Bray Wyatt

REAL NAME
Windham Rotunda

HEIGHT
6'3"

WEIGHT
310 lbs

HOMETOWN
Brooksville, Florida

NICKNAME

PREVIOUS NAMES
Windham Rotunda (FCW)
Windham Rotundo (FCW)
Alex Rotundo (FCW)
Alex Rotunda (FCW)
Duke Rotundo (FCW)
Husky Harris (NXT)
Windham Rotunda (FCW)
Bray Wyatt (NXT)

MEMBERS

BIRTHDAY
May 23, 1987

DEBUT
2009

FINISHING MOVE
(S)Running Senton
Swinging Reverse STO

FAVORITE MOVE
(S)Short-Arm Clothesline
Ura-Nage

TRAINED BY
FCW Training

NOTABLE FEUDS
The Dudebusters
The Uso Brothers
Dean Ambrose
Chris Jericho
Roman Reigns 
The Undertaker 

TITLE HISTORY
 FCW (Florida Championship Wrestling) Tag Team titles w/Bo Rotundo defeating Justin Angel and Kris Logan (June 23, 2009);

Professional wrestling career

World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE

Florida Championship Wrestling (2009–2010)
Rotunda debuted in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in April 2009 with a victory, using the name Alex Rotundo. He later changed his name to Duke Rotundo. In June 2009, Rotundo began teaming with his brother, Bo. At the FCW television tapings on July 23, The Rotundo Brothers defeated the Dude Busters (Caylen Croft and Trent Barretta) to become the number one contenders to the Florida Tag Team Championship. That same night, they defeated Justin Angel and Kris Logan for the Florida Tag Team Championship. They went on to successfully defend the championship against Dylan Klein and Vance Archer and the team of Curt Hawkins and Heath Slater. At the FCW television tapings on November 19, the Rotundos lost the championship to the Dude Busters.

The Nexus (2010–2011)

Rotunda as Husky Harris during his tenure as part of The Nexus in November 2010.
On June 1, 2010, Rotunda was announced as a competitor in the second season of NXT under the name Husky Harris, with Cody Rhodes as his mentor. Harris made his debut on the June 8 episode of NXT, competing in a tag team match with Rhodes against Montel Vontavious Porter and Percy Watson, which they lost. After a rocky start with his professional Cody Rhodes, Harris turned heel on the June 22 episode of NXT by attacking announcer Matt Striker, just as Rhodes had done the previous week. The following week, Harris lost to MVP in a singles match, and was ranked seventh out of the eight rookies in the first poll. In the second poll, Harris moved up to sixth place, narrowly avoiding elimination. On August 9 the rookies appeared in a six-man tag team match on Raw, which Harris' team won when he pinned Kaval, but his team lost a rematch the following night on NXT. In the poll later that night, Harris climbed to fourth place out of the six rookies. Harris was one of two rookies eliminated from NXT on August 17. Following his elimination, Harris and Rhodes attacked Kaval, resulting in a brawl also involving MVP and Kofi Kingston. Harris reappeared in the season finale of NXT with the other eliminated rookies and joined in on the attack on the NXT winner, Kaval.

While on NXT, Rotunda continued wrestling in FCW while retaining the Husky Harris ring name. In September 2010 following his elimination from NXT, Harris began a feud in FCW with Percy Watson when he attacked Watson while teaming with him in a tag team match, which led to Watson being pinned for the loss. When Harris and Watson faced off in a match, they were both counted out as they brawled out of the arena. The next week, Watson defeated Harris in a no disqualification match. The feud ended in October with Harris defeating Watson in a lumberjack match.

At the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view in October, a disguised Harris and Michael McGillicutty interfered in a match between John Cena and Wade Barrett, and helped Barrett win, forcing Cena to join Barrett's faction the Nexus per the pre-match stipulation. Harris' and McGillicutty's identities were revealed on the following day's episode of Raw, though Barrett claimed he had not asked for their help and refused to make them full-time members of The Nexus. The following week, Harris and McGillicutty cost Cena a match against The Miz, prompting Barrett to give them the opportunity to win membership in the Nexus. On the October 18 episode of Raw, Harris and McGillicutty failed to earn a place in the Nexus when they lost to Cena and Randy Orton in a tag team match. In spite of their loss, Harris and McGillicutty were inducted into the Nexus on Raw the following week. In January 2011, CM Punk took over the Nexus and had each of its members put through an initiation. Harris passed his initiation, a lashing from the rest of the group, and was allowed to remain a member of the New Nexus, alongside Punk, McGillicutty and David Otunga. Three weeks later, on the January 31 episode of Raw, Harris and McGillicutty unsuccessfully challenged Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov for the WWE Tag Team Championship. After the match, Orton attacked them as revenge for costing him the WWE Championship, and punted Harris in the head, which was used to write Harris off television "indefinitely".

