So this is very late, for various reasons. Life events, work, figuring out what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. I just knew I really wanted to say something because I really feel like when Bray Wyatt passed, we lost someone special.
The first episode of NXT Season 2, back when it was a reality show instead of a beloved third brand under the WWE Umbrella, debuted June 8th, 2010. Feels like a lifetime ago. I was a teenager at the time and was blown away by the explosive debut of the Nexus (a group of disgruntled rookies from Season 1 of NXT) the night before. It was on this episode that I was introduced to a man named Windham Rotunda, then known as Husky Harris. He had the nickname, “The Tank with a Ferrari Engine”, and it was fitting. Dude was very fast for his size and he was one of the Season 2 rookies that really stood out to me.
FOLLOW THE BUZZARDS
About 3 years later, I hadn’t seen Husky Harris in a while so I assumed he was injured or released or something. I wasn’t really paying much attention to the new burgeoning developmental brand that NXT had become in order to replace Florida Championship Wrestling. Near the end of May of 2013, WWE started to air these really dope and interesting vignettes that featured some big backwoods looking country dudes in tank tops, flannel and floral print Hawaiian shirts. The main focus of these vignettes was this kind of familiar looking guy in a trilby ranting about the system and control and people being sheep. To semi quote the Will Ferrell movie Blades of Glory and a song by The Throne, nobody knew what it meant, but it was provocative. You wanted to listen. Then in July of 2013, after a match between where Kane defeated Christian, the soon to become iconic Wyatt Family made their debut and jumped the Big Red Monster. Erick Rowan. Luke Harper. Bray Wyatt. Three big country looking swamp cult dudes with the charismatic Bray Wyatt as the leader and centerpiece. Fans in the know began chanting :Husky Harris”, but it only took about a week for that former identity to be completely forgotten and replaced with the Eater of Worlds.
Bray Wyatt was always an interesting enigma on the main roster. For pretty much his entire career you could say he was a heel as most of his opponents were always babyfaces, however, he was hardly ever booed. People were always enwrapped in his entrances, his promos, even the way he moved about the ring. People wanted to be a “firefly”, anytime he made his entrance with or without the other members of his family, people always turned on their cell phone lights to signify that they were a firely. He was probably the most over heel in an entire generation. On a roster full of tall, square jawed, clean shaven “body guys”, he and the other Wyatts always stood out with just their look alone. While it was a common complaint among Bray Wyatt fans (myself included) that he often would lose the big storylines, whether he would win or not, he still had plenty of memorable moments and matches. The trios match between The Shield & The Wyatt Family. Winning the WWE Championship in the Elimination Chamber. His WrestleMania feud with John Cena (which included a creepy kid with a voice altering mic, more creepy kids surrounding Cena in a steel cage and one of the best hype videos in WWE history). Bray trying to get Randy to join The Wyatts which eventually lead to him burning down Bray’s childhood home. His hand in the creation and solidification of Daniel Bryan being the #1 babyface in WWE. So much of the modern era has unforgettable moments that involve Bray Wyatt and The Wyatt Family. Not to do what so many in the past have done and compare Bray Wyatt to The Undertaker, but in terms of the creepy, dark character that at times could be frightening, what The Undertaker was for boomers and Gen Xers, Wyatt was to millennial and Gen Z wrestling fans. Now as what often happens with wrestling stables, The Wyatt Family couldn’t last forever. Eventually Luke Harper left, had a decent solo career, then went on to become the late, great Mr. Brodie Lee in All Elite Wrestling. Erick Rowan would go on to have an interesting storyline involving a large spider. Braun Strowman who joined The Wyatts later on arguably became the second most successful member post-Wyatt Family. And of course with Bray, like other wrestlers before him, reinvention was needed.
LET HIM IN
Again, vignettes would play during Monday Night Raw, however this time, it was a buzzard puppet popping out of a cardboard box. Fans of course, remembering Bray Wyatt’s iconic outro line figured it was him, but I don’t think anyone could’ve guessed what he was going to become once he made his long awaited return.
April 22, 2019. What we all witnessed this day on Monday Night RAW would become yet another instantly classic character. Bray Wyatt was now a children’s show host. Yowie wowie.
The Firefly Funhouse instantly became the highlight of every Monday Night RAW. It was like a dark and twisted version of Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Bray and his host of puppet characters like Mercy the Buzzard, Huskus the Pig, Abby the Witch and of course, Ramblin’ Rabbit all became beloved mainstays of WWE’s flagship show, while also subtly being references to Bray’s career so far. This gimmick didn’t just stop there however, it eventually span into other aspects like former women’s champion Alexa Bliss becoming Bray’s partner in friendship and being the Harley Quinn to Bray Wyatt’s joker. She even came into her own as a performer while being involved in Funhouse segments.
