In the wake of the shocking death of Windham Rotunda — WWE superstar Bray Wyatt — there has been an outpouring of support from fans as well as professional wrestlers from every promotion of note. Along with the memories and support for Wyatt’s family being shared, many have been posting their favorite memories of Wyatt’s unique WWE run.
Those moments run the gamut of Wyatt’s time in NXT, on the main roster as the leader of The Wyatt Family, through his time as The Fiend. Even as Wyatt was released by WWE only to return a year later, he capitvated fans again with one of the most viral comebacks in the history of professional wrestling.
With that in mind, we’ve taken a look back through Wyatt’s incredible run to identify five of our favorite moments from his WWE career.
5. Every time Wyatt debuted or returned
Is it cheating to tie all of these together? Maybe. But this is a top-five list and you could take up nearly the entire list with Wyatt’s debuts and returns alone. From his haunting videos prior to debuting in-ring in NXT to the vignettes and debut of The Wyatt Family on the WWE main roster to the debut of The Fiend and the Firefly Fun House to his most recent return at 2022’s edition of Extreme Rules, every time Wyatt arrived on the scene, he did so in a way that changed the scene and reinvigorated his career. At times, the ideas Wyatt was trying to present didn’t translate perfectly as a part of a wrestling show, but the ideas were always fresh and unique and the hits far outnumbered the misses.
4. Firefly Fun House match (WrestleMania 36)
As with every business, the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented hurdles for professional wrestling. WWE charged ahead, moving their shows from the usual packed arenas to the empty WWE Performance Center in Orlando — and eventually to the “Thunderdome” complete with virtual fans. WrestleMania 36 is arguably the most striking example of WWE’s approach to the early days of the pandemic.
Holding the biggest show of the year with no fans in attendance, WWE leaned into some unexpected avenues of creativity, including Wyatt facing John Cena in a Firefly Fun House match. Rather than a standard match, what followed was a trippy version of a “cinematic match” with Wyatt’s The Fiend forcing Cena to “face himself” in a series of dream-like sequences before Wyatt ultimately won one of the most creative matches in WWE history.
3. The Wyatt Family vs. The Shield
WWE struck gold when they matched The Wyatt Family with The Shield, putting two dominant — and massively over — three-man factions into direct conflict. What followed was a brief series of matches that showed the two groups had a unique chemistry as a collection of big personalities and talented in-ring performers.
The first match between the factions at Elimination Chamber 2014 was a near-perfect example of the WWE’s ideal match structure in the modern era while also featuring six men who were all different but blended to create a wonderful mix of violence and storytelling. The teams would have three more matches, all good but none touched the heights of the Elimination Chamber clash, which may have been WWE’s best match of 2014. The relatively brief rivalry also provided a foundation for the incredible chemistry Wyatt had with Roman Reigns (more on that later).
2. Finally capturing the WWE championship
Wyatt was established as a top act in WWE for years, but aside from a 23-day run with the SmackDown tag team titles, had not held championship gold. That finally changed in February 2017 when Wyatt won the Elimination Chamber to capture the WWE championship. Wyatt would only make one successful defense of the belt before losing the belt to Randy Orton at WrestleMania 33. Wyatt would have two more world title reigns, both times holding the universal championship.
None of Wyatt’s runs as world champion were particularly memorable and all ended in odd or unsatisfying ways. Still, as a measure of a wrestler’s legacy, being trusted to hold a world title even briefly is a tremendous resume booster.
1. Iconic moment with Roman Reigns
For all of his incredible ideas, character work, matches, video packages and promos, there’s nothing that quite distills how simply cool Wyatt was as a wrestler. Little moments can show just how much a performer really understands how to stand out from the pack and there are few moments as perfect as the end of Wyatt’s match teaming with Reigns on April 11, 2016. As previously mentioned, Wyatt and Reigns had built tremendous chemistry together over the years. On that night, though, they found themselves as unlikely allies against Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus of the League of Nations.
The how and why of it all doesn’t matter. What does matter, however, is the way the match ended. Wyatt hit Del Rio with Sister Abigail, securing the pin while simultaneously pointing at Sheamus as the Irishman entered the ring, directing Reigns to deliver a spear to help secure the win. Not too many wrestlers have had a moment as iconic as that.
