Projections, Best Rivalries for The Wyatt Family After Title Win at WWE TLC 2016

The Wyatt Family announced itself as SmackDown's apex predators when the unsettling crew claimed the Tag Team Championship at WWE Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2016.

Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton are now poised to remain at the center of an intriguing story as well as the top of the blue brand's tag team division. The monsters now reign over the village. A faction many thought would implode emerged from Sunday's SmackDown-exclusive pay-per-view stronger than ever.

And things are only going to get more interesting. 

The underdog tale of Heath Slater and Rhyno fell away as The Wyatt Family rose. Wyatt and Orton pounded on the tag champs at TLC in Dallas. Rhyno offered brief resistance, but it didn't matter.

The combined power of The Eater of Worlds and The Viper added up to a dominant win and a title change.

Luke Harper celebrated alongside his brothers in arms as The Wyatt Family showed off their newly won prize.

Now what? What ruin will The Wyatt Family leave in its wake? Who would be the ideal foils for this sinister stable?

Creativity and darkness promise to mark the journey of the new kings of the SmackDown tag team scene.

Long, Enthralling Road

The narrative of The Wyatt Family's championship reign will get weird in a most entertaining way. SmackDown has been the superior storytelling brand since July's brand split, and that will hold true when the show spotlights Orton, Wyatt and Harper.

Up to this point, fans have seen Wyatt and his posse materialize out of the darkness and send Kane into a void of some kind. WWE's writers have clearly had fun with these original characters.

Jason Solomon of PWMania is among those liking the story so far:

Now that Orton and Wyatt are champions, there will be far more to like. The champs will get a bigger share of the stage, which will lead to more creative, eerie moments. Expect SmackDown to run with The Wyatt Family's reign. 

The Slater-Rhyno story focused on their climb to the top. But once they secured the tag titles, WWE began to neglect them.

The Wyatt Family will instead be defined by what happens post-summit. Everything from enemies being kidnapped to Wyatt and his followers celebrating with people of the swamp is on the table.

And fans should settle in for a long ride. Wyatt and Orton will be champions well into WrestleMania season. The lack of depth in the tag team division will force WWE to hold off on crowning new titleholders.

Inner Turmoil

Harper and Orton will eventually put their hands around each other's necks, despite their supposed brotherhood. Their brewing tension will boil over and upset Wyatt's plans of domination.

Many thought that Orton's stay in The Wyatt Family would be short.

Even as he professed his allegiance to Wyatt, fans imagined The Viper turning on the stable. After all, Orton's past is filled with betrayals, and he seemed an odd fit for the group.

That has slowly changed as the sight of Orton and Wyatt working together has grown more familiar. Dave LaGreca of Busted Open tweeted that he is starting to be convinced about this union:

WWE will toy with the audience by allowing it to settle into the idea of Orton in The Wyatt Family. The longer it holds off on Orton's break from the group, the bigger the moment will be.

Count on the former world champion fully embracing his place in this faction for months.

But eventually, his relationship with Harper will crumble. That is the group's weak point. When Orton joined the clan, Harper often looked uncertain, suspicious and a touch jealous.

They had collided as enemies several times over.

On Sunday's PPV, it was Orton battling for the gold against Wyatt, not Harper. And while Harper did get to carry the championships on his shoulder after the victory, he was not an active part of it. That's likely to eventually eat away at him.

Should Wyatt favor Orton over his longtime follower, animosity will begin to rear its head. And WWE will tell a story of a supergroup falling apart from the inside.

Best Rivalries

A rematch with Slater and Rhyno is inevitable, and it makes sense. The babyfaces' last crack at the titles they lost would be a fitting last chapter.

And their TLC match left plenty to be desired. A gutsier performance from Slater and more overwhelming force from Wyatt and Orton would build on the PPV win.

But that's not a feud for WWE to dwell on. The company should keep this brief, a short epilogue.

WWE would be smart to then book The Wyatt Family against a number of underdogs and upstarts. Kalisto and Apollo Crews could form a team, and The Hype Bros could make a surprise run to the No. 1 contenders spot. Those diversions would be excellent ways to show off the stable's strength. 

The money rivalry, though, is against Jason Jordan and Chad Gable of American Alpha.

There is history between them to exploit, for one. American Alpha thought they sewed up a title shot in a Tag Team Turmoil match weeks ago, but a rested Wyatt and Orton challenged them the following week and knocked them out of the championship match.

Besides, American Alpha is the hottest act in SmackDown's struggling tag team division.

The crowd has loved Gable's technical mastery and Jordan's energy. They are fresh and fun, and as we saw in their NXT rivalry with The Revival, they can prosper under the heat of the spotlight.

The matches between these teams would be excellent. American Alpha is a duo fans can buy into as believable challengers. And there is a clear contrast of pure good and evil to play up in this potential feud.

A WrestleMania showdown between these squads has ample potential. That's the direction WWE should be aiming for with The Wyatt Family. 

Along the way, it has to revel in the bizarre and harness The Wyatt Family's unique nature.