Eventually, the underlying darkness of the funhouse became physically represented by yet another facet of Bray Wyatt known as The Fiend/ To put it bluntly, The Fiend was pretty much the coolest shit ever. The first time we saw The Fiend on WWE television was the first time anything on WWE every actually scared me, even a little, so I imagine even kids watching will never forget the first time they saw The Fiend on Monday Night RAW. Iconic special effects masters Tom Savini and Jason Baker actually created The Fiend mask so its no wonder it was so amazing and creepy looking. The Fiend really gave Bray Wyatt a full refresh. One could argue it was even more popular than The Wyatt Family era. It made WWE a lot of money between all The Fiend merch and the Fiend Championship belt which infamously cost over $1000 USD.
Some fans often had issues with The Fiend gimmick as when Bray was The Fiend, he was basically invulnerable to any and every wrestling move, weapon strike or finisher known to man. Basically you needed a nuke to beat him. Or you needed to be a semi-retired wrestling vet from WCW.
I get why that could be grating to some fans but to be honest. I love the spooky, supernatural side to wrestling, so that was exactly the type of thing I loved. Seeing Bray’s creative ideas and gimmicks come to life on TV was amazing. He was really doing things no one had ever don before and may not do ever again. Between the evil Mr. Rogers-esque side of Bray Wyatt and The Fiend Bray Wyatt, Wyatt fans were eating. The Pandemic era allowed the spookiness to be turned up to 10 as now that they were wrestling without a crowd, they could do things like “teleport” without turning out the lights, have evil dolls running around and even get set on fire (Randy Orton really like setting Wyatts and Wyatt related stuff on fire I guess).
Then of course, there was the Firefly Funhouse Match with John Cena at WrestleMania 36. One could call that Bray’s magnum opus. Cena is one of Bray’s most memorable arch enemies and he took this match as a chance to do a kind of meta takedown of Cena as a character, as a gimmick, as a man. The match itself was filled with references and easter eggs for longtime wrestling fans. It was, as the youth say, a movie. Closest comparison would be Matt Hardy’s Broken Universe on Impact.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Then July 31, 2021, months after a losing effort against Randy Orton due to interference from Alexa Bliss, Bray Wyatt was released from WWE. It was shocking. Personal favorites suddenly being released happens all the time but Bray had been a mainstay of WWE’s main event scene for close to a decade at that point and was one of the company’s known entities at a time where wrestling wasn’t as big as it once was. The company cited money issues as a reason why, but regardless, this release was felt among all wrestling fans. There was outcry, people said they weren’t even gonna watch anymore if Bray was gone. Bad enough one of their favorite wrestlers was released, but he was released during a global pandemic on top of that. It definitely threw me off as well. This was someone I had been watching since high school and just like that he was gone, practically without a trace, no way to add any satisfying conclusion to the storyline set up with Alexa Bliss’ unexpected betrayal, just gone. No more funhouse. No more Fiend.
I took it pretty hard too, Bray was consistently one of my favorite wrestlers to watch and then all of a sudden he was gone. Part of me hoped maybe he’d land in AEW or maybe even Impact where they would definitely let all his ideas come to fruition.
Fast forward to late 2022, and once again, mysterious vignettes and QR Codes start popping up on RAW and SmackDown airings, this time making vague references to Alice in Wonderland. It didn’t take too much effort to figure out who was behind these. Then, October 10th, 2022 at the end of that year’s Extreme Rules Premium Live Event, Bray Wyatt made his return. Not only did he make his return, he brought a new look, a new theme song and another new entrance.
It was like he never left. The people still loved him, the fireflies were still out, everyone was still enraptured with everything he said on the following SmackDown where he made his return promo. His return had millions of views across social media and YouTube. Amid a pandemic, amid the death of a close loved one in Mr. Brodie Lee aka Luke Harper, and amid what we now know to be health issues, he came back.
I found where he was going with this new character to be interesting. In his return promo he stated that this was the realest version of Bray Wyatt we had ever seen. That he was finally being himself. There was even a new character he had brought with him named “Uncle Howdy” that many speculated was meant to be a representation of one of his family members that had history in the wrestling business. It’s truly a shame that we won’t be able to see his vision for this new version come to fruition.
But of course, we’re just fans at the end of the day. He had a huge impact on all of us, but most of us never knew him personally. All of our empathy and condolences should go to the ones who did know him and speak glowingly of a man who by all accounts was a genuinely good and giving man. His family. His friends. Those that knew him as Windham. His father who now has to bury his son.
The world and the wrestling world has lost a truly unique and creative mind. He went from a swamp cult leader to a kid’s show host to a literal monster, to a man seeking redemption. Who even thinks to make leaps in characters like that in Professional Wrestling. He was on of us. He was a man who saw Professional Wrestling as the art form it truly is and the potential it has for deep storytelling. There will be people in the future inspired by Bray Wyatt who may go into wrestling or who may even go into writing or film directing. But there will always only be one Bray Wyatt. One Windham Rotunda. He really did have the whole world in his hands.
Rest in Peace.
