The deaths of Terry Funk and Bray Wyatt, and the sobering reality surrounding them

Whether wrestler deaths are expected or sudden, they don’t hurt any less.

For wrestling fans, the summer of 2023 has been a dream.

Multiple promotions are breaking box office records, the major storylines are as compelling as ever, and watching great in-ring action has become the norm.

But as summer comes to an end, the entire industry — from wrestlers to the fans that watch them — was hit with the sobering reality that is life.

On Wednesday, wrestling legend Mick Foley broke the news that the world lost its favorite middle-aged and crazy wrestler, Terry Funk, at the age of 79. 

Funk had dealt with a number of health issues for quite some time, but that didn’t make the news any less hurtful, as the former NWA World Heavyweight champion was revered by those in and out of the industry.

But a day later, the wrestling world was handed more bad news. This time from WWE executive Paul “Triple H” Levesque revealing that he had received a horrible phone call. That call was from former WWE wrestler/agent Mike Rotunda, who had the unenviable task of delivering the unfathomable news that his own son Windham, who wrestled in WWE as Bray Wyatt, had died. He was 36 — far too young for anyone to leave this Earth. 

And just like that, the summer bliss that wrestling fans had been experiencing vanished. In its place was sorrow. It was a jarring reminder that our heroes are not immortal. One day, they too will perish, and dealing with the aftermath will be difficult. 

Windham Rotunda’s death will be especially difficult to come to terms with. He was a father, husband, beloved by his peers for his warmth and kindness, and not even 40 years old.

Professionally, he was admired for his creativity, and had made his much ballyhooed return to WWE television less than a year ago at Extreme Rules. I was in the building that night, and when the former WWE champion finally walked from behind the curtain, the place came unglued.

Despite many iterations and creative missteps, the Bray Wyatt character struck a chord with legions of wrestling fans. That was mainly due to the man playing the part.

Instead of continuing on as one of the most influential wrestlers in the industry, Windham Rotunda is another in the long line of wrestlers that have died under tragic circumstances.

Back in 2014, FiveThirtyEight conducted a study that showed how wrestlers died at an exponentially higher rate than the rest of the population across multiple age groups. For Windham Rotunda’s age group, 35-40, the expected death rate for wrestlers was at 10 percent, much higher than the 1.9 percent for everyone else, including myself, as I am merely two years younger than Rotunda.

The data was similar when comparing wrestlers to other professional athletes, according to FiveThirtyEight.

But to be fair, a good chunk of that data was made up of wrestlers who died due to the razor’s edge lifestyle that was pro wrestling during the industry’s boom periods of the 1980s and ’90s. Windham Rotunda and even Jay Briscoe, who died earlier this year after a fatal car accident at 38, weren’t that. 

These were the swift punches to the gut you have no way of anticipating nor avoiding. And sometimes, that’s just how life is. It is an excruciatingly difficult fact to accept. 

I’ve managed to come to better terms regarding Funk, who far outlived FiveThirtyEight’s data. The oldest age range of the data was 55-60. Funk almost lived to be 80. For anyone, that is something worth noting. For a wrestler from Funk’s generation, it should be celebrated. 

The 55-60 age range didn’t even have the highest death rate among wrestlers. That belonged to people in the 50-55 range, which was at a staggering 20% compared to 7.5 for everyone else.

When Funk was in his 50s, he was winning championships as a full-time performer in WWE, Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling. And this wasn’t some broken down old man who dramatically changed his style. Funk was still holding his own in barbed wire death matches and was ready to pull off a moonsault if he had to.

Not only was Funk an outlaw, he was an outlier.

However, it still hurts.

It still hurts knowing that people who brought so much light to the world are gone. It hurts knowing that Windham Rotunda’s family will have to now pick up the pieces of something that can never be fully put back together.

We were lucky to have watched them both, and through those moments, maybe we can help them live forever.