Professional wrestler Windham Rotunda, known in the WWE Universe as Bray Wyatt, died at the age of 36. The shocking news came from WWE Chief Content Officer and Chief Creative Officer Paul Triple H Livesque, who posted the news through his social networks, this Thursday, August 24.
The news of Wyatt’s passing has shocked the world of professional wrestling and comes after several reports earlier this month that Rotunda was close to returning to the ring after overcoming what was described as a “life-threatening illness.”
Just received a call from WWE Hall of Famer Mike Rotunda who informed us of the tragic news that our WWE family member for life Windham Rotunda – also known as Bray Wyatt – unexpectedly passed earlier today. Our thoughts are with his family and we ask that everyone respect their…
— Triple H (@TripleH) August 24, 2023
According to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Wyatt passed away due to a heart attack. The wrestler had been having heart complications, after contracting COVID-19, a few months earlier.
Wyatt had not appeared in the WWE ring since the Royal Rumble on January 28, 2023. Plans for him to begin a feud with Bobby Lashley were scrapped in February after an injury sidelined him.
I was given permission to reveal that earlier this year Windham Rotunda (Bray Wyatt) got COVID that exacerbated a heart issues.
There was a lot of positive progress towards a return and his recovery. Unfortunately today he suffered a heart attack and passed away.
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) August 25, 2023
Since then, there were no further updates on Wyatt’s health until rumors began to surface that he was close to returning. Unfortunately, he never made it back to the ring.
Wyatt’s wrestling career
Wyatt signed with WWE in 2009, under the name Husky Harris in NXT. He then moved to WWE’s then developmental promotion, FCW, and was rebranded as Bray Wyatt, leader of the group known as the Wyatt Family.
Wyatt, Luke Harper (the also deceased Brodie Lee) and Erick Rowan made their WWE main roster debuts as the Wyatt Family in 2013.
After a brief disappearance from television in 2018, Wyatt returned in 2019 with a new gimmick that featured him as a man suffering from multiple personality disorder. At the time he alternated between the good-natured Bray Wyatt and the evil The Friend.
Wyatt was surprisingly fired from the company in July 2021, though he returned in November 2022. In his time with the company, he was crowned WWE Champion and Universal Champion twice. He also held the Raw and Smackdown tag team titles on two separate occasions.