Professional wrestler Windham Rotunda, better known to the world as Bray Wyatt, died of a heart attack today. He was only 36.
His passing comes a day after the death of wrestling legend Terry Funk. Of course, it has been known Funk had been ill for a quite a few years. Whereas Wyatt was less than half Funk's age. Funk was old enough to be Wyatt's grandfather.
Of course, Wyatt came from a wrestling family like Funk. Wyatt's grandfather was none other than Blackjack Mulligan. His father was Mike Rotunda (known to some as I.R.S.) and he was named after his uncle Barry Windham with whom Rotunda teamed during the 1980's in what was then known as the WWF. Wyatt had another wrestling uncle - Kendall Windham. Wyatt's younger brother Bo Dallas is also an active wrestler.
Wyatt's wrestling career lasted nearly 15 years mostly in the WWE. He was first billed as Husky Harris and was part of the Nexus stable in the early 2010s. But after a stint in NXT, he would develop the Bray Wyatt character as a cult like leader leading The Wyatt Family. Sadly, two thirds of The Wyatt Family are now gone with Luke Harper (a.k.a. Brodie Lee and Jonathan Huber) dying the day after Christmas in 2020 at the age of 41.
Aside from holding both the WWE Title and the WWE Universal Title, Wyatt will be remembered for his creative wrestling personas as Wyatt whether as a cult leader, a demented children's host of Firefly Fun House or as The Fiend.
Wyatt was released by WWE in July 2021, but would return with much fanfare in September 2022. However, he only wrestled one match and that was at the Royal Rumble against L.A. Knight back in January 2023. Shortly thereafter, Wyatt would be written off WWE programming for reasons not explained until his passing today - he contracted COVID. He also had a history of heart ailments.
However, warlier this week, there was optimism that Wyatt would return to action in the not-too-distant future, but sadly the future would come to pass. R.I.P.
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