Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal (2024)

[bunniefuu]

[soft music]

- Wrestling is not

a love story.

It's much more.

It's hope.

An excuse to be a kid again.

And nothing matters except

the moment we are in.

A great man once said that.

That man is my brother,

Windham Rotunda.

[cheers and applause]

But you know him

as Bray Wyatt.

[dramatic music]

Tell me this wasn't

meant to be.

He knew where he was going

from the beginning.

- There's something going on.

- Is that--you know who it is.

[cheers, laughter]

It's Bray Wyatt!

- Bray Wyatt was chaos.

The ultimate villain.

- I am Bray Wyatt,

the new face of fear.

- He had the charisma that

so many guys don't have.

- Can you feel that?

[laughs]

- That "it" quality.

- You hold 100,000 people

in the palm of your hand.

- You've got it all.

- When it comes to creativity,

Windham had no peers.

- Can I see

what that looks like?

- He was not scared

to push the limits.

- Yowie-wowie!

- He was a genius.

- Dreaming of all these ideas,

it's such a cool feeling.

- He changed a whole industry.

- [laughs]

- He put his heart and soul

out on his sleeve.

It's one of the geniuses

of him, but it's also

one of the things that was

difficult to work with him on.

- When you hit creative

roadblocks, you reform.

And that's what he did.

- It's time to rewrite

my own story.

[dramatic music]

The ridiculously hard times

are what strengthened me.

When I was weak, when I was

vulnerable, when I was down,

you were there.

[cheers and applause]

This is the best

I've ever felt.

- He was bigger than life,

and he was loved by millions.

- He had so much more

that he wanted to do.

- I want to leave a legacy

behind for everyone

that ever loved me.

- He's got the whole world

in his hands

- Creativity.

It comes from many places

and takes many shapes.

The place is

Western Pennsylvania.

The shape is a character

forever known as Bray Wyatt.

[soft music]

- Jason.

- What's going on, buddy?

My name is Jason Baker.

I'm a special makeup effects

artist and film director.

- Wild looking at all this.

- I know.

I had the honor of creating

most of Windham's costumes

and all of his insane ideas.

- You look and see

all the things he's done

and accomplished.

- I wish he was here

to share it with us.

- Now it's up to us

to give him something

he deserves that will

let him live on forever.

We owe him something big.

- It's going to be wild.

- Something to truly

honor his legacy.

[tense music]

- I grew up in a little town

called Brooksville, Florida.

Small little town.

You know, everybody knows

your business.

Everybody knows who you are.

Everybody knew who my family

was growing up, obviously.

- Come on and let's fight.

- Blackjack Mulligan

is my grandfather.

- Blackjack Mulligan.

What a monster.

- My uncles are Barry

and Kendall Windham.

- Barry Windham.

Kendall Windham.

Two second-generation

wrestlers.

- And my father is

Mike Rotunda.

- Outstanding athlete

out of Syracuse.

A tremendous wrestler.

- I was wrestling

down in Florida,

and Dusty Rhodes was

the booker.

And he put Barry and I

as a tag team together.

- Barry Windham

joining Mike Rotunda.

- His sister Stephanie

came down to visit.

- My sister had come

to stay with me.

Mike, of course, being my

best friend, was always over.

You know, I noticed that

they were kind of

eyeballing each other.

- I wasn't supposed to really

be around the wrestlers.

Said I wasn't interested.

And then I married him

six months later.

And we've been married

40 years.

- Over the next few years,

the couple

traveled the world together

as Mike became a champion.

- Over the hip.

Shoulders down.

Yes, indeed!

We have new

tag team champions,

Barry Windham, Mike Rotunda.

- And competed in

the first-ever WrestleMania

in New York City.

- Rotunda now gets

the Sheik up.

Well-ex*cuted suplex.

- Eventually,

they settled in Brooksville.

And on May 23, 1987,

Windham Lawrence Rotunda

was born.

- I was wrestling in

Championship Wrestling

of Florida,

and I wrestled Ric Flair

that night.

