WWE Hall of Famer Barry Windham underwent a serious health scare this past week when he suffered a heart attack and had to be rushed to the ICU. Updates from his family have since confirmed that Windham is now stable and has been released from the hospital, much to the relief of the pro wrestling world. Bray Wyatt, Windham’s nephew, took to Instagram over the weekend to thank everyone for their support. A GoFundMe for Windham launched six days ago and has since generated more than $42,000.ย
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“Normally, I keep a lot of my outside life separate from anything I do on here or in the ring,” Wyatt said. “I just wanted to let everyone know I’m incredibly thankful for the support and the love I’ve received since I’ve been back and throughout my career. Wrestling has been a part of my life always. When I was a kid, I looked at my dad and my uncles, and my grandfather, who were all professional wrestlers. I looked at them like they were Greek gods, like they couldn’t feel pain, they were immortal, and they’d always be just like that. As we get older and I become a man myself, you start to understand that’s just not the case. Nothing is forever.”
“This week, my uncle Barry Windham had a massive heart failure in Atlanta he went down and he didn’t have a pulse for ten to twenty minutes. He was away, he was gone. I wanted to thank one specific man, Michael Todd Laylick, who was there. A random citizen, he gave him CPR for that entire time before everyone else could get the EMTs to him, and he stayed with him, and he’s the reason we still have Barry. He’s alive, with us, and Barry Windham has given his life to his profession, you know. His whole life has been about this, just like mine. You put everything into it, and I just wanted to share that I’m incredibly thankful to have him back,” he continued. “And my sister set up a GoFundMe in his name, no one’s obligated to share anything, but if you could, that would be incredibly helpful. Take it from me, sometimes when you’re someone like that, it’s incredibly powerful to remind them that they mean a lot to a lot of people. I hope everyone out there that’s hearing this, I hope you take this from me, be good to the ones you love, and always remind them about that how much they mean to you because nothing is forever. But yeah, thank you for everything, guys.”
Windham was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Four Horsemen in 2012. His accomplishments include a reign as NWA World Heavyweight Champion, an NWA United States Champion reign, a WCW World Television Championship reign and six tag title reigns in Jim Crockett and WCW.
