Read update
- The professional wrestling world was rocked by the loss of Bray Wyatt, who was cruelly taken away in 2023 far too early. With this has come a lot of reflection on both Bray Wyatt’s career in the professional wrestling business and his life outside the ring too. Wyatt is one of the most fascinating individuals to have stepped foot in WWE with one of the most creative brains ever witnessed in the industry. For both newer fans to the WWE who aren’t familiar with Bray Wyatt and for those who were big fans of his work over the last decade, there are a whole load of facts that everyone should know about Bray Wyatt.
From his very debut as Bray Wyatt, fans have been captivated (hypnotized?) by the charismatic, enigmatic, and seemingly mystical cult leader. Much like every other superstar though, it really only matters what one fan thinks of you. Since his debut on the main roster in late 2013, Wyatt and his followers garnered quite the following. Their original big match with the Shield garnered wild cheers before the match even started.
Wyatt then shed every bit of what first made him popular and created not one, but two bankable characters to finally win Vince McMahon over and get pushed to the top of the card yet again. The Fiend went on an absolute roll, becoming a major merch mover. No matter what form Wyatt took, fans adored him.
UPDATE: 2023/09/07 16:30 EST BY ANDREW KELLY
The professional wrestling world was rocked by the loss of Bray Wyatt, who was cruelly taken away in 2023 far too early. With this has come a lot of reflection on both Bray Wyatt’s career in the professional wrestling business and his life outside the ring too. Wyatt is one of the most fascinating individuals to have stepped foot in WWE with one of the most creative brains ever witnessed in the industry. For both newer fans to the WWE who aren’t familiar with Bray Wyatt and for those who were big fans of his work over the last decade, there are a whole load of facts that everyone should know about Bray Wyatt.
20 Bo Dallas Is His Brother
Whilst it has been more commonly known in recent years, some fans were initially taken by surprise at the revelation that Bo Dallas and Bray Wyatt are real-life brothers, both coming from the same lineage. Aside from their tag team run back in FCW together, it took until 2023 for them to be aligned on-screen, with Dallas playing the “Uncle Howdy” character. Although Dallas was never officially revealed as "Uncle Howdy", it was one of the worst-kept secrets in wrestling.
They would get the chance to feud for the Raw Tag Team Titles when Bray Wyatt & Matt Hardy took on the B-Team in 2018.
19 Named After Wrestling Greats
Bray Wyatt is part of an illustrious professional wrestling line, and not only is he a multi-generational talent, but his uncles were professional wrestling legends Barry & Kendall Windham.
Outside of the ring, Bray Wyatt was known to friends and family as Windham Rotunda, with his first name coming from the legendary Windham name.
18 Main Roster Debut As Husky Harris
Whilst Bray Wyatt rose to prominence when he developed his cult leader gimmick, his first taste of the WWE main roster came when he was a part of the NXT game show in which he played the role of Husky Harris.
He was later drafted into The Nexus faction as a new member and would go on to be a part of the “New Nexus” led by CM Punk. During Punk’s feud with Randy Orton, Wyatt was written off TV with a punt kick to the head.
17 Original Wyatt Family Plans
The Wyatt Family made its debut with three original members - Erick Rowan, Luke Harper, and of course Bray Wyatt (with later members also including Braun Strowman and briefly Randy Orton & Daniel Bryan).
In the earliest stages of planning for what the Wyatt Family would become, there was a very different outlook on who was supposed to be involved in the faction. Baron Corbin and Judas Devlin (who later became AEW’s Luchasaurus) were both originally pitched to be members.
16 Best Gimmick Awards
Bray Wyatt’s ability to reinvent himself puts him amongst the very greatest in this aspect. He has had some incredible gimmicks over the course of his WWE career, and this has been celebrated by the likes of the Wrestling Observer.
