RIP: Bray Wyatt in action
We should discuss Bray Wyatt. Wrestlers die all the time.
You don’t notice because you don’t know most of them. And the wrestling industry as a whole is equally oblivious to their passing, precluding a few brief mentions every once in a while.
Terry Funk died mere days ago, and mainstream audiences wouldn’t have noticed if announcements of Wyatt’s passing had not rocked the internet a day later. Today, WWE and AEW continue to mark both deaths, but Wyatt’s demise is clearly weightier, and I wonder why.
You could make the obvious argument. At 79, Terry was an older man well past his prime. He lived as long a life as most people could ever hope for, while Wyatt was 36 years old. He had a loving wife, young children, and many exciting years ahead.
But Brodie Lee died in 2020 at 41, and his passing did not attract the same sense of loss. BBC, of all organizations, covered Wyatt’s death. I suppose it comes down to talent. Wyatt (Windham Lawrence Rotunda) made a splash after introducing Husky Harris to WWE’s developmental program in the early 2010s. The devious cult leader had a devilish charm that set him apart from other aspiring WWE superstars.
The wrestler dominated the NXT landscape alongside other Wyatt family members for several months before finally debuting on the main roster in 2014. Was he the best performer in the ring? No.
However, his peers commended Wyatt for the wrestler’s unrivaled creativity behind the scenes. You get the sense that, in another reality, Wyatt would have thrived in Hollywood. Look at the way he captivated audiences with ‘The Fiend.’
The internet is still saturated with videos and essays dissecting the easter eggs behind the Firefly Funhouse skits. Wyatt had no equal on the microphone. While more prominent names were content to routinely spit out meaningless gibberish, Wyatt’s promos told stories.
The athlete had a swagger about him, a confidence that demanded respect. Fans are still buzzing about that epic entrance from Extreme Rules 2022, when the lights went out, and that ominous figure emerged from a lit doorway, holding a lantern aloft, the darkness in the arena punctuated by pinpricks of light from thousands of raised cellphones.
Everyone agrees that WWE wasted Wyatt’s potential. By the time the Orton/Fiend match ended, fans could not wait for The Fiend to disappear into obscurity. And yet, when the news came that WWE had fired Wyatt, audiences were quick to denounce the decision. They rallied around the wrestler on social media, waiting with bated breath for a rival promotion to snatch him.
His second wind in WWE was equally disappointing. The company failed to capitalize on the hype surrounding his return. But again, when Wyatt was sidelined by a mysterious life-threatening illness soon after, wrestling fans flooded his social media pages with overwhelming support.
No matter how many times he stumbled in the ring, viewers were determined to adore him. Look at wrestling forums. They have spent the last two months speculating about Wyatt’s return, questioning whether he will revive the Uncle Howdy character and continue the Bobby Lashley feud or veer off in a new angle.
And now he is gone forever. WWE Smackdown gave Wyatt a surprisingly moving tribute, one that ended with the lights going out one more time as his eerie theme played over the auditorium. The camera lingered on a lit lantern in the middle of the ring as a silhouette of Bray Wyatt loomed in the distance.
You can see the video on YouTube. We know now that a Covid-19 infection exacerbated his heart condition. Initially, it looked like Wyatt was getting better. He was slated for a possible August return. But then, an unexpected heart attack claimed his life.
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Source: The Observer
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