It’s another tragic day in the world of professional wrestling, as Windham Rotunda, better known as Bray Wyatt, has sadly passed away at the age of 36. The cause of death is a heart attack.
WWE creative head and former wrestler Triple H helped break the news of Bray Wyatt’s death:
Throughout his career with the WWE, Bray Wyatt won three world titles. The first, for the WWE Championship came in 2017, while he won the Universal Championship twice: both as his horror-inspired character “The Fiend”, defeating Seth Rollins in 2019 and former partner Braun Strowman in 2020. Wyatt and Strowman were part of the stable The Wyatt Family, which also included Erik Rowan and Luke Harper, who passed away in 2020.
Bray Wyatt’s father, Mike, was best known in the world of sports entertainment as Irwin R. Schyster (I.R.S). Other prominent relatives include brother Bo Dallas (Taylor Rotunda), uncles Barry and Kendall Windham, and grandfather Blackjack Mulligan, who died in 2016.
Numerous other wrestlers who shared the ring with Bray Wyatt paid tribute, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson calling him a “Very unique, cool and rare character, which is hard to create in our crazy world of pro wrestling” and Mick Foley writing, “I thought so highly of Bray Wyatt, and was so flattered when he started using the mandible claw for his finisher. He was a true visionary; one of the most compelling presences that wrestling has ever seen.”
Bray Wyatt was undoubtedly one of the more talented figures of his era, proving to be quite agile in the ring for a man his size and truly gifted when it came to creating characters. Certainly his Firefly Fun House Match at Wrestlemania 36 against John Cena – a psychological mind game with a cinematic spin – remains one of the most unique matches in WWE history.
Prior to his run in the WWE, Bray Wyatt was part of Florida Championship Wrestling before moving on to NXT, making his official debut as part of The Wyatt Family in 2012 on an episode of Raw.
The news of Bray Wyatt’s death comes just one day after that of the legendary Terry Funk, who died on August 23rd at the age of 79.
What was your favorite Bray Wyatt match? Send your condolences to the Wyatt/Rotunda/Windham family in the comments section below.