So I get home,

nobody's at the house.

My mother-in-law and Steph

were at the hospital.

They ended up doing

an emergency C-section

because Windham was a big kid.

- He was almost 10 pounds.

Windham was named

from the beginning

'cause it's my maiden name.

He was like

the little Gerber baby.

Bright, blue eyes and smiley

and curly little blonde

ringlets of hair.

He was beautiful.

When he was a little bitty,

like, two and three,

he would stand

in front of the TV,

and he knew "Ghostbusters,"

"Beetlejuice" line-for-line.

- He would watch these movies,

and he would voice

pretty much the whole movie

at that young age.

- I remember when he read

all the Goosebumps books.

He was addicted to 'em.

But he was just such

an imaginative,

imaginative character,

and he was always

the center of attention

wherever he went.

[soft music]

- Windham wouldn't be

an only child for long.

When he was three years old,

he got a brother, Taylor.

- Windham was always

somebody I looked up to.

Most little brothers do

look up to a bigger brother.

But Windham...

I wanted to be just like him.

- And three years later,

he got a little sister too:

Mika.

- Brothers are awesome,

and I had the two best.

I have felt that way

my whole life.

Windham and Taylor

were my protectors

and they were my friends

and my confidants.

- We were all really,

really close.

But in our younger years,

me and Windham

played practical jokes.

We convinced her at one point

that there was

an invisible man

living in her closet.

Anytime she was about

to tell on us, we'd be like,

do you want us to call on--hmm?

- Those kids played hard

with each other.

I remember them,

like, roughhousing

in our living room.

We were really close

to Mike and Stephanie

and Windham and Taylor

growing up.

Mike was one of my dad's

best friends.

Those kids, they were vibrant.

They, all three, have

so much personality.

[cheers and applause]

- As the Rotunda children

grew up, their father

developed a new identity

in the ring.

- My dad was IRS,

Irwin R. Schyster.

- I told you tax cheats before,

everyone pays their taxes!

No one will rest in peace

until all your taxes are paid.

[crowd booing]

- Even I shared the ring

with IRS.

- Look at this!

Yeah!

- I remember seeing

young Bray Wyatt

just hanging out back

watching his dad,

just mesmerized, you know,

watching his dad stretch

and work out in the ring.

You know, you could tell

he wanted to be in the ring.

- I remember

one time in particular,

I saw my dad was in

a tag match with Ted DiBiase

against The Nasty Boys.

- Oh, God. Look at this.

Uh-oh.

- Will it be the pit stop?

- I wanna see this.

- They put my dad

in the corner,

and they stuck their armpits

in his face.

And I remember being backstage

and my mom having

to hold me back

because I was a little

7-year-old kid

and I was about to run

in this ring.

That's where it started.

I knew that I had

to get in there.

I wanted to be

just like my dad.

I wanted to be in the WWE.

- By the early 2000s,

Windham used his size

to excel in

high school sports.

- Growing up, especially

if you're heavyset like I was

when I was a kid,

you had to learn

how to be tough

at a real young age.

As soon as I was old enough,

any contact sport

I could get my hands on,

I was into it.

- He was a good

football player.

Played both ways.

Made all-star teams.

- He really, really was

an unbelievable athlete.

He ran a 4.8 40.

And the strength he had

and the agility for the size

that he had, just unbelievable.

- Windham was an anomaly--

everything, but especially

amateur wrestling

and high school.

By the time it was time

for his match,

the gym would quiet down.

And when he would wrestle,

the whole gymnasium

would just stop to watch

what he was doing.

He was a draw at 17.

- Windham won the heavyweight

wrestling state title

and was all-state in football.

In 2005, he graduated

and chose to continue

playing football

3,000 miles away.

- I went and played

junior college football

at College of the Sequoias

in Visalia, California.

- Windham excelled and was

named an All-American

offensive lineman.

Two years later,

he transferred to Division I

Troy University in Alabama.

- I think that's where

I really learned to be tough.

You know, it pushed me

to the edge.

To play in Division I

football ain't no joke.