Return to FCW (2011–2012)
Following the punt by Orton on Raw, Rotunda returned to FCW and debuted a new character in March 2011, that of the hockey mask-wearing Axel Mulligan, but the character never made it to FCW TV, and Rotunda continued to play the Husky Harris character on FCW TV. In August 2011, Harris became embroiled in his brother Bo's (the FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion) feud with Lucky Cannon and Damien Sandow; the brothers later teamed up to defeat Cannon and Sandow in a tag match. Later, Harris voiced his displeasure of Bo's relationship with Aksana, and when Bo suffered an injury, his title was vacated and a tournament set up to determine the new champion; Harris defeated Big E Langston to make it to the final, a fatal four-way match against Dean Ambrose, Leo Kruger and Damien Sandow. During the match, won by Kruger, Harris was superkicked by Richie Steamboat at ringside who was aiming for Ambrose. The next week, Aksana managed to get Steamboat to attack Harris again; Harris also won a triple threat match against Ambrose and Sandow to earn a match for the championship against Kruger, which Harris lost when he was distracted with Steamboat's interference. As a result, Harris and Steamboat began feuding, with their first match ending in a no contest. Kruger later defeated the pair in a triple threat match to retain his heavyweight title, and the following week, Harris defeated Steamboat in a No Holds Barred match. After the pair continued to frequently attack each other, they were suspended for 30 days. Upon their return, Harris defeated Steamboat in a Bullrope match to end their feud. On February 2, 2012, Harris and Bo defeated Brad Maddox and Eli Cottonwood to win the (vacant) Florida Tag Team Championship for the second time. The brothers successfully defended their titles against Antonio Cesaro and Alexander Rusev, but lost their titles to Corey Graves and Jake Carter on March 15.

The Wyatt Family (2012–2014)
Main article: The Wyatt Family

Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper at an NXT event in October 2012.
In April 2012, Rotunda debuted a new character, Bray Wyatt, who initially associated himself with Sister Abigail while in FCW. When WWE rebranded FCW into NXT Wrestling, Wyatt debuted on the July 11, 2012 episode of the rebooted NXT, taped at Full Sail University, where he defeated Aiden English in a singles match. Wyatt is portrayed as an evil cult leader who believes himself to be more monster than human. The character drew comparisons to Max Cady of the 1991 film Cape Fear and Waylon Mercy. In July, Wyatt suffered a torn pectoral muscle and required surgery. Despite the injury, Wyatt continued to appear on NXT by founding a faction known as The Wyatt Family in November, with Luke Harper as his first "son" and Erick Rowan as his second. Wyatt had his first match back from injury on the February 21, 2013 episode of NXT, defeating Yoshi Tatsu. Wyatt suffered his first loss on the March 13 episode of NXT, when he was defeated by Bo Dallas. On the May 2 episode of NXT, Wyatt was defeated by six-time world champion Chris Jericho. On the May 8 episode of NXT, Harper and Rowan defeated Adrian Neville and Bo Dallas to win the NXT Tag Team Championships. The Wyatt Family went on to feud with Corey Graves and Kassius Ohno, with Wyatt defeating Graves on the May 22 episode of NXT. The following week, Wyatt eliminated both Graves and Ohno during an 18-man Battle Royal to determine the number one contender to the NXT Championship, although he was later eliminated by Neville. On the June 19 NXT, the Wyatt Family defeated the team of Graves, Neville and Ohno. On the July 10 episode of NXT, Wyatt pinned William Regal when the Wyatt Family faced Graves, Neville and Regal in a six-man tag match. On the July 17 NXT (taped on June 20), Harper and Rowan lost the NXT Tag Team Championship to Neville and Graves.


