By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE announced the release of Bray Wyatt (a/k/a Windham Rotunda) on Saturday. Read the official announcement at WWE.com.
Powell’s POV: Wyatt’s last appearance for WWE was at WrestleMania 37 when he was pinned by Randy Orton. His absence from television since then has been a mystery. The release marks the end of a 12-year run that Wyatt had with the company dating back to his first appearance in the developmental system. It will be very interesting to see what comes next for Wyatt in terms of whether he wants to continue his career or if he is moving on from the pro wrestling industry.
Bray Wyatt will debut on Rampage show on October 29, 2021. Tony Khan has done it again. The IWC is going wild. AEW is better than anything that the Monday Night Wars or ECW has ever produced. Sigh. Wyatt and Hardy will make more crappy cinematic videos. Should just release Jeff Hardy too.
This one genuinely surprised me. Vince seemed to love all the ridiculousness, both good and bad, that the various incarnations of Bray produced. That character moved a lot of merchandise as well.
When Wyatt first debuted, he was the most interesting character to appear on WWE television in many years, and there have been none since. Unfortunately, he ran into the John Cena roadblock and then inevitably descended into hocus-pocus nonsense. A sad waste.
I’d argue that he ran into the Vince McMahon roadblock. The cult character was intriguing and had so much potential. Vince never really got behind it. Brian Fritz interviewed Wyatt at back to back WrestleMania weekends and asked him both times whether he thought the creative forces understood his character. He was diplomatic, but essentially said no. I have no idea where Wyatt stood on his character getting special powers. Hell, maybe that’s what he was hoping for, but I would hope not. I just know that hocus pocus has been a Vince staple over the years and that’s when he started to get behind the character. They sold a lot of merchandise, but I always enjoyed the more rooted in reality cult leader persona that they never fully explored creatively.
They should have kept him as a more psychological focused character and not drifted into the theatrics and supernatural stuff. More like the character that he was based on, Waylon Mercy. I’m sure that if he ventures over to AEW he will end up less watered down and more compelling, just like John Moxley and Brodie Lee are/were.
Brodie Lee was awful in AEW.
Moxley has been better than Ambrose was.
Luke Harper didn’t have much of a profile in WWE to begin with – hard to see how he could have been worse in AEW (not saying that stuff was brilliant by any stretch).
In all seriousness what do you make of all these releases? They’re letting some serious talent go the past year and their product has been ordinary at best, especially Mondays.
The cult bit and the song was the coolest thing in what, 2013? I loved it.
Damned shame about the writing.
Hi Jason, what I meant by ‘the John Cena roadblock’ is that he was booked to lose to Cena at Wrestlemania when a victory might have created a genuine, long-lasting new star. Of course it comes back to Vince, but it wasn’t the only time we have seen this happen (Rusev for example). I wasn’t trying to say it was Cena deliberately keeping him down, more that the short-sighted WWE sacrificed another opportunity to create a new star on the altar of keeping super-Cena strong.
Not sure which is more appropriate saying right now: “Those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it” or “Never get more over than they want you to”.
Am glad he was able to give a silent tribute to Brodie while owning Orton at Mania before the inevitable happened.
May he find happiness in whatever he chooses to do from here on in, wrestling related or not.
Sidenote: am I the only one who drew connections between Bray Wyatt/The Fiend & Freddy Krueger?
Why not just release ‘The Fiend’, the fiendish version of Bliss and Lily ( and hopefully ASH) while letting the sweater wearing wierdo revert back to the ridiculously intriguing cult leader in a new group that might put over some other superstars (minus Bliss) who aren’t doing anything right now like pretty much most of the main roster.
I’m no fan of the Dark Order, but if they need to be around Wyatt as their leader makes a lot more sense than Adam Page.
But it would only work with a major tone shift in the group and Wyatt kicking out several members.