- Being a college athlete

was incredibly challenging.

It's a full-time job.

When you're coming up

in a family

of professional athletes

and you see this devotion,

you don't know anything

other than to give

everything you've got.

He dreamt of playing

for the Oakland Raiders.

And like, that's where

he wanted to be,

and that's what

he wanted to do.

- While Windham worked

towards a future in the NFL,

he often made the 6.5-hour

drive home to see his family

in Brooksville.

- I was 15, and I was

very self-conscious

because I was really

overweight.

And the only thing that

made it better was Windham.

And I called him

and I told him,

I'm the only freshman

on homecoming court.

And I said, I know you're in

the middle of football season.

It would mean everything

if you could just

walk me down the field.

He showed up with

a bouquet of flowers.

And I was so scared.

But when your big brother,

who's your hero,

who's your favorite icon,

shows up

just to walk you

down the field, it vanishes.

- When I was a senior

in high school,

I was going to

the state championships.

And my brother was

a state champion.

And I wanted to be

just like him.

He wanted to come and see me.

But he said, I'm only

going to come and see you

in the finals because I know

you're going to make it

to the finals and I know

you're going to win.

And that's all I need to see.

So long story short,

I went into the tournament

and I suffered an injury

and I was unable to compete.

And the only thing

running through my head

was I let my brother down.

Finally got home,

and Windham was already

waiting in the driveway

sitting on the back

of his tailgate.

And before I even

made it to him,

he made it to me

with a big hug.

And...

He whispered into my ear...

"None of that sh*t matters."

None of that sh*t matters.

That's really who Windham was.

It was the love

of his family and making sure

I felt OK after

I felt like I let him down.

That's what mattered to him.

- By 2008,

Windham was relegated

to a backup role on the Troy

University football team,

and his playing time

was limited.

- That was kind of a hard time

for him because, of course,

his aspirations

were pro football.

And it dawned on him that

that wasn't going to happen.

- That same year,

his 18-year-old brother Taylor

signed with WWE and joined

their developmental system.

- I was having my first match,

and Windham drove down

from Troy.

I got done and went

and met him after.

And he's like, "I'm not

going back to school.

I want to do this with you."

- That decision would change

the course of Windham's life.

[tense music]

- In 2008, Windham walked away

from the Troy University's

football team

and joined his brother Taylor

in WWE's developmental

system, FCW.

all: FCW! FCW!

- Slow down, folks.

- Windham came

from college football.

And then kind of overnight,

was just with FCW.

And yeah, everything

was new and everything

was scary and exciting.

But I think what

gave him comfort

was that his brother was there.

- He moved down to Tampa,

and we got a house together.

And we loved it.

It was one of my favorite

times of my life.

We did everything together.

We went to work together.

We talked about work.

And we ended up starting

to tag together.

And we were

Bo and Duke Rotundo.

And that was our life.

- I was 16.

I got my driver's license.

And the first place

I ever drove

was to the Brooksville armory

to watch my brothers.

- From Brooksville, Florida,

Bo and Duke Rotundo!

[cheers and applause]

- Proud papa. Proud mama.

My parents were both

really proud of the boys.

- They didn't get any

roads paved for them

or silver spoon handed to them.

They had to come in

like everybody else.

- What an opportunity here

to see two

homegrown guys, man,

right here.

Duke and Bo, man,

this is going to be

a really special outing

for them.

Big ol' Duke just

a roughhouse.

He's a little green still,

but he's got the get-go will.

- This is a really,

really tough business.

But to have someone

that you can trust

with absolutely anything

is unheard of in this business,

and I had that.

You are looking at

the most expl*sive tag team

in FCW, the Rotundo Brothers.

- And it's high time that

we bring those titles back

to their new rightful home,

Brooksville, Florida.

- We have new

tag team champions,

the Rotundos, Bo and Duke.

- Right away,

the Rotundo Brothers

impressed a WWE legend.

- I had offered my gym

Hard Nocks South

as the first developmental

strength territory.

So I used to see Windham

all the time.