The Wyatt Family at WrestleMania XXX, with Wyatt (center) sitting on the top turnbuckle.
From the May 27 episode of Raw, WWE aired vignettes promoting the upcoming debut of the Wyatt Family. The vignettes showed the Wyatt Family's backwoods origins and Rowan wearing a lamb mask. On the July 8 episode of Raw, the Wyatt Family made their debut by assaulting Kane. The Wyatt Family continued their attacks on wrestlers like R-Truth, Justin Gabriel, Drew McIntyre, Heath Slater, and Jinder Mahal while sending cryptic messages to Kane asking him to "follow the buzzards". Following another assault, Kane challenged Wyatt to a Ring of Fire match at SummerSlam, which he accepted. On August 18 at the pay-per-view, Wyatt defeated Kane in the Ring of Fire match, following interference from Harper and Rowan. After the match, Harper and Rowan again attacked Kane and ended the segment by carrying him away. Wyatt's next target was Kofi Kingston, who he defeated at Battleground.

The Wyatt Family's next feud began when they attacked CM Punk and Daniel Bryan in late October, leading to Punk and Bryan defeating Harper and Rowan at Survivor Series. The Wyatt Family continued their feud with Bryan as Wyatt attempted to recruit Bryan, and the trio defeated Bryan in a handicap match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. On the final Raw of 2013, Bryan defeated Harper and then Rowan in a gauntlet match so that he could face Wyatt, whereupon Harper and Rowan interfered for a disqualification and beat him down. A frustrated Bryan finally gave up and gave in to join the Wyatt Family. However, after Bryan joined them, the Wyatt Family could not find success. This caused Wyatt to punish Bryan, leading to Bryan attacking all the other members of the Wyatt Family on the January 13 Raw to signal him breaking free of the group. At the Royal Rumble, Wyatt defeated Bryan in a singles match, and later at the event, the Wyatt Family cost John Cena his WWE World Heavyweight Championship match against Randy Orton. The Family then proceeded to attack Cena and left him lying in the ring.


Wyatt facing off against John Cena at WrestleMania XXX in April 2014.
On the January 27 episode of Raw, the Wyatt Family attacked Bryan, Cena, and Sheamus during an Elimination Chamber qualifying match against The Shield, thus awarding Bryan's team the disqualification win and costing The Shield a chance to enter the Elimination Chamber match. A six-man tag match was instead set up between The Shield and the Wyatt Family at the event. The Wyatts won the match at Elimination Chamber, disabling Dean Ambrose in the stands and throwing Seth Rollins through the Spanish announce table before pinning Roman Reigns. They later interfered in the Elimination Chamber match, leading to John Cena's elimination.

After Elimination Chamber, Wyatt turned his attention fully to feud with John Cena, with Wyatt wanting to prove that Cena's heroic act was a facade characteristic of "this era of lies" while also trying to turn Cena into a "monster". Wyatt went on to accept Cena's challenge for a WrestleMania match, with Cena successfully resisting the urge to become a "monster" and overcoming interference from Harper and Rowan to defeat Wyatt at WrestleMania. The feud continued after WrestleMania based on the story that Wyatt was capturing Cena's fanbase, which was exemplified by Wyatt leading a children's choir to the ring on the April 28 episode of Raw, with the children later putting on sheep masks. At Extreme Rules, Wyatt defeated Cena in a steel cage match, after repeated interference from the rest of the Wyatt Family and a demonic child. Cena's feud with Wyatt continued with a Last Man Standing match match being set up for Payback. At the pay-per-view, Cena buried Wyatt under multiple equipment cases to win the match and end the feud. On the June 13 episode of SmackDown, Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship, which John Cena won.

The following night on Raw, the Wyatt Family attacked a returning Chris Jericho which led to matches between Wyatt and Jericho at Battleground, where Jericho won and at SummerSlam, where Wyatt won with Harper and Rowan banned from ringside. On the August 25 episode of Raw, Wyatt was utterly dominated by John Cena in a singles match. Harper and Rowan caused a disqualification, leading to a six-man tag pitting the Wyatt Family against Cena, Show and Henry. Cena submitted Harper to win, then delivered AAs to all three members of the Wyatt Family. On the September 8 Raw, Wyatt defeated Chris Jericho in a steel cage match by escaping the cage ending the feud.

