He debuted his character in "NXT" and it was drew comparisons to Max Cady of the 1991 movie Cape Fear and Waylon Mercy (a character portrayed by WWF alumni Dan Spivey). He formed The Wyatt Family in November and introduced Luke Harper as his first "son" and Erick Rowan as his second "son". Harper and Rowan competed in the NXT Tag Team Championship tournament to crown the first champions. They defeated Percy Watson and Yoshi Tatsu in the first round and Bo Dallas and Michael McGillicutty in the semi-finals. They lost to Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey in the finals. Wyatt returned from a torn pectoral muscle and had a match on the February 21 episode of "NXT" where he defeated Yoshi Tatsu. Harper and Rowan won a triple threat elimination tag match on the May 2 episode of "NXT" to earn a shot at the championships. Wyatt also had a match against Chris Jericho later in the show but was defeated. Harper and Rowan won the NXT Tag Team Championships after they defeated Neville and Bo Dallas (who was filling in for an injured Grey) on the May 8 episode of "NXT" (taped on May 2). Harper and Rowan held the titles for 49 days and were defeated by Adrian Neville and Corey Graves on the June 20 episode of "NXT" (aired on July 17).