WWE reports that professional wrestler Bray Wyatt passed away at age 36.

Bray Wyatt

Bray Wyatt, a professional wrestler and former World Wrestling Entertainment champion, died on Thursday, the company announced. He was 36 years old.

WWE did not immediately release the location or cause of death but said it was unexpected.

Wyatt, whose real name was Windham Rotunda, was the son of WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Mike Rotunda.

“Our thoughts are with his family and we ask that everyone respect their privacy at this time,” Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE’s chief content officer, said on social media.

Windham Lawrence Rotunda was an American professional wrestler who competed from May 23, 1987, until August 24, 2023. His time in WWE, where he appeared under the stage name Bray Wyatt, is what made him most famous.

Following in the footsteps of his father Mike Rotunda, his grandfather Blackjack Mulligan, and two of his uncles, Barry and Kendall Windham, Rotunda was a third-generation professional wrestler. His younger brother Taylor Rotunda, better known as Bo Dallas, is also a professional wrestler. He competed in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), then a WWE development territory, with his brother twice holding the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. He did this between 2008 and 2012. Between 2010 and 2011, he temporarily competed on the WWE main roster as Husky Harris, most notably as a member of The Nexus.

Rotunda was recast as Bray Wyatt after returning to WWE's developmental division, which had been renamed NXT. In 2013, he returned to the main cast alongside fellow Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Erick Rowan to reprise his role as the evil head of the bayou-dwelling cult known as The Wyatt Family. After that, he won the WWE Championship once and the Universal Championship twice, becoming a three-time world champion in the WWE. Additionally, he has held the Raw Tag Team Championship with Matt Hardy and the SmackDown Tag Team Championship with Luke Harper and Randy Orton under the Freebird Rule.

From August 2018 to April 2019, there was a break, after which Wyatt reappeared with a fresh ruse. He was portrayed as having a transforming multiple personality disorder and would erratically transition between two personalities: his "good side" of Bray Wyatt, a Mr. Rogers-like children's TV broadcaster, and his "bad side" of The Fiend, a horrifying clown monster with a horror theme. He left the WWE in July 2021 but made a comeback at Extreme Rules in October 2022 with a new identity that he claimed to represent his "real-life" personality while also gradually reintroducing some of his other identities.

After taking a break starting in February 2023 due to catching COVID-19, his second return would be cut short when that August he passed away suddenly from a heart attack. He only competed in one televised bout during his second stint, which took place at the 2023 Royal Rumble.

early years

Windham On May 23, 1987, Lawrence Rotunda was born in Brooksville, Florida. He attended Hernando High School, where in 2005 he weighed 275 pounds (125 kg) and won the state wrestling title. 2005 saw his graduation. He was a football player as well. 

defensive guard and tackle. As an offensive guard in his second season at the College of the Sequoias, Rotunda was recognized as a second-team All-American. He was given a scholarship to play football at Troy University, where he spent two years. He decided to become a professional wrestler and left Troy 27 credit hours short of a bachelor's degree.

career in professional wrestling
Wrestling Entertainment Worldwide, or WWE

On the Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) program from February 5, 2009, he defeated Brian Jossie in his first-ever in-ring bout. 

In April 2009, Rotunda made his television debut under the name Alex Rotundo. Duke Rotundo became his new name after a while. He started working alongside his brother Bo in June 2009. The Rotundo Brothers defeated The Dude Busters (Caylen Croft and Trent Barretta) at the FCW television tapings on July 23, becoming the front-runners for the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. 

On the same evening, they won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship by defeating Justin Angel and Kris Logan. They went on to defeat Curt Hawkins and Heath Slater's team as well as Dylan Klein and Vance Archer to win the championship again. The Dude Busters defeated The Rotundo Brothers to win the championship at the FCW television tapings on November 19.

He entered NXT as Husky Harris on June 2, 2010, and Cody Rhodes served as his WWE Pro. The next week, on the June 8 broadcast of NXT, Harris made his television debut in the ring for the program. He and Rhodes lost a tag team match against Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) and Percy Watson. 

As Rhodes had done the previous week, Harris turned heel on the NXT program of June 22 by assaulting announcer Matt Striker. In the singles match the following week on NXT, Harris lost to MVP and finished seventh out of the eight rookies in the initial poll. Harris rose to sixth in the second poll, narrowly escaping being eliminated. 

The rookies competed in a six-man tag team match on August 9 on Raw. Harris' team won the bout when he pinned Kaval, but they lost the rematch on August 10 on NXT. Harris moved up to fourth place among the six rookies in the poll that was conducted later that evening. 

Out of the six rookies, Harris rose to the fourth position. On August 17, Harris was one of two rookies ousted from NXT. After Harris' dismissal, he and Rhodes assaulted Kaval, which led to a fight that eventually involved MVP and Kofi Kingston. In the NXT season finale, Harris returned along with the other ousted rookies and joined the assault on Kaval, the NXT champion.

