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Luke Harper

Jonathan Huber (December 16, 1979 – December 26, 2020) was an American professional wrestler and actor. He was best known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Luke Harper (later simply Harper) from 2012 to 2019.

Harper made his television debut on the November 7, 2012 episode of NXT, where he was introduced by Bray Wyatt as "the first son of the Wyatt family". Harper quickly defeated Jason Jordan. Together with Wyatt and his "second son" Erick Rowan, they formed a faction called "The Family". Harper and Rowan first teamed together on the January 9, 2013, episode of NXT to defeat Percy Watson and Yoshi Tatsu. On the January 23 episode of NXT, Harper and Rowan again defeated Watson and Tatsu in the opening round of the NXT Tag Team Championship tournament. Following a win over Bo Dallas and Michael McGillicutty in the semifinals, Harper and Rowan were defeated in the finals of the tournament by Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey. On May 2, Harper and Rowan defeated Neville and Bo Dallas, filling in for the injured Grey, to win the title. On June 5, Harper and Rowan successfully retained their title against Corey Graves and Kassius Ohno. They, however, lost their titles to the team of Neville and Graves on June 20.

On the May 27, 2013, episode of Raw, a vignette aired promoting the upcoming debuts of Harper, Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan. On the July 8 episode of Raw, the Wyatt Family made their debut, assaulting Kane, following his match with Christian. Harper made his WWE in-ring debut on the July 26 episode of SmackDown, where he and Rowan defeated Tons of Funk (Brodus Clay and Tensai) in a tag team match. While on the main roster, Harper and Rowan defeated many teams over the months, until losing to Cody Rhodes and his half-brother Goldust on the October 11 episode of SmackDown, which ended their streak of victories. After the Wyatt Family started feuding with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, Harper wrestled two singles matches, losing to Punk on the November 4 episode of Raw and to Bryan via disqualification on the November 8 episode of SmackDown. In early 2014, Harper took part in the Wyatt Family's feud with The Shield, while also supporting Bray Wyatt in his feud with John Cena through WrestleMania XXX. Through Wyatt's feud with Cena, Harper and Rowan also started their own feud with the WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey and Jimmy), who supported Cena in the feud. On June 29 at Money in the Bank, Harper and Rowan unsuccessfully challenged The Usos for the WWE Tag Team Championship. The were unable to unseat the champions again in a two out of three falls match on July 20 at Battleground.

The September 29 Raw featured a vignette, where Wyatt set Harper free, saying he had fixed him and given him a reason to exist. After a series of video vignettes aimed at Dolph Ziggler, Harper made his return to TV during the closing moments of the November 10 Raw, throwing an unconscious Ziggler at Triple H and Stephanie McMahon's feet, expressing his desire to join their team at Survivor Series against John Cena's team. On the November 17 episode of Raw, Harper officially joined Team Authority. Immediately after, Harper was awarded an impromptu match for the Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler, which Harper won to capture his first title in WWE. At Survivor Series, Harper was the second to last man eliminated in Team Authority's loss against Team Cena. As punishment for his affiliation with the Authority, Harper was forced to put his Intercontinental Championship on the line against Dean Ambrose on the November 24 episode of Raw and successfully retained the title after getting himself disqualified. Harper lost the title back to Ziggler in a ladder match on December 14 at TLC: Tables, Ladders, Chairs ... and Stairs. Beginning in early March, Harper was interjected into a storyline with several other superstars all playing "hot potato" with Bad News Barrett's Intercontinental Championship belt, stealing it from one another several times a show. This would lead to Harper's second ladder match for the title, this time at WrestleMania 31, which was won by Daniel Bryan. The match led to a new feud between Harper and Dean Ambrose, with Harper losing a Chicago Street Fight between the pair at Extreme Rules.

Following his feud with Ambrose, Harper would re-align with Erick Rowan and dominate the tag team division, until Rowan suffered an injury in late June. At WWE Battleground, Harper would interfere in the Wyatt-Roman Reigns match, and help Wyatt win, therefore re-aligning with the "Eater of Worlds". At SummerSlam, they were defeated by Reigns and Dean Ambrose. On August 24, Braun Strowman joined Harper and Wyatt as the new third member of the Wyatt Family. On the October 19 Raw, Erick Rowan returned to the Wyatt Family. The Wyatt Family then got involved in a feud with Kane and The Undertaker, which built to a tag team match on November 22 at Survivor Series, where the two defeated Harper and Wyatt. The next night on Raw, Harper teamed with Wyatt again to defeat The Dudley Boyz, igniting a new feud. Over the next weeks, Tommy Dreamer and Rhyno joined The Dudley Boyz in the feud, leading to an eight-man tag team tables match at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs on December 13, where Harper, Wyatt, Rowan and Strowman were victorious. n January 24, 2016, Harper competed in the Royal Rumble with fellow Wyatt Family members and was eliminated by Brock Lesnar. He returned to the ring later on in the Rumble with the Wyatts to eliminate Lesnar. On March 21, Harper suffered a knee injury during a Raw dark match. It was reported that the injury would sideline him for five to six months. Because of his injury, Harper was not drafted to either Raw or SmackDown in the 2016 WWE draft.

Harper returned to the ring on October 5, 2016, teaming with Kevin Owens in a tag team match against Sami Zayn and Seth Rollins at a Raw house show in Santiago, Chile. Four days later, Harper returned in the final match of the SmackDown brand pay-per-view No Mercy, helping Bray Wyatt defeat Randy Orton by distracting Orton. Later that night on Talking Smack, SmackDown GM Daniel Bryan officially announced that Harper had signed with the SmackDown brand. On December 4 at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Wyatt and Orton, who had recently joined the Wyatt Family, captured the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship. Three days later, it was announced that Harper had been sanctioned as champion as well, making him eligible to defend the title under the "Freebird Rule". On the December 13 SmackDown, Harper failed to become the #1 contender for the WWE Championship in a four-way elimination match, which was won by Dolph Ziggler and also included Dean Ambrose and The Miz. The Wyatt Family, represented by Harper and Orton, lost the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship to American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan) in a four-way elimination match on the December 27 SmackDown. After the match, Harper and Orton shoved each other, which led to Harper accidentally superkicking Wyatt. Harper and Orton continued having problems with each other, leading to a match between the two on the January 24 episode of SmackDown, where Orton was victorious. After the match, Wyatt attacked Harper with the Sister Abigail, separating him from the group.

At the Royal Rumble on January 29, Harper entered the Royal Rumble match at number 25, attacking both Wyatt and Orton and eliminating Apollo Crews, before being eliminated by Goldberg. On the January 31 episode of SmackDown, Harper turned face for the first time in his WWE career after helping WWE Champion John Cena in his confrontation with Orton and Wyatt. At Elimination Chamber on February 12, Harper was defeated by Orton. Shortly after this, Harper unsuccessfully faced AJ Styles over number one contendership for the WWE Championship, held by Wyatt. At the WrestleMania 33 pre-show on April 2, Harper took part in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, from which he was eliminated by Titus O'Neil. Following WrestleMania, Harper feuded with the returning Erick Rowan, leading to a match at Backlash, which Harper won. On the July 4 episode of SmackDown, Harper took part in the Independence Day Battle Royal to determine the number one contender for the United States Championship. He failed to win as the match was eventually won by AJ Styles. Harper then disappeared from WWE television for several months.

On the October 10 episode of SmackDown, as a heel again, Harper returned to television in a vignette where he was once again aligned with Erick Rowan. The duo were dubbed "The Bludgeon Brothers", with Harper's ring name shortened to simply "Harper". The team wrestled their return match on the November 21 episode of SmackDown, defeating The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley). At Clash of Champions on December 17, The Bludgeon Brothers defeated Breezango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze) in a squash match. Going into 2018, The Bludgeon Brothers began to target SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos, as well as their rivals The New Day.

On March 11, 2018, The Bludgeon Brothers made an appearance at Fastlane, interfering during the SmackDown Tag Team Championship match between The Usos and The New Day. This led to a tag team championship match between the three teams at WrestleMania 34, which The Bludgeon Brothers won to attain the titles. They would go on to successfully defend the titles against The Usos at the Greatest Royal Rumble event, against Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson at Money in the Bank, and against Team Hell No at Extreme Rules. The Bludgeon Brothers lost by disqualification in a championship defense against The New Day at SummerSlam, resulting in them retaining the titles. Two nights later on the August 21 episode of SmackDown, The New Day defeated The Bludgeon Brothers in a no disqualification match to win the championships, ending their reign at 135 days. The following day, it was announced that Rowan had suffered a torn right bicep, sidelining him indefinitely and putting the team on hiatus.

Harper made a surprise appearance at a NXT house show on September 6, where he unsuccessfully challenged Ricochet for the NXT North American Championship. Soon after, Harper took time off after undergoing surgery for a wrist injury. On March 9, 2019, Harper returned to in-ring action, defeating Mojo Rawley at a house show in his hometown of Rochester. He made his televised return at WrestleMania Axxess, defeating Dominik Dijakovic, which aired as part of the WWE Worlds Collide special. Following that, he competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at the WrestleMania 35 pre-show, but failed to win as he was eliminated by Braun Strowman. After WrestleMania, Harper wrestled against EC3 in a dark match before an episode of SmackDown. It was reported that WWE chairman Vince McMahon did not like the match, so he canceled creative plans for Harper including a feud with Sami Zayn. After that, on April 16, Harper requested his release from WWE, as he had yet to appear on weekly television. His request was denied by McMahon. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter later reported that Harper's contract was originally going to expire in November 2019, but WWE added six months to it, due to the time missed due to injury. In mid-July it was reported that Harper had returned to traveling with the roster, as he had been off events since requesting his release.

At the Clash of Champions pay-per-view event on September 15, with his old ring name Luke Harper, he made his televised return to WWE programming by attacking Roman Reigns in his match with former partner Erick Rowan. On the following episode of SmackDown Live, Harper ambushed Daniel Bryan after a confrontation with Rowan, only to be interrupted by Reigns, who Harper and Rowan laid out as well. At Hell in a Cell, Harper and Rowan were defeated by Reigns and Bryan in a tag team match. As part of the 2019 draft, Erick Rowan was drafted to Raw, disbanding the team. Harper's last televised match in WWE was in a battle royal at the Crown Jewel event on October 31, which he lost.

On December 8, it was announced that Harper had been released from his WWE contract.

Death[]

Huber died at the age of 41 on December 26, 2020. His wife said he had been treated for a lung issue at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida; the issue was unrelated to COVID-19 as he had tested negative multiple times. He had been hospitalized in the intensive care unit since late October 2020. In January 2021, his widow revealed the official cause of death was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

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