In both 2013 and 2019, for The Fiend/Firefly Funhouse Bray and Cult Leader Bray, he was awarded the Best Gimmick award. Others to have won this award include Steve Austin, Roman Reigns, The Rock, Kurt Angle, and many other icons in the business. Due to WWE’s booking, Wyatt’s Fiend gimmick became the first one to win both the best and worst gimmick awards, which is a funny tidbit.
15 Thought Everyone Was A Wrestler When He Was Younger
As noted, Bray Wyatt was surrounded by many family members who were professional wrestlers, and this led to a bizarre childhood outlook at the wider world, as noted by Wyatt in an interview with The Daily Journal;
“Growing up in that environment is a strange thing. Most people couldn't imagine it. When I was a child, I thought everyone was a wrestler. I thought when you went to work, you went to go wrestle." (H/T 411Mania)
14 Steps Into The Film Industry
When Bray Wyatt was released from WWE in 2021, he took a step back from the professional wrestling world. It is no secret that Wyatt has drawn inspirations from Hollywood for his gimmicks and work, and he even took some steps into that world during his time off.
Jason Baker, an FX artist, revealed that he and Wyatt were working on a horror movie project, and given Wyatt’s work as The Fiend in WWE, it is hard to deny that he was a perfect pick to be involved in that sort of project.
13 Unused Ideas In WWE
Bray Wyatt’s mind was on the go all the time when it came to ideas and creative pitches, and he worked alongside artist Kyle A. Scarborough who revealed on social media many of the unused designs that had been developed in the past.
He tweeted designs such as a scary design of a real-life “Huskus” from the Firefly Funhouse. The idea was to have life-sized versions of the characters - something that was seen upon Bray Wyatt’s 2022 return to the company.
12 Multi-Time World Champion
Bray Wyatt made his mark in WWE even without winning any titles, but given his popularity and talents he went on to join the ranks of some of the greats as a world champion in WWE. He first won the WWE Championship at the 2017 Elimination Chamber event, outlasting the likes of John Cena and AJ Styles.
He would go on to win the Universal Championship in both 2019 and 2020 too, ending his WWE career as a three-time world champion.
11 Beloved Individual Backstage
Bray Wyat may have been a spooky, magical demon on WWE programming, but nothing has ever been clearer since his passing than the fact that he was a hugely beloved individual outside the ring.
The outpouring of love on social media and stories shared has shown him to be a locker room leader and great friend to many. WWE would even release a long YouTube video with a handful of superstars sharing their stories and memories of him, and it is clear to see how loved he was.
10 Inherited The Mandible Claw From Mick Foley
Mick Foley was someone who, much like Bray Wyatt, had an unconventional wrestling physique and a knack for reinvention, displaying multiple personalities. It only made sense for Wyatt to inherit Foley’s iconic Mandible Claw finisher. In an interview with Wrestling Inc. Foley, noted;
"I think the biggest thing for me in Bray's career was Paul Heyman calling me up and saying, 'Cactus, we'd like to give Bray Wyatt the Mandible claw.' And I said, 'I love it,' and then he said, 'We'd like you to take it' ... I loved that even more. Every once in a while after a big match, he would pull me aside and point out the match where he got an idea from.”
9 Third Generation Superstar
Bray Wyatt actually debuted in 2011 as Husky Harris. He started on the main roster as part of the new Nexus during a time where the announcers casually mentioned superstars’ lineages, but for whatever reason, they were given silly names.
Wyatt is actually part of one of the most prestigious wrestling families of all time, and he is one of the very few third generation wrestlers to have actually stepped foot in WWE. His father is Mike Rotunda his grandfather was Blackjack Mulligan.
8 Followed In Dad’s Two-Sports Footsteps
Not only did Wyatt follow in his father and uncle’s footsteps, but he also followed his dad’s amazing collegiate career. The former IRS attended Syracuse and both wrestled for the orange as well as playing football.
While he wasn’t a two-sports star in college, Wyatt did make all-state in wrestling in high school as well as play college football. Maybe if this whole Fiend thing doesn’t work out, he could start a new Varsity Club.