While Rotunda was on NXT, she continued to compete in FCW under the ring name Husky Harris. Following his exit from NXT in September 2010, Harris started a rivalry with Percy Watson in FCW when he assaulted Watson when they were competing as a tag team and Watson was pinned as a result. Watson and Harris engaged in a confrontation outside the arena before their match, which resulted in a no-disqualification match that Harris lost. In a lumberjack match in October, Harris triumphed over Watson to put an end to the rivalry.

The Wyatt Family (2012–2014)

Rotunda was rebranded as Bray Wyatt in April 2012; he had previously identified as Eli Cottonwood in FCW. When WWE changed the name of FCW to NXT Wrestling, Bray Wyatt made his debut on the episode of the revived NXT that was recorded at Full Sail University on July 11, 2012, where he beat Aiden English. 

Wyatt underwent surgery in July after suffering a torn pectoral muscle. Despite the wound, Wyatt continued to make appearances on NXT, establishing The Wyatt Family in November, with Erick Rowan serving as his second "son" and Luke Harper serving as his first. 

On the NXT program airing on February 21, 2013, Wyatt competed in his first bout after returning from injury, winning over Yoshi Tatsu. On the NXT program airing on March 13, Bo Dallas handed Wyatt his first defeat. Wyatt lost to Chris Jericho on the NXT program that aired on May 2. 

Harper and Rowan won the NXT Tag Team Championship by defeating Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey on the May 8 NXT show. Harper and Rowan were defeated by Neville and Corey Graves for the NXT Tag Team Championship on the July 17 edition of NXT (which was recorded on June 20).

At WrestleMania XXX, the Wyatt family is shown, with Wyatt (middle) perched on the top turnbuckle.

WWE featured vignettes teasing The Wyatt Family's impending entrance from the May 27 edition of Raw. The segments highlighted the rural beginnings of The Wyatt Family and Rowan's lamb mask. The Wyatt Family debuted on Raw's July 8 edition by attacking Kane. 

The Wyatt Family persisted in attacking wrestlers like R-Truth, Justin Gabriel, Drew McIntyre, Heath Slater, and Jinder Mahal while directing Kane to "follow the buzzards" via cryptic messages. A Ring of Fire duel at SummerSlam on August 18, 2013, which Kane won thanks to interference from Harper and Rowan, was Wyatt's first main roster encounter after he was challenged following a further attack.

After the game, Harper and Rowan ambushed Kane once more and took him hostage. After defeating Kofi Kingston at Battleground on October 6, Wyatt turned his attention to him next.

On November 24, Harper and Rowan were defeated by CM Punk and Daniel Bryan at the Survivor Series. On December 15, The Wyatt Family triumphed over Bryan in a handicap match at TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs. Bryan beat Harper and Rowan on the last Raw of 2013

They intervened for his disqualification and assaulted him until Bryan gave up and joined the group in a gauntlet match so he could fight Wyatt. Bryan attacked the other Wyatt Family members on the January 13 edition of Raw as an indication that he was leaving the organization after Wyatt chastised him after they were unsuccessful. 

On January 26, Wyatt beat Bryan at the Royal Rumble. The Wyatt Family attacked John Cena after costing him his WWE World Heavyweight Championship battle against Randy Orton later that evening. The Wyatt Family assaulted Bryan, Cena, and Sheamus during an Elimination Chamber qualifying match against The Shield on the Raw program on January 27. As a result, Bryan's team was declared the winner by disqualification, and The Shield was denied the opportunity to compete in the Elimination Chamber battle.

 The Wyatt Family beat The Shield at the tournament on February 23. Later, they disrupted the Elimination Chamber match, which led to the elimination of John Cena.

In April 2014, Wyatt and John Cena squared off at WrestleMania XXX.

Following the Elimination Chamber, Wyatt and Cena got into a fight about Wyatt's desire to show that Cena's bravery was really a veneer typical of "this era of lies" and his attempts to make Cena into a "monster."Wyatt later accepted Cena's invitation to a WrestleMania bout, but Cena was able to withstand the impulse to turn into a "monster" and overcome interference from Harper and Rowan to win the match on April 6. This was Wyatt's first pinfall defeat on the WWE main roster. 

Based on the rumor that Wyatt was stealing Cena's audience, the conflict continued beyond WrestleMania XXX, as demonstrated by Wyatt bringing a children's choir to the ring on the April 28 episode of Raw, where the kids eventually donned sheep masks. The rest of The Wyatt Family and a "demonic" youngster repeatedly interfered during Wyatt and Cena's steel cage match against Cena at Extreme Rules on May 4. 

The conflict between Cena and Wyatt continued in a Last Man Standing contest that was scheduled for Payback on June 1. Cena defeated Wyatt by burying him beneath many equipment cases to win the bout and put a stop to the conflict. Wyatt beat Dean Ambrose on the June 13 edition of SmackDown to advance to the June 29 Money in the Bank ladder match for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship, which Cena won.

The Wyatt Family assaulted Chris Jericho when he came back on the next night's episode of Raw. This resulted in bouts between Wyatt and Jericho, which Jericho won at Battleground on July 20. At SummerSlam on August 17, Wyatt defeated Jericho in a rematch.