Bray Wyatt Passes Away at Age 36

Bray Wyatt, real name Windham Rotunda, passed away today at the age of 36.

Rotunda’s passing was first announced by WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque on Twitter who stated that Rotunda’s father and former wrestler Mike Rotunda informed him of the tragic news regarding his son.

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…

— Triple H (@TripleH) August 24, 2023

Prior to his passing, Rotunda had been dealing with an unknown “physical illness” since this past March.

Rotunda’s career in wrestling spanned from 2009 to 2023 and worked entirely for WWE and their developmental promotions, Florida Championship Wrestling and NXT.

Rotunda was most known for being the leader of villainous The Wyatt Family and later as The Fiend, which was his eviler alter ego persona.

Rotunda first wrestled for WWE under the ring name of Alex Rotunda and later as Duke Rotunda in FCW and afterwards as Husky Harris during his first stint in NXT and on WWE’s main roster as a member of The Nexus. Rotunda debuted his more well known Bray Wyatt character in April of 2012 during his second stint in FCW which lead to the creation of The Wyatt Family and Rotunda portraying a backwoods cult leader.

Rotunda would be promoted again to WWE’s main roster in July of 2013 alongside Luke Harper (also known as Brodie Lee) and Erick Rowan as a new version of The Wyatt Family.

Among the notable moments in Rotunda’s career included his feud with John Cena in 2013 that included Rotunda suffering his first ever main roster loss at WrestleMania XXX and getting his revenge at Extreme Rules 2013 with a cage match win over Cena. Rotunda also faced off against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 31 in 2014 in a losing effort as part of The Undertaker’s legendary undefeated WrestleMania streak at the time. Wyatt managed to win the WWE Championship for the first time in his career at Elimination Chamber 2017 and held onto the title for 49 days before being defeated by Randy Orton at WrestleMania 33.

Wyatt would later introduce a new character as the fun loving host of a kids show called the Firefly Fun House in April of 2019 that gradually became darker in tone as the setup for the debut of his new evil The Fiend persona. As The Fiend, Rotunda was involved in several memorable moments including the infamous Hell in a Cell match against Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship at Hell in a Cell 2019 and a cinematic match against John Cena in a Firefly Fun House match at WrestleMania 36 in 2020 that led to Rotunda’s first ever WrestleMania victory.

Wyatt would later be released from WWE in July of 2021 and made his official return to the company at Extreme Rules 2022 in October of 2022 following several weeks of “White Rabbit” QR code style vignettes. Wyatt was involved in notable storylines and feuds involving Uncle Howdy, LA Knight, and Bobby Lashley before being out of action for the rest of his career over an unknown illness this past March.

Among Rotunda’s notable accolade and achievements throughout his career included being a two-time WWE Universal Champion, a one-time WWE Champion, a one-time WWE RAW Tag Team Champion, a one-time WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champion, and a two-time FCW Florida Tag Team Champion.