We separated them into groups

based on their

athletic ability,

and Windham was in

the top group.

But he was the only guy

that would have

everyone laughing all the time.

He would come up with sketches

in the gym, bring costumes.

- It puts the lotion

on its skin,

or else it gets the hose again.

- Do you want to get

dipped in water?

- Yeah.

- You can't swim

with Saran wrap on.

- Bad boys don't get headbands.

- It's one of those things

you see on and be like,

he's on to something.

- Look into these eyes, boy.

A demon lives

behind these eyes.

A demon that you created.

- I mean, you could go back

and find old tapes of Windham

at promo class.

You could take any one

of those characters

and put them right on TV.

- Windham's magnetic

personality and work ethic

didn't go unnoticed.

Within a year,

the 23-year-old would be

featured on a new show

called "NXT."

- "NXT" was a game show

where, essentially,

you had up-and-coming

wrestlers who would compete

to be the next breakout star.

And then we had a group

of what were termed to be

pros who were acting

as judges.

- And Windham got a new name.

- I don't believe Cody Rhodes

is that enthused

about his rookie Husky Harris.

- Well, he was called

Husky Harris.

- I thought it was a little--

you know,

it wasn't complimentary

by any means.

- I know Windham really

didn't like the name.

He felt it was poking fun

at his physique

more than anything.

- What can you say about

Husky Harris

that you can't see?

- He's husky.

- Come on, baby!

- Husky Harris?

I don't know, man.

I can only imagine

how frustrated

he must have been with that.

I don't know if,

in my most creative hour,

could I have made this work.

- She wants me. Hmm.

- Oh, God.

- Terrible.

When I look back

at the Husky Harris,

I just see that sad

little boy.

It was just a terrible,

terrible time.

And it was a figment of

someone else's imagination

that they tried

to push on a person.

- I feel like he knew in

his heart that wasn't what

his destiny was supposed to be.

That Husky Harris character,

it allowed him to want more.

It drove him to want more.

- While Windham wanted

more professionally,

personally, he was thriving.

Windham had been dating

his girlfriend Samantha

for three years.

And on November 14, 2010,

they welcomed

their first daughter, Cadyn.

- He was on the European Tour.

And it started getting

closer and closer.

And I called him and said, I'm

going to go to the hospital.

I'm going.

He's like, oh, God.

It was hours that he was

just on the phone with me.

Sorry.

And she was born.

And he heard the whole thing.

I refused to let anybody

see her until he saw her.

And she was about two,

three days old.

And he was like, oh, my God.

He didn't know how to hold her.

I said, like a football.

You're good.

- She was a happy-go-lucky

little girl and beautiful.

And she looked just like him.

- For sure,

it changed his life.

It gave him direction

and a purpose

because it wasn't just

about him anymore.

It was about

his beautiful child.

[soft music]

- At that time, Paul Levesque,

also known as Triple H,

was head of creative

for WWE Developmental.

- Windham was in the company

as Husky Harris.

Didn't feel like

it was working.

Didn't feel like

it was going to work.

I think we have him miscast.

He's really talented.

Let me take him,

put him back down in Florida,

and let me see

what I can get out of him.

- He didn't want to be this

cookie-cutter--little tights.

Windham from day one was

like, no [bleep] way, man.

That's not my stuff.

I'm different.

And he was sent back to FCW.

He got in the car smiling,

laughing like, listen, listen.

The entire 3 1/2-hour ride,

he was just showing me videos

and telling me ideas

and all this stuff.

It was crazy

and all over the place.

And I'm like, what are you

even talking about, man?

And he was telling me

about Waylon Mercy

and we were watching

videos of that.

- Waylon Mercy,

he's a peaceful man.

He likes his peaceful

surroundings.

- Those are the eeriest,

strangest-looking eyes

I've ever seen.

Look at this.

- And he's telling me about

Robert De Niro's demeanor

from "Cape Fear."

The next week rolled around

and we had promo class,

and it blew everybody's mind.

- Because I am like God,

and God like me.

You know, I'm as large as him.

