Bray Wyatt passesaway at 36; SmackDown, WWE Universe honor the late Superstar

WWE Head of Creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque revealed Thursday on X that previous Superstar Bray Wyatt — whose genuine name was Windham Rotunda — had passedaway. He was 36.

Levesque stated that he got the news from Rotunda’s daddy and WWE Hall of Famer Mike Rotunda. 

Rotunda’s cause of death has yet to be formally verified.

Rotunda — a previous WWE Universal Champion and WWE Champion — battled in WWE for over a years, utilizing anumberof various names, consistingof Husky Harris, Bray Wyatt and Wyatt’s alter-ego, The Fiend.

On Friday’s edition of SmackDown, WWE honored the late Rotunda.

World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins launched a video homage on Friday as well.

“Truth is, I still puton’t truly understand what to state. Windham was a special feline. He was a easy yet deeply complex private, and I liked him. I liked him. I enjoyed working with him, however mainly I simply liked being around him. He was constantly cheerful. These eyes that drew you in, and a smile and a laugh and a existence that simply made you pleased. And we’re all gonna missouton that.”

Rotunda’s last televised match in the WWE came at Royal Rumble 2023, when Bray Wyatt beat LA Knight bymeansof pinfall in a pitch black match. Prior to that, Wyatt hadn’t battled in the WWE because WrestleMania 37 in April2021 He was shockingly launched by the business in July of that exactsame year.

Prior to returning to the ring at Royal Rumble 2023 on Jan. 28, he sat down with FOX Sports’ Ryan Satin in what would endedupbeing one of his last interviews, goingover his time away and how he felt priorto his return to the ring.

“There’s a particular unwillingness to me, where there hasn’t been in the past. It’s part of any professionalathlete, when you’re away from something so long, there’s something in the back of your head that’s like, ‘Am I still ‘it’? Am I still what I oughtto be?’ … As the weeks have advanced, I’ve actually began to kind of come into my own onceagain and start to keepinmind why I do this and how much it indicates to me to be out there and carryout. 

” … During my time away, I had chances to do truly cool things, and I simply wouldn’t duetothefactthat I felt broken. There was something that was simply shut off and I didn’t comprehend why. It was actually individuals informing me, and simply keeping me alive and dragging me back, informing me, ‘You needto still do this. We missouton you.’ I didn’t feel that method at . I felt harmed, and it was that that kinda offered me the strength to develop back out and blowup.”

Tributes from the WWE Universe continued to flood in on X after Levesque exposed the news:

This is a establishing story.