Bray Wyatt played an important role in Shotzi becoming a pro wrestler

The influence that Bray Wyatt had on professional wrestling wasn't just from a creative standpoint, as he seemingly got many lapsed fans back to the product, and one of them was Shotzi. The WWE star recently revealed she decided to become a wrestler after watching the Wyatt Family perform in their prime.

After a few years in development, Bray Wyatt struck gold as the cult leader of a faction featuring Luke Harper and Erick Rowan in 2012. The stable quickly stamped their authority in the main roster in the years that followed, and Shotzi, who hadn't watched wrestling in years, was compelled to tune back into WWE all because of the Wyatt Family.

Shotzi began her wrestling career in 2014, and it probably would not have happened had Bray Wyatt not created one of the most unique groups in WWE history.

Here's what she revealed while speaking on The RIP Tour - A Halloween Horror Nights Podcast:

"I started watching WWE again, and it was the Wyatt family that I was watching that got me into wrestling again. I thought they were so cool. Me and my sister wanted to be the female version of them. The rest is history. We talked about that, and I immediately went online, 'How do you get into wrestling?' I looked up schools near me and started training a few months later. I thank the Wyatt family for that," she said. "I was a theater kid. I was watching wrestling and was like, 'this is aggressive theater.' This is what I need to do." (H/T Fightful)

Shotzi recalls her earliest memories of being a WWE and pro wrestling fan

Every wrestler currently performing in WWE grew up watching the company's shows on TV, and Shotzi was no different. The 31-year-old said that she watched professional wrestling along with her brother, but she never really liked it as a kid,

As she didn't have massive muscles, Shotzi didn't feel she could make the cut as a pro wrestler. The former NXT star eventually got into musical theatre and never really considered the possibility of entering the squared circle and approaching it as a full-time career.

"I watched a little bit with my brother growing up, but I was never a huge fan. I just never thought that someone as small as me could be a wrestler. I always thought you had to have the biggest muscles ever to be a wrestler. I was doing musical theater, I moved back home from going to musical theater college and dropped that dream."

What is your favorite Bray Wyatt memory? Share it in the comments section below.