He is as small as I.

[chuckles]

- And just like that,

Bray Wyatt was born.

- He really attributed

a lot of Bray

to growing up in Brooksville.

- He had a really, really

close friend growing up,

Brae White.

Still to this day, the craziest

mother[bleep] I've ever met.

And this is a real person.

He got in a car wreck

when he was younger

and his head went

through the windshield

and he lost all

feeling in his face,

so he'd just headbutt

anything.

And a lot

of his characteristics

were taken and put

into the Bray Wyatt character.

- I have never seen so clearly

in all my life.

[laughs]

- Windham's cousin's name

is Wyatt.

So Windham kind of mixed it up

and came up with Bray Wyatt.

- And they say, Bray Wyatt,

well, he's crazy, man.

He's a psychopath.

- He came out,

and everything about it--

the presentation

and just the energy--

we were like, oh, this is good.

This jumps off the page.

- [laughs]

- It blew everybody away.

You wouldn't even know

if he was there.

And then all of a sudden,

Bray Wyatt would emerge.

And it was truly like

he walked into a phone booth

and came out as Superman.

- A lot of times,

those promos on promo day

will be 60 seconds.

90 if you ask for it.

Windham would go

up there sometimes

for, like,

six or seven minutes.

I think Dusty gave him

just a lot of room

to explore and to find

that character

and to find the voice.

- Dusty knew there was

something special there,

and he wasn't

going to let it go.

He knew Windham had

something that was

going to change the business.

- Said he was Bray.

As we started

to enlighten the world

who this Bray Wyatt

character was,

Windham is such a unique kid

that he understands--

he believes that.

That's who he is.

That's what makes him so good.

- Dusty called me one day

and he said,

"Kid, remember Husky?"

And I was like, yeah.

And he goes,

"He's got a new character.

"You're going to love it.

You got to come check it out."

And he cut this promo,

and it was so bizarre.

And Dusty said,

"What do you think?"

And I'm like,

this is a movie character.

- Within months,

Windham had an idea.

He wanted an on-screen family.

But his brother Taylor was

already an established singles

competitor known as Bo Dallas.

Enter John Huber,

also known as Luke Harper.

- I had flown to FCW

for the tryout.

And then I get a call

from Windham.

And about 10 minutes later,

I hang up the phone.

I hadn't said a word.

And this guy had--

Bray--had rattled off about

a million different things.

And I was like, oh, my God,

that dude's nuts.

Like, wow.

- Windham and Luke had

an immediate bond.

They just connected.

So initially, it just

started as Bray and Luke.

We created this

environment where,

is he really talking to people

or is this all in his mind?

- Here we go.

In three, two, one.

Action.

- Can you feel that?

Come with me, and I will show

you a love that is power.

- The first sh**t,

he's on the river.

It's in the forest

right down from our house.

And the guys had to go back

in with the alligators

and the mosquitoes

and everything.

- I almost fell

on that one, buddy.

[laughs]

- Our first house was

on 10 acres, and we

were next to a zoo that

had lions and big cats

and started hearing,

like, lion roars at night.

So unique stuff would happen.

And he pulled from that.

- I wish you'd quit

lying to your children,

telling them that there's

things out there that

won't go bump in the night.

What they going to do, man?

What you going to do

to something like me?

What can they do?

Run.

[tense music]

- There was something special

and something interesting there

that could resonate.

- My name is Bray Wyatt.

Pleased to meet you, man.

Help me welcome the first son

of the Wyatt family,

Luke Harper.

- This is getting weirder

by the second.

- What is happening?

- At the time,

I got this Viking gimmick.

And I remember being

called into an office like,

"OK, we want you

as the second son."

And I was like, that's cool.

What am I wearing?

- Bray wanted Rowan

to wear a mask.

So Rowan had a duffel bag

full of masks.

And he pulls out

this sheep's mask.

And Bray was like,

oh, I love it.

That's perfect.

- We are strong.

We are dangerous.

We are family.

