August 24th, 2023
The headline heard round the world cut through my heart like a heated blade to butter. I couldn’t believe my eyes. ‘WWE Superstar Bray Wyatt Dead; Age 36.’ One of my childhood heroes was now gone from the world in the blink of an eye. I was at work, and processing was not something I could do in that moment. By time I got out of the store, I broke down, and I broke down hard. Come to find out later, I was by no means the only one in tears that night. I had not cried in some time. But, this man, and his creative genius, had helped to pull me out of some dark days over the years. In an instant, a husband, a father, a brother, a son, a friend, and a hero, was gone from the world. It begs the question, how does one man, who most had never even met, have that effect on so many people?
To answer that question, I turned to a couple of my closest friends in the world. I came to them with hard-hitting questions to answer surrounding a man we all adored for so many years. I attempted to have them dig deep and think of Bray Wyatt’s effect on them over the years. I was not disappointed in the responses given. As you will hear, the effect one man’s creativity had on people across the world is nothing short of inspiring.
The interview
There was only one place to start. I asked Luke Marshall (23) and Trent Simon (18) to think back to the very first time they had ever taken notice of Bray Wyatt. “I first took notice of him early on in the Full Sail NXT era. It was the only wrestling I could watch in Australia during that time and I was instantly drawn in by his character.” Luke’s notice of Bray Wyatt during the beginning of his career was a perfect counter to that of Trent. Trent went on to note that, despite being a wrestling fan for some time before, he began to take notice of Bray Wyatt’s works during “his time with the ‘Deleter’s of World’s’, working with Matt Hardy in early 2018.” Early 2013, and Early 2018. The beginning, and halfway in-between. And even then, the effect he had would end up being the same on both men.
So that begs the question; as his passing came to light, what was the two men’s reactions? Where were they, how have they processed, the basic questions. Luke, the man who had known Bray’s work much longer, noted, “I couldn’t process it, at the time. I was on the bus to Sydney and couldn’t cry in front of strangers on public transport. I had to wait until I got home two days later to process it all… and I still don’t think I fully have. It was so out the blue that… it still doesn’t feel right, or feel real.” In a similar fashion, Trent went on to say that, like myself, “”I was at work, and I had a text from my dad. It was a link, followed by ‘Bray Wyatt passed away?’ I was sitting next to my co-worker, and I was forced into silence for the rest of my shift. When I got home, all I could do was read all the news and try to process it all.” It makes you wonder about something. These were two men who took notice of Bray Wyatt at complete contrary periods of his career. Despite this, they had almost the exact same reaction as one another. Could one person’s impact be that powerful? As we saw thus far, in every fashion, it could be, and it was.
Following two questions that forced them back into the past, curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to know about how each of them would have liked to work with Wyatt during his career. Luke stated that he would have liked to “Join the Wyatt Family”, the faction of men working under and with Bray Wyatt in the early days. “Being under that learning tree of Bray and spend that time with him, honing my craft and learning how to talk like he talked, man. That’s what I dreamt of.” In opposition, Trent stated that he would have loved to work with Bray Wyatt in his fabled “Funhouse Match” stipulation. The Funhouse match was a wild ride of mental destruction divized to take a man to their breaking point and back. It was the very product of Bray Wyatt’s total creativity. Yet again, both men went to opposite ends of Bray Wyatt’s career for an answer. And yet again, the impact was clear.
Ending the discussion, the two noted how they believe people should continue to honour Bray Wyatt in the wrestling world. Trent mentioned Bray’s final storyline, working with his brother. He stated that he believed that the WWE should look into “continuing the (Uncle) Howdy story with Bo. Let him get one final send-off, if he wants to, and put a bow on Bray’s last character, the realest he’s ever been with the fans.” Trent leaned into the creative aspect, much like Bray Wyatt himself would have done. The man lived to entertain, after all. Meanwhile, Luke made sure to make note of admiring Bray’s past contributions to the wrestling world. He would remind those who loved the man that they should ensure they are “never forgetting about this man who is forever one of a kind, and we will never have another like him. Not in our lifetimes, anyways. Bray truly cared about what he did in the ring, and the connection he formed with his fireflies… and that lantern will never be blown out.” Poetic as could be.
Reprise: the power of platform
Now, we return to the question posed at the very beginning of the article. How does one man, who most had never even met, have such a powerful effect on so many people? The answer is simple. Professional Wrestling. Well, not ONLY professional wrestling, but a platform on the stage of such regardless. Wrestling is an escape from the world. It’s entertainment. It’s characters, and presence. It’s admiration and hatred. Bray Wyatt managed to touch so many hearts around the world because he knew his platform. He knew what he could achieve with heaps of creativity. There was a quote from Luke Marshall that didn’t make it into the rest of the article that I loved. It feels too important to leave out from here. “I honestly think he drew the fans in by how… charismatic he was. He drew them in with how he spoke, how he portrayed himself and how he never spoke down about the fans, even as a ‘bad guy’. He never talked down about the people listening.” Bray Wyatt had this impact because he used his platform to spread his message. And no matter the message that may have been at any given time, and everyone listened with intent. It was impossible not to. Bray Wyatt, Windham Rotunda, is being missed by the entire wrestling world because he made an impact in ways never before seen. Never replicated. That is something magical, as is wrestling as a whole. After all, to quote the great himself, “Wrestling is not a love story, it’s a Fairy Tale for masochists. A comedy for people who criticize punchlines. A fantasy most can’t understand, a spectacle no one can deny.”
