The professional wrestling world continues to mourn the loss of Bray Wyatt. Wyatt, real name Windham Rotunda, passed away on August 25th after suffering a heart attack. This sudden passing resulted in WWE putting all of its creative plans on pause in favor of using that week’s WWE SmackDown to pay tribute to the late superstar. The entire WWE roster gathered on the entrance ramp for a ten bell salute before a memorial video recapped Wyatt’s historic WWE career. Competing WWE stars wore “BRAY” arm bands during their matches on both that WWE SmackDown and this week’s Monday Night Raw.
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Speaking of the red brand, WWE tributes to Wyatt continued on Monday’s broadcast. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, a longtime rival and real-life friend of Wyatt, donned a “WINDHAM” arm band on the show and kicked off Monday Night Raw by utilizing Wyatt’s signature “Yowie Wowie!” catchphrase.
Rollins subtly completed a tribute trifecta with his new-look WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Seth Rollins Honors Bray Wyatt on World Heavyweight Title
As noticed by fans on social media, Rollins’s WWE World Heavyweight Championship featured Bray Wyatt’s in-ring alter ego, The Fiend, on its side plates.
Rollins and Wyatt’s careers have been intertwined since they both broke into WWE. Both were original members of the relaunched NXT developmental brand in 2012 and were called up to the main roster as part of factions within the same year span. They did battle within The Shield and The Wyatt Family’s fan-favorite six-man tag team bouts and eventually worked a singles world title feud against one another in Fall 2019.
“Truth is, I still don’t really know what to say. Windham was a unique cat. Simple, yet deeply complex individual. I loved him,” Rollins said in a video this past week. “I loved him, I loved working with him, but mostly I just loved being around him. He was always joyful. Just these eyes that drew you in and a smile and a laugh and a presence that just made you happy and we’re all going to miss that.”
Rollins added that he considered attending last week’s WWE SmackDown tribute show but ultimately elected to stay home with his family.
“I thought about going to Smackdown tonight but that would entail leaving my family a day early. I just keep going back to the conversation I had with Windham on the phone when Brodie [Lee] passed a few years ago. And, you know, I just had called him to check on him to see how he was doing,” Rollins continued. “We talked and he was okay and I was okay and neither of us were really okay. We ended the conversation with I love yous and goodbyes. And I remember this very specifically. He said, ‘You just go hug on that baby girl,’ talking about my daughter. I just feel like that’s what I should be doing.”
