Former WWE champion Bray Wyatt dies at 36

WWE star Bray Wyatt, known as one of the most creative minds in all of professional wrestling, died Thursday at the age of 36, according to WWE Chief Content Officer, Paul Triple H Leveque. Wyatt, whose real name was Windham Rotunda, was a former two-time WWE Universal Champion and former WWE Champion as well. He came from a professional wrestling family. His father, Mike Rotunda, gained fame as Erwin R. Shyster, and his uncle, Barry Windham, was one of the most highly regarded wrestlers of the 1980s and early 1990s. Rotunda himself was known for his innovation and his unique characters, including Bray Wyatt, the Swampland cult leader who used his charm to woo and recruit vulnerable wrestlers into his Wyatt family. He reinvented himself in 2019 as The Fiend, a gnarly, invulnerable character based on horror movies, wearing a terrifying, clown-like mask. It was those kind of things that separated Rotunda from others in the wrestling business, the storylines, the one-of-a-kind nature of his characters and the stories that he told with them. That final story, which began in September, 2022, when he returned to WWE after a time off, was never able to be completed. He was taken off of television in February due to apparent health issues, and Thursday, he passed away. Rotunda will be remembered by WWE fans and all professional wrestling fans for that creative mind, for those unique stories, and his memory will live on. Windham Rotunda, dead at the age of 36.