By the summer of 2013, WWE‘s main roster was practically starved for fresh talent at the top of the card. John Cena and Randy Orton were world champions again, much to the disinterest of the audience. Top acts such as Daniel Bryan and CM Punk did exist but were bumped lower on the card instead. The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns) was one of the most popular acts but was running out of people to feud with. Simply put, the product needed an injection of fresh blood. Enter the Wyatt Family. Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, and leader Bray Wyatt (Windham Rotunda) made up the cult-like group that made its debut in the late summer of 2013. They immediately began targeting familiar and popular acts such as Kane, before setting their sights on the most popular babyface at the time Daniel Bryan, leading to Bray Wyatt getting a big win over him at the 2014 Royal Rumble. Things were going well, but they weren’t destined to stay that way.
Following his Rumble victory over Bryan, Wyatt’s booking became questionable and remained that way for the whole of his tenure with the company. He was put in a WrestleMania program with John Cena at his very first WrestleMania, a spot on the card that most would be envious of, and for good reason. He would end up losing twice cleanly to Cena however, and only getting one cheap and forgettable victory himself in the feud before being handily defeated. The audience’s perception of Wyatt was dampened after this; with him only being seen as an upper-midcarder despite having the capability to be a main event caliber act. It would take him 4 years and a complete change of character before this would change.
Success Through Reincarnation
In early 2019, Wyatt made his return to TV via short vignettes after being away for almost a year. He had been repackaged as an offputting, Fred Rogers style child show host, who would occasionally do seemingly supernatural things. While it may sound odd, it ended up getting over big with fans and quickly made his strange new act the most popular in the company. After months of these vignettes and a program with Finn Bálor, Wyatt debuted the final piece of his act, The Fiend; a dark and violent alter ego for him to tap into at big matches, who seemingly felt no pain, and could play mind games effortlessly with almost any top act in the company.
Wyatt defeated Bálor in quick fashion, though not without a fight, before immediately setting his eyes on Seth Rollins and his Universal Championship. While the two’s program was certainly nothing to write home about and featured candidates for the worst matches of that year, Wyatt came out of the feud Universal Champion and a certified main eventer for the first time in his career. He would remain near the top of the card for the remainder of his stay there despite losing the title in humiliating fashion to Bill Goldberg in February of 2020, just before WrestleMania. However, it all came to a shocking halt when on July 31st, 2021, Bray Wyatt was released unceremoniously from the company. This came as a surprise to many, and during a time when many workers were getting released from their contracts, made it clear that no one is safe from the budget cuts, regardless of their place on the card.
Exit Bray Wyatt, Enter Winham Rotunda
As of now, Bray Wyatt – going by his real name of Windham Rotunda – is not confirmed to be showing up in a big wrestling company soon. While there are no confirmations as to when or where yet, the general consensus is that he is bound for All Elite Wrestling. AEW is after all the next biggest wrestling company in North America after WWE, and are the only ones who can give him and several other stars the exposure and the money adequate to his worth.
There is also an admittedly perfect organic story organically ready for Rotunda to show up anytime, as his late great friend Brodie Lee‘s faction, The Dark Order, has been without a leader for quite some time and as a result, have been suffering from major dissension between stable members. The story is already perfect for Windham to show up and play the spiritual leader of the group, filling in the cracks that have begun to show within it and getting them back on the winning side of things. With all this said, there is also a certain air of questionability to the idea of Rotunda in AEW as a wrestler. Firstly, AEW already has a prominent occult-like character on the top half of the card in Malakai Black, and they have done a good job of pushing him consistently and making him look strong. Bringing Rotunda in with a character so similar to Black’s, which is to say too similar to his old WWE gimmicks, and there runs the risk of one of them overshadowing the other, or even the crowd losing interest in one of both of them.
It’s also not known whether Rotunda will be a good fit as far as an in-ring talent, either. AEW, in the upper-midcard and main event portions of their roster anyway, has a very nice selection of talented in-ring performers who are the right combination of athletic, experienced, and believable. While he has never been particularly bad in the ring, Windham Rotunda’s matches have never really been anything to write home about. In fact, without the right opponent, which usually means someone smaller and faster than him or someone who can bring out a more physical style with him, Rotunda’s matches usually end up being forgettable. In a company where most of the top dogs pride themselves on being able to deliver in big match environments, Windham Rotunda may find himself to be a small fish in a rather large and expanding pond.
In Conclusion
All in all, one would be hard-pressed to say that someone as abstract and ambitious as Windham Rotunda wouldn’t be a huge get for a company like AEW, regardless of what his position of employment was. In the name of making things work well, however, it probably wouldn’t be a horrible idea to bring him in mostly as a mouthpiece for the rest of the Dark Order before thinking about making him an in-ring competitor again. It also wouldn’t be ill-advised for him to hold off on any occult or “supernatural” hijinks when he first comes in. Perhaps coming in as a Dusty Rhodes type of character, a sort of inspiring leader who helps get his team back on the right track, would be the right fit for him. In the end, it will be very interesting to see not just where he chooses to go, but what the aftermath of his arrival there will be.
