WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins continues to pay tribute to Bray Wyatt (Windham Rotunda), who unexpectedly passed away last Thursday at the age of 39. Rollins recently spoke with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick on WWE After The Bell, and talked about Wyatt’s WWE career, his creativity, and how Wyatt had significant internal support early on.
“Creativity is one thing, but the resilience, you got to remember like Windham was like, this close to getting fired. He was this close to just being gone,” Rollins recalled. “He had come up, done NXT, he had done the Husky Harris thing, he’d gotten removed from the the NXT TakeOver thing, the the Nexus stuff that happened on television, and then he got sent back down to developmental and like, he just totally revamped himself, and he took a shot. It wasn’t immediate. He tried a lot of different things. He had a lot of different ideas floating around in his head, and to be there kind of on the ground floor and see that process and see what eventually turned into Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt Family.
“I mean, that is a lesson, to keep it in the wrestling bubble, that’s the lesson to all young talent or talents who are trying to find their footing in our industry. Don’t let setbacks force you to feel like you failed, or that you need to give up or give in or or any of that. You can be successful. You just have to figure yourself out. You’ve got to figure out who you are and what your character is. You can do all these things. You just have to believe and you have to work and you have to process and it takes time and that’s okay. I know Windham was frustrated during that period of time, but he just let his creative juices flow. He had the American Dream Dusty Rhodes there, and he had his friends and his brothers and his people, and everybody was rooting for him.”
Rollins also recalled getting goosebumps the first time he heard Windham do the Wyatt voice, and how special Wyatt was, adding that his creativity was second to none.
“I remember the first time hearing the Bray Wyatt kind of voice. Don’t get me wrong. That’s a lot of Windham, but you know that little twang. I remember the first time I heard him talk like that. It’s giving me goosebumps right now,” Rollins said. “I remember distinctly the first time I heard his voice and that Bray Wyatt delivery, that cadence, that whisper, changed everything and then he was off to the races from there. Sometimes that’s all it takes. But the most important thing it takes is diligence, that resilience, and that patience to understand that it’s just not going to happen overnight.
“When your back is against the wall, you fight. Keep fighting. He did and he was special in that way, and he was remarkable in his creativity in what he brought to Harper, Brody, and Rowan and what he gave them, and Braun as well. He contributed a lot to a lot of people who looked up to him. He was a special cat. He really, really was. Creativity is second to none. The character work and effort that he put into that character and what the vision for Bray Wyatt was second to none.”
The Architect then brought up The Fiend and how Wyatt was constantly thinking of ways to re-invent himself. Rollins praised Wyatt for how he brought everything together and made it work, better than anyone else.
“While we’re on it, I mean, look. The Fiend and Bray Wyatt, the two versions of Bray Wyatt that you saw on WWE television were two completely different brain childs for him,” Rollins said. “Even in