7 The Funhouse Characters
From the very first one we saw - Mercy the Buzzard, for those who haven’t caught on yet, each and every character in the Firefly Funhouse hold a dark secret into Bray Wyatt’s twisted mind.
From Mercy representing an early proto-Wyatt, Waylon Mercy to the devil himself, Vince McMahon. Abbie The Witch is in reference to Sister Abigail, Huskus the Pig Boy calls back to Husky Harris, and so on. The Funhouse characters were a clear example of Wyatt's rich creativity.
6 Original Character Blessed By Dan Spivey
The original take on the character - a creepy but well-mannered southern gentlemen with violent tendencies was originally inspired by Max Cady, the character that Robert DeNiro has played in the remake of Cape Fear. But it’s also a character that the old-school WWE Universe had seen before when Dangerous Danny Spivey reinvented himself as Waylon Mercy.
Spivey, retired and living in Florida had stopped by the PC while Bray was still there and blessed his take on the character.
5 Tom Savini And Slipknot Inspirations
When Wyatt began his transformation into the Fiend, he went to the best of the best to help craft an iconic mask. Look no farther than a horror effects maven, Tom Savini. Savini not only designed the mask but that exceedingly expensive world title the Fiend wears around his neck.
Masks and evil-sounding music also are something the band Slipknot knows a thing or two about. Before the Fiend debuted at SummerSlam 2019, he had been trying to get Corey Taylor from the band to let Wyatt (in) and license the song “Unsainted” for The Fiend’s stalk to the ring.
4 The Fiend Is “The Man In The Woods”
It’s quite possible that The Fiend was always in the darkness lurking, waiting to boil to the top of Bray Wyatt’s psyche. During WWE Ghost Stories several years ago, Wyatt told a story from his days living with Sister Abigail about he and his brothers hunting rabbits and steering clear of “The Man In The Woods.”
Wyatt explained that the creature had bright yellow eyes. As he ran home to Abigail, his dark caretaker had explained to “Baby Bray,” that he was the Man In The Woods. Several fans have concluded or have come up with their own addition to this story that it was the Fiend that Wyatt saw that day.
3 Bray Wyatt's Subtle On-Screen Hints
In gearing up for The Fiend’s debut and Bray Wyatt’s grand return, the Eater Of Worlds’ famous lil’ puppet pals had been quietly running amok on Raw for several weeks.
Ramblin’ Rabbit was hanging out near the Miz. Huskus the Pig has showed with Ricochet in the shot too. On one episode, even the “Then, Now, And Forever” bumper had been commandeered by the Fiend. This infleunce in the background would also come into play during the "White Rabbit" return in 2022, which was ingenious.
2 The Fiend Doesn’t Like Bullies
In character, Bray Wyatt is the wolf in shepherd’s clothing. As the Fiend, he is an unstoppable force with evil intentions. Very rarely will he break character, even in Social Media.
That changed when a mother took to Twitter to let Wyatt and the WWE know that some jerk bullied her boy who has Autism, breaking his toy and tearing up his Wyatt shirt. Even though she wasn’t asking for anything, Bray simply replied looking for the boy’s shirt size, letting mom know that “I got his six,” and yes at least one tweet was suggesting the Fiend show up at school.
1 Goldberg Inspired An Early Tattoo
One of the best aspects of the Fiend character is that Bray Wyatt has always tried to give a backstory to the madness, reminding everyone why he’s waged war with men like Daniel Bryan in the first place.
In 2020, Goldberg came out of cryofreeze to challenge The Fiend at Super Showdown for the Universal title. While it’s a thin gesture, at least it’s there. Wyatt had a Goldberg-inspired Tribal Tattoo, amongst his many other tattoos, which was a fun little reference made by Wyatt on social media head of his clash with Goldberg. He recently posted an old tattoo pic of his Husky Harris days with a giant Bill Goldberg-inspired tribal tattoo.