[laughs]

- I would bring home

these big rocking chairs,

and he and I

and Taylor and Mike

would just mess them all up

and make them look

rough and b*at up.

And that's

the one they'll see

in the scene in the barn.

- We were having a blast.

Sometimes, we would watch

old interviews

with people that

were on death row

because we're trying to see

how they speak.

Why do they think

they're right?

Just their mindset.

And I think a lot of that

plays into, like,

what he was able to create.

[soft music]

- At age 26, Bray Wyatt

was an immediate hit.

As Windham's stardom grew,

so did his family.

He got married to Samantha.

And on February 7, 2013,

his second daughter, Kendyl,

was born.

- Because he had missed

the first birth,

I wanted to do

everything I could

so he could be there

and experience it.

Because I feel like

that's something

that you have to experience.

So we elected to be

induced with our second.

That way, he could be there.

- Windham was born to do a lot

and to be a lot of things.

But being a daddy

was number one.

When he loved,

he loved massively.

And he had a whole heart

to give to his babies.

- We all knew Windham was

going to be a great father.

I mean, one of his strongest

qualities is how much he loves.

And he already had plans

on where he was going

and what he was going

to do, but his children,

they just further instilled

more and more drive in him.

- Three, two...

[laughter]

- Good. Good. Good.

Tell them.

Tell them, Bray.

- There we go.

Deep in the woods.

- Real deep dive.

- [laughs]

- Come on, guys.

Start it over.

- Preparations were underway

to get the Wyatt family

ready for an even

bigger stage.

- As you talk about

bringing Bray Wyatt

and the family up to Raw

or to SmackDown and up

into the big show,

now, how do you

take that,

put that into an arena?

Let me talk to you

'cause I want you

to understand

the psychology of it.

- Let's go right now.

I'm ready.

- It's subtle.

That's where the lantern

came to be.

I think, when I threw it

at him, he loved--

like, all the lights

should go out

and this creepy ass dude

comes out

of the swamp holding a lantern.

And just slightly

beneath your face.

But it would give me

enough light to see that.

Those were the things that

we sort of collaborated on

a lot and put

the character together.

- That's fun. I like that.

- In the summer of 2013,

Bray Wyatt was ready

to make his debut

on the national stage.

[dramatic music]

- This is Monday Night Raw.

The WWE fans in Baltimore

are on their feet.

- We finally got the call-up.

And I don't know if we really

understood what we had.

We knew the "NXT" crowd had

responded so well to us.

We never in

a million years thought

it was going to explode

the way it did.

We're here.

[dramatic music]

- [roaring, grunting]

- Bray Wyatt's emergence

on Monday Night Raw

as the leader of

the cult-like Wyatt Family

was unlike anything the WWE

Universe had seen before.

- He was just such

a captivating talker.

And he was doing stuff

that no one else was doing.

Because in wrestling,

you get so much bombast

and you're taught to, like,

play to the nosebleeds.

But the way he could just

deliver something very softly

and it would, like,

send chills up your spine--

- Tomorrow morning

when you wake up,

you go back to being

just another one

of those anonymous souls.

[laughs]

- That stuff, I think,

was mesmerizing.

And in many ways, he's

portraying this cult leader,

but it almost felt real.

Like, he was gathering

people's interest.

- He put his whole heart

and soul into that character.

And that transcended through

the camera and on TV.

And you could feel it.

all: This is awesome!

- It was eerie, but you

knew that it was special

because it felt almost

like a movie character.

It felt like you were

watching something

that shouldn't be in

professional wrestling--

that didn't fit.

- Oh, my God!

- It was very interesting

to watch him create something

that made sense in our world.

- As soon as I saw Bray Wyatt

and the Wyatt Family,

I was instantly

connected to it.

I've always loved characters

that have this darkness to it,

but a darkness that

is there for a reason.

- Within a few months,

Bray Wyatt was

vaulted into a rivalry

with a top star, John Cena.

- I could be just like you.

I could sign autographs

and kiss babies

and make sure that everyone

buys all my merchandise.

- The main focus of Bray

Wyatt's character was chaos.

