Bray Wyatt Death: WWE’s Bray Wyatt, real name Windham Rotunda, died aged 36 on Thursday, WWE said in a statement.
“WWE is saddened to learn that Windham Rotunda, also known as Bray Wyatt, passed away on Thursday, Aug. 24, at age 36,” read the statement.
Bray Wyatt a third-generation superstar was out of action for several months owing to health issues and was one of the most creative minds in the business. Rotunda’s portrayal of the Wyatt Family – as an evil cult leader from the backwoods – was one of the most popular acts in the NXT and the main roster alongside The Shield.
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“From his leadership of The Wyatt Family alongside Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, and Braun Strowman to his enthralling time as “The Fiend,” Wyatt embarked on an incredible career and saw several iconic rivalries with Superstars such as John Cena, Randy Orton and The Undertaker,” further added the WWE statement.
Wyatt became the WWE Champion once and held the Universal championship twice and was the RAW and SmackDown Tag team champion with with Luke Harper and Randy Orton under the Freebird Rule and with Matt Hardy, respectively.
Rotunda followed the footsteps of his grandfather Blackjack Mulligan, and his father Mike Rotunda, popularly known as IRS in the professional wrestling business and made his pro-wrestling debut in 2009 in the Florida Championship Wrestling and went on to team with his brother Bo Dallas’ and subsequently won the FCW tag team championships.
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He was repackaged as Husky Harris under NXT in 2010 and then joined the Nexus, before conceptualising the career-altering gimmick of the Wyatt Family and aligning himself with Luke Harpar and Eric Rowan and the trio went on became one of the most talked about characters in the WWE from 2012 to 2017. Braun Strowman was added to the stable later as the Black Sheep.
After the Wyatt family stable ran its course, Rotunda brought in fresh iterations of the gimmick with the Deleters of Worlds persona and later as the Fiend and Firefly Fun House. Alexa Bliss was The Fiend’s associate during this time.
In 2021. Rotunda was released from the WWE owing to budget cuts but he reappeared in 2022 at Extreme Rules and RAW XXX. The Undertaker seemingly gave his nod of approval as a mark of passing the torch. Wyatt later was involved in a storyline with Bobby Lashley but it was later revealed that he was dealing with a real-life illness. On August 19, It was reported that Wyatt was close to making his return.
Rotunda was married to former WWE ring announcer JoJo Offerman. They had two children and Rotunda had two other children from a previous marriage.
WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque also shared the news on social media.
“Just received a call from WWE Hall of Famer Mike Rotunda who informed us of the tragic news that our WWE family member for life Windham Rotunda – also known as Bray Wyatt – unexpectedly passed earlier today. Our thoughts are with his family and we ask that everyone respect their privacy now,” wrote Triole H on the micro-blogging website X (formerly known as Twitter).
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