become of the team while Rowan sits on the shelf nursing and rehabbing his injury?

WWE already knows it has a solid singles competitor in Harper. So there are two choices. One would be to have Harper begin to climb the ladder in the singles division again; the other would be to have him sit on the sidelines and be used sparingly as a guy to put other stars over while waiting for Rowan to return.

If WWE goes with the first choice and Harper finds success, it could mark the end of his partnership with Rowan. WWE could even create a storyline in which Harper attacks Rowan upon his return, using Rowan's injury as a reason for Harper to turn his back on him.

This puts Rowan's WWE career at a crossroads. He has no choice but to be patient until he returns, but that will be tough since it's probably unclear what he'll be returning to.

If Rowan is forced back into singles action, he'll be used similar to how WWE books guys like Zack Ryder and Adam Rose. He'll make appearances on television here and there, generally always in a losing effort, and he'll be placed in random tag team matches.

Hopefully, Harper and Rowan are able to pick up where they recently left off as a tag team, but that may not be until 2016. By that time, WWE may not see them as a team any longer.

That would be a shame, because they could have—and probably should have—been one of the most dominant WWE tag teams of the last decade.