WWE star Windham Rotunda, better known as Bray Wyatt, dead at 36

Bray Wyatt had reportedly been battling a “career and life threatening” illness, but his father said his death was unexpected.

The pro wrestling world was already dealing with grief this week due to the loss of Terry Funk. Today brought another dose of sadness with news that WWE superstar Windham Rotunda, known to fans worldwide as Bray Wyatt, has died as well at age 36.

Paul “Triple H” Levesque delivered the news of Wyatt’s passing on social media.

Rotunda had been absent from WWE programming since February, and was reported to have been battling an illness of some kind. His last in-ring appearances were a series of matches against LA Knight at house shows after the two men met in a much talked about Pitch Black match at Royal Rumble in January.

However, a report from Fightful two weeks ago suggested that while Rotunda’s ailment was “both career and life threatening,” his health had improved and he was getting closer to an in-ring return.

A third-generation performer, Rotunda broke into NXT in 2010 under the name Husky Harris and made it to the main WWE roster as part of The Nexus. But his real success came when he was repackaged in 2012 as Bray Wyatt, a sinister but charismatic figure who surrounded himself with the Wyatt Family. Rotunda’s penchant for memorable promos and imagery made him popular with WWE fans even though he spent most of his run as a heel.

He also had a skill for reinvention, which he proved with the surreal Firefly Fun House segments in 2019 that reframed him as a warped children’s show host with a darker, masked persona called The Fiend. WWE believed in this version of Rotunda, rewarding him with several championship wins over the next few years.

Yet by the summer of 2021, The Fiend had mostly run his course and Rotunda was a surprise release by WWE that July. His eventual return in the fall of 2022 was preceded by a series of Easter eggs hidden within social media and WWE broadcasts pointing to the “white rabbit,” with many guessing correctly that it meant Rotunda was returning as Bray Wyatt.

He did exactly that at Extreme Rules 2022, this time also introducing another masked character named Uncle Howdy — played by Rotunda’s real life brother Taylor, known in WWE as Bo Dallas. Unfortunately, fans never got to know what may have been planned beyond the few months the two men appeared together between last fall and this spring.

Wrestling Junkie joins the rest of the wrestling world in sending its condolences to Rotunda’s family and friends.

Update: Aug. 24, 11 p.m. ET: Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful posted the following regarding the cause of Windham Rotunda’s death: