In a complete “stop the presses” moment, the WWE has come to terms with Windham Rotunda, aka Husky Harris, aka The Fiend, aka Bray Wyatt. A mere few days ago, he posted a picture of himself looking like an absolute stud who had been rigorously hitting the gym. It certainly piqued fan interest as Wyatt seemingly always does in a “when is he coming back” kind of way and maybe WWE was keeping him off TV so that he could sculpt his body for another run and another phase in his character.
But alas, he was “future endeavored” instead. Probably right about the time he might start to really peak, should someone get behind him and The Fiend character, which was a humongous base of revenue for the WWE. But Wyatt’s release also tells another story. The last of a generational family, the Windham-Rotunda family is now gone from the WWE. It doesn’t mean any one of them won’t be back someday, but it’s currently the latest chapter in how the WWE consistently (and hopefully inadvertently) did their best to curtail the potential of several of the greatest workers of the past sixty years.
The Family Patriarch: Blackjack Mulligan
Getting his start with Verne Gagne, it wasn’t long before the classic McMahon eye for big men was cast on the six foot nine, 300 lb Blackjack Mulligan. Cast as challenger for Pedro Morales, he was tragically stabbed by a fan (one of the only true stabbing incidents in history). Unfortunately, the Boston PD thought is was part of the show! When he returned, he was paired up with Blackjack Lanza to form the Blackjacks until the mid-seventies. By the time he returned to the WWE, Hulkamania was running wild and any high hopes Windham had at being a top heel were gone. Unfortunately, Windham and his son Kendall were arrested and convicted for making counterfeit bills in 1990 and served two years each. He wouldn’t return to the WWE until The Blackjacks were inducted into the 2006 Hall Of Fame class.
WWE Didn't Use The U.S. Express
For many die-hard fans and industry insiders, there were seldom smoother wrestlers in the ring than Blackjack’s son, Barry Windham. His son-in-law wasn’t too shabby either, as Mike Rotunda won various collegiate titles before being trained by old school legend, Dick Byer. When both superstars entered the WWE, they were paired up as a tag team, The U.S. Express, which was obviously a shoo-in for the most popular tag team of all time. They were even set to have “Real American” as their theme before it was instead given to a certain red and yellow-clad megastar.
Windham would have several stints in the company over the years, including flop characters like The Widowmaker and The Stalker. He even helped to try and resurrect The Blackjacks, with Bradshaw as his partner. Rotunda had slightly more success, as IRS, teaming up with Ted DiBiase to form Money Inc and headline WrestleMania IX. From an in-ring perspective, it’s a shame that WWE didn’t try to do more with either member of the team. To this day, old-school talents speak about how amazing Windham was in the ring.
Bo Dallas Failed On WWE's Main Roster
For all the justified flack WWE gets for the continued misuse of such a character like Bray Wyatt, at least they were consistent with the Rotunda boys. Bo was first to get to the main roster (after Husky Harris headed back to FCW). He even goes down in history as the first-ever defending NXT champion on the first-ever TakeOver. But NXT wasn’t much to mainstream fans just yet.
Dallas heading up was nowhere near as monumental a call-up can seem like today. Instead, the former NXT champion came up as a comedy character, trying to get all sorts of superstars to Bo-lieve in themselves. When that ran its course, he joined the aptly titled Social Outcasts, a group of underused talents. He pretty much always had some sort of spot on the main roster, but seldom used if ever in any position of prominence. After years of meandering around on the main roster, Bo was released as part of the annual post-WrestleMania bloodletting.
Bray Wyatt's Entire WWE Run Was A Missed Opporunity
Windham Rotunda first appeared in WWE as Husky Harris, a devotee of the Nexus. When that clearly wasn’t working out, he was sent to FCW for more training and as the old expression goes, “to learn a new hold.” Left to his own devices, he created a wild cult leader that was reminiscent of other WWE creep character Waylon Mercy.
Along with his “sons,” Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, The Wyatt Family became instantly over and downright terrifying. Once they debuted on the main roster, the Husky Harris chants quickly subsided and fans really began to fall under Bray’s spell. To most fans, he could do no wrong and many felt the WWE set to print nothing but money with the character. Unfortunately, the powers that be simply had no clue what to do with him. How could they have? Considering any time he was given any bit of an inch to get truly over and breakout, he was unceremoniously pushed back down the card, up until this past weekend when he was given his release, once again much to the shock of the fans and many of his peers.
The WWE once introduced essentially an undead zombie character who was managed by a funeral home director carrying an urn around. The Undertaker was protected for his entire career however. Yes, Bray’s various characters all had the ability to be a massive character babyface that could have perhaps one day been as respected and beloved as The Deadman. But it is interesting the way that WWE takes some of their darker and better-received characters and scratch their heads with them for years before sending them off (Malakai Black, anyone?).
It would be a shock if Bray heading AEW wasn’t all but academic at this point. Perhaps he can lead The Dark Order (paying homage to Brodie). While that does seem far-fetched as the group insists that Negative One will be their leader forever, it could make for a cool moment. An even cooler one would be letting the guy’s creative mind run absolutely wild to see all that could have been in his former employer’s employ. It is an interesting coincidence though that no matter how skilled in the ring or out of it, that every member of this family winds up superiorly underappreciated for the very same skill and creativity they possess.