| Bray Wyatt | |
|---|---|
 Wyatt at WrestleMania XXX in 2014 | |
| Birth name | Windham Lawrence Rotunda |
| Born | May 23, 1987 Brooksville, Florida, U.S. |
| Died | August 24, 2023 (aged 36) |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Spouse(s) |
Samantha Pixley
(m. 2012; div. 2017) |
| Partner | JoJo Offerman (2017–2023; his death) |
| Children | 4 |
| Relatives |
|
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
|
| Billed height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm)[2] |
| Billed weight | 285 lb (129 kg)[2] |
| Billed from |
|
| Trained by |
|
| Debut | February 5, 2009[5][6] |
Windham Lawrence Rotunda (May 23, 1987 – August 24, 2023), better known by his ring name Bray Wyatt, was an American professional wrestler best known for his tenures in WWE from 2009 until his death in 2023.
Rotunda was a third-generation wrestler, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Blackjack Mulligan, his father Mike Rotunda, and his uncles Barry and Kendall Windham. His younger brother Taylor is also a wrestler under the ring name Bo Dallas. Alongside his brother, he held the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship twice while in WWE's then-developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). He wrestled under various ring names between 2008 and 2012 in FCW, and wrestled on WWE's main roster from 2010 to 2011 as a member of The Nexus under the ring name Husky Harris.
After returning to WWE's developmental territory, which had been rebranded as NXT, Rotunda was repackaged as Bray Wyatt. Portrayed as the villainous leader of a bayou-dwelling cult called The Wyatt Family, he returned to the main roster alongside Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Erick Rowan in 2013. He subsequently became a one-time WWE Champion, two-time WWE Universal Champion, one-time SmackDown Tag Team Champion (alongside Harper and brief Wyatt Family member Randy Orton under the Freebird Rule), and one-time Raw Tag Team Champion (with Matt Hardy).
After a hiatus from August 2018 to April 2019, Wyatt returned with a new split personality gimmick, which saw him switch between the two characters of a Mr. Rogers-esque children's TV host named Bray Wyatt and a grotesque monster resembling an evil clown called The Fiend. He was released from WWE in July 2021, but returned in October 2022 with a new character that claimed to be his "real-life" self, though he gradually reincorporated his previous personalities in addition to new ones. In what would become his only televised match during this return, he defeated LA Knight in January 2023; he took a medical hiatus in February due to a COVID-19 infection that exacerbated a pre-existing heart condition, and died of a heart attack in August at the age of 36.
- ^ "Bray Wyatt". WWE. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
- ^ a b "Bray Wyatt". WWE. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
- ^ "Husky Harris bio". WWE. Archived from the original on October 30, 2010. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
- ^ "Bray Wyatt – NXT Wrestling profile". NXT Wrestling. Archived from the original on August 18, 2012. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
debutwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Bray Wyatt". Wrestlingdata. Archived from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019.