He was sent to its developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), before debuting on the NXT brand in 2012, a member of The Wyatt Family.

[4] Following his tour in Japan, Ruud returned to the United States in 2008 and began competing for the Minnesota-based F1rst Wrestling promotion.

[6] He made his FCW TV debut in August 2011 with a win over Kenneth Cameron, while being accompanied by Byron Saxton and James Bronson.

[8] Although Rowan continued to compete in both singles and tag team matches with Bronson, he was not involved in any further feuds and did not challenge for any titles on FCW TV.

[14] Following a win over Bo Dallas and Michael McGillicutty in the semi-finals after Wyatt's interference,[15] Harper and Rowan were defeated in the finals by Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey.

[16] On the May 2 episode of NXT, Harper and Rowan won a triple threat elimination tag team match by last pinning Adrian Neville.

[22] From the May 27 episode of Raw, WWE aired vignettes promoting the upcoming main roster debut of The Wyatt Family.

[43] On the January 5, 2015 episode of Raw, Rowan, along with Dolph Ziggler and Ryback were (kayfabe) fired by The Authority for being a part of Team Cena.

[44] On the January 19 episode of Raw, Rowan, Ziggler and Ryback were rehired after Cena won a 3-on-1 handicap match against Seth Rollins, Big Show and Kane following assistance from Sting.

[48] Rowan participated in the second annual André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31, but was eliminated by Big Show.

[52] Rowan took part in The Wyatt Family's feud with The Brothers of Destruction, after they kidnapped The Undertaker at Hell in a Cell,[53] and Kane on the October 26 episode of Raw.

[61] Rowan and Strowman were set to compete in a match at Payback,[61] but Wyatt suffered a calf injury[62] as well as Harper, who dislocated his patella and tore his medial patellofemoral ligament in late March.

[72] The team wrestled their return match on the November 21 episode of SmackDown Live, defeating The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley).

[73] At the Clash of Champions pay-per-view event, The Bludgeon Brothers defeated Breezango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze) in a squash match.

[74] 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.

[76] They would go on to successfully defend the titles against The Usos at the Greatest Royal Rumble event,[77] against Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson at Money in the Bank,[78] and against Team Hell No at Extreme Rules.

[83] On the February 26 episode of SmackDown Live, Rowan competed in his first match since August 2018, teaming with Bryan in a losing effort to Kofi Kingston and Kevin Owens.

[87] At Stomping Grounds, Rowan and Bryan retained the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker).

[94] The feud concluded at Hell in a Cell, where Reigns and Bryan defeated Rowan and Harper in a tornado tag team match.

[100] On March 2 episode of Raw in a backstage segment with No Way Jose, Rowan revealed the mystery creature inside the cage to be a large spider.

[102] On April 15, 2020, Rowan was released from his WWE contract along with several other superstars as a result of budget cuts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ending his 9-year tenure with the company.

Following the death of his former WWE tag team partner Jon Huber (who performed as Luke Harper in WWE and Mr. Brodie Lee in All Elite Wrestling) on December 26, 2020, Ruud (as Erick Redbeard) appeared on the memorial AEW Dynamite episode "Brodie Lee Celebration of Life" on December 30, where he protected Dark Order members from being attacked by Wardlow during a six-man tag team match.

On August 5th, Rowan would make his in-ring return alongside fellow Wyatt Sicks stablemates Dexter Lumis and Joe Gacy to face American Made (Chad Gable and the Creed Brothers) in a winning effort.