Singles competition (2014–2015)

Wyatt's entrance at WrestleMania 31
Beginning on September 29, vignettes were shown of Wyatt "setting Harper and Rowan free". Wyatt returned alone at Hell in a Cell in October, during the main event match between Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. Just as Ambrose was about to defeat Rollins, the arena lights cut out and Wyatt's lantern appeared in the middle of the ring, spraying out smoke and projecting an image of a ghostly specter while the sound of Wyatt reciting an incantation was heard. Wyatt emerged from the smoke and blindsided Ambrose, who was then pinned by Rollins for the victory. After the match, Wyatt attacked Ambrose. In the following weeks, Wyatt would taunt Ambrose while offering to "fix" him like he had done with Harper and Rowan. Wyatt eventually defeated Ambrose at Survivor Series by means of disqualification after Ambrose used a steel chair to attack Wyatt. The following month at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, Wyatt once again defeated Ambrose, this time in a TLC match., Wyatt would defeat Ambrose on the December 22 episode of Raw in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight. This would lead to an Ambulance match on the January 5, 2015 episode of Raw, which Wyatt won, effectively ending their feud. At Royal Rumble, Wyatt competed in the Rumble match, entering at #5 where he lasted for almost 47 minutes, eliminating six other contestants before being eliminated by Big Show and Kane.

Following the Royal Rumble, Wyatt began a series of cryptic promos, referring himself as "the New Face of Fear". At Fastlane, a casket would be brought to the ring by druids, with Wyatt revealed to be inside, who would issue a challenge to The Undertaker for a match at WrestleMania 31, which Undertaker accepted on the March 9 episode of Raw. At the event, Wyatt was unsuccessful in defeating The Undertaker.

Following WrestleMania, Wyatt launched another series of enigmatic promos, which were revealed to be directed to Ryback on the April 27 episode of Raw, after Wyatt attacked Ryback following his match with Bo Dallas. On the following SmackDown, Wyatt would again attack Ryback following his match. This would lead to a match between the two at Payback, which Wyatt won.

On the May 21 episode of SmackDown, Wyatt would lose to former rival Dean Ambrose, after Roman Reigns interfered on Ambrose's behalf. On the June 1 episode of Raw, The Authority announced that Reigns would face Wyatt in the main event, with Reigns' spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match on the line. Reigns would go on to defeat Wyatt later that night.

Return of The Wyatt Family (2015–present)
At Money in the Bank, Wyatt would interfere in the Money in the Bank ladder match where he attacked Reigns as the latter was close to retrieving the briefcase. Later that night, it was announced that Wyatt would face Reigns at Battleground. At the event, Wyatt defeated Reigns with the help of former Wyatt Family member Luke Harper, reforming the team (without Erick Rowan, who was injured at the time, but would eventually rejoin the group later). At SummerSlam, Reigns and Ambrose defeated Wyatt and Harper in a tag team match. On the August 24 episode of Raw, Wyatt introduced a new Wyatt Family member named Braun Strowman, who choked out both Ambrose and Reigns. At Night of Champions, Wyatt, Harper and Strowman defeated Reigns, Ambrose and Jericho in a six-man tag team match. At Hell in a Cell, he was defeated by Roman Reigns, then later would attack The Undertaker and carry him backstage. The next night on Raw, Wyatt was confronted by former rival Kane, who was attacked by the family and also carried backstage. On the November 9 edition of Raw, The Brothers of Destruction returned and attacked The Wyatt Family

Gimmick
Bray Wyatt's persona is that of the prophetic leader of an evil backwoods cult. He speaks in riddles, and employs various scare tactics to intimidate opponents. He is usually accompanied by fellow Wyatt Family members Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, and Braun Strowman. During matches, he performs the "spider walk", usually to signal his finishing move, "Sister Abigail". Sister Abigail is also mentioned frequently by Wyatt during his promos. Wyatt often puts emphasis on simple words or phrases, such as "We're here", "Anyone but you", "Run.", etc. He refers to the audience as his "fireflies", because large amounts of the flashlights from electronic devices used by audience members resemble a "sea of fireflies" in the darkened arena.