Q&A: Get to know Rochester's hometown WWE superstar Luke Harper

Josh Barnett | Democrat and Chronicle

Show Caption Hide Caption WWE Superstar Luke Harper coming home Jon Huber, also known as Luke Harper in the WWE, has come a long way since he was a student at McQuaid Jesuit in Rochester.

World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Luke Harper returns home to Rochester at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday for SmackDown Live at the Blue Cross Arena. Here's what Harper – real name Jon Huber — shared about his current status and performing a chance to perform at home, in Rochester:

Question: Have to imagine there’s been some ticket requests and you are expecting some hometown support on Tuesday. What type of support are you expecting?

Answer: I’ve gotten the obligatory text messages about helping people out with tickets and you’ve got to pick and choose who you’re helping. There’ll be a lot. For me, it’s very cool to come back here and be a success, and to have the TV come back for the first time in five years … I like to think I have something to do with that. (I probably don’t, but hey, when I go to sleep at night, I tell myself that I do.)

Q: You had a long journey on the independents around the world before signing a developmental deal with WWE. When you finally sign, how do you not think that you’ve arrived — rather than continuing to work to join the main roster?

A: For me, it was enjoy each moment and then instantly get back to work. I know that’s like a silly cliché that you’re going to hear a guy like (WWE performer) Mojo Rawley say, but it’s actually very, very true. You get the contract and you’re like, 'yeah, this is awesome.' But then you’ve got to figure out how to move a newborn and a wife and a dog to Florida and figure that out with no money. Then you’ve got to go to the Performance Center for six hours a day. Now you’ve got to figure that out. So, instantly,, you’re back to the grind of getting stuff done.

I was like, “OK, you’ve realized the goal of being there now and that was out of reach, so now let’s try to realize NXT TV and that seems out of reach.” Then once that happened it was, “Oh, let’s figure out how to get on the main roster or on to a house show and that seems out of reach.” My wife loves to tell me that I love to tell people, “Oh, I never thought WWE would sign me; I never thought I’d be on TV; I never thought I’d be a champion; I never thought any of those things were remotely possible.’ I like to say that but I don’t actually believe it, so... it’s a mind trip.

Q: The Wyatt Family represented a group that WWE had never seen before and that creates an interesting dilemma. Do you feel like for a time the creative team didn’t really know what to do with you?

A: Absolutely. I think this was a group now that you had never seen anything like it. We were so far away from what The Shield was at the time and any other group that had ever showed up … We were so different and the gimmick was so well hashed out when we came from NXT that it was hard to fit in a WWE program. And I think that was part of the charm, though, to us or for us. I think it was difficult to write for us or I don’t even know how to proclaim that.

Q: You leave the Wyatt Family and then you were out with a shoulder injury. You come back and rejoin the Wyatt Family. It becomes you and Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt. Was there any concern about going back to something when you had already been involved?

A: It was an opportunity to get back to where I needed to be. I was out for six months, and I knew if I didn’t jump back into that spot right away that I might have been left out in the cold even longer. It was a means to an end. I didn’t think the end goal was for Bray Wyatt to be world champion, but that was obviously one of the biggest goals we had set when we showed up here. Once I had even been close to that championship, I decided that I was the one that should have been world champion. Then it became kind of an ego game and a realization of what’s out there for me past being in the family. Getting back together was trying to reclaim some of the past but also a step onward for me at the time.

Career rebirth

Q: You are back to a singles wrestler on SmackDown Live. What’s up next?

A: It’s almost like a career is restarting -- or for lack of a better term -- reborn. It’s a blank canvas right now and I’m looking forward to whatever’s going to come. I hope something’s going to come fairly soon. I’ve been working every weekend (at live events), but nothing on TV as of right now and that’s the goal to get back on there and make some major strides. I always have goals set and it’s hard when you’re not being utilized right now.

Q: Compared to the dark persona in the Wyatt Family, you get to talk more and experience different emotions. Is this more comfortable for you?

A: This is way more comfortable for me. It was four years of being kind of subdued and more in the background. For me, it’s way more comfortable for me to talk about my two dogs attacking each other or letting my chickens out or hockey in Rochester. Those are the things I like to talk about and that’s what I’m comfortable talking about. Two years ago, I wouldn’t have said this but this is way more comfortable for me.

Luke's Twitter habit

Q: So let’s talk Twitter. You tweet the same thing every day just changing the day. “Today is Thursday. You know what that means.” Then, Today is Friday. You know what that means.” So, what does it mean?

A: I adore Twitter to the end of time. It is a wonderful thing, mainly for professional hockey coverage. I just decided to write the same thing every day because honestly there is something that it means to me. Every single day is something different. And when I was over in Europe — I hate to admit this — I messed the days up. I was on the tour. I woke up. I put 'Hey, it’s Friday,' thinking it was Friday, and then went and worked. Halfway through my workout, I got a text, and was alerted quickly that I put the wrong day, and I was ashamed and embarrassed.

For tickets and more information: Go to Ticketmaster.com or visit wwe.com/events.

JABARNETT@usatoday.com