- I am different than

anyone you will ever face.

- The ability

to just be a person

that wants to see

the world burn.

And man, when you

start breaking down

the stuff he was saying,

it's, like, super deep.

- The loneliest man on Earth

is the man who sits alone

atop his empty castle.

Who will be left for you, John?

- But he was so entertaining

that if you didn't take

anything away from it, cool.

And if you wanted

to dive in the rabbit hole,

you were going

to some weird places.

- [laughs]

all: This is awesome!

- So it was like, holy sh*t,

we got something here.

- At WrestleMania,

John Cena takes on Bray Wyatt.

- Windham had made it

to the big time, WrestleMania.

- New Orleans,

a weird voodoo-based town

to get the WrestleMania

debut of Bray Wyatt.

It really was special.

- We all had dreams and goals.

And me and Windham talked

about them endlessly.

You know, like, if we can

make it to WrestleMania

and get a match on that

platform, then we had made it.

- You could find him in

- We all knew

he was going to get there,

but we didn't know he was

going to get there that fast.

- To see him go

from the lowest of lows

to figuring out who he was,

catching fire,

and then working with

one of the greatest

of all time, John Cena,

at WrestleMania,

I mean,

it's an incredible story,

and especially in such

a short period of time.

- And here we go.

This much-anticipated

match underway.

Oh! Wow.

- Growing up watching our dad

and watching our uncles

and watching our grandfather,

the grandest stage of all

is going to be WrestleMania.

And I remember sitting there

going, that's my big brother.

- Bray Wyatt is trying

to sway the masses,

and I'm not sure

it's not working.

- The shepherd leading his

flock.

- We were all excited for him.

And even Mike and I

were just, wow.

Wow.

Because it's your kid,

and it's, you know,

that was the first time

I saw him bigger than life.

- Cena, second rope.

Caught by Wyatt!

Oh! That could be it!

- What an impact!

- Shoulders are down!

- Kick out in two.

- I was very happy for him.

It's a good feeling

in your heart as a parent

to see your kid work really

hard and get rewarded for it.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa,

whoa, whoa.

That stopped Cena

in his tracks.

- What is that?

- I've never seen a match

quite like this.

- 20 years from now,

they'll go, wow, this moment

happened with John.

That's what I'm

looking forward to.

- AA for Cena.

Hook of the leg.

John Cena's legacy grows.

- It was spectacular.

I'm an advocate

for, it takes 10 years

to establish sort of fluency.

And I know Husky Harris didn't

work out, but holy sh*t.

When he came back, it was like

fluency in six months.

That is a meteoric rise.

- An incredible scene.

And the sea of Fireflies--

what Bray Wyatt

calls his followers--

lighting the arena.

[soft music]

- The lantern, to me, is like--

this is one of the many things

I loved about your brother

is that

he could make anything iconic.

- And this one's, like,

the first one too.

So it was much simpler.

- Yeah.

This is it.

This is the very first one.

- Looking at this,

it reminds me

of the birth of the Fireflies.

Like...

to see that as

it was happening was--

I have a memory--

it was Madison Square Garden--

and I got to see his entrance.

And...

- I mean,

because that's it, right?

Madison Square Garden is the--

- It's something

I'll never forget.

To look out...

and see the sea of lights.

The Fireflies, we had

never seen before in WWE.

And I don't know

if we'll ever see it again.

[tense music]

- We're here.

It was created by

the fans on their own.

You know, they call

themselves the Fireflies.

And it became their own thing.

And now it's become

a spectacle.

Like, almost a piece

of what you pay

to come see at a WWE show

is the Wyatt entrance.

- When you get is not just

typical fan participation.

You get this idea that

everything this character

is saying is true.

Because every little light

that is around

this darkened arena

represents somebody

that's buying in

to whatever this malicious

character is selling.

- He just found a niche.

And finding a niche

is a really hard thing to do,

you know, and make it

last for a while.

- The matches, the promos,

all of it's

just avenues that we take to do

what we're really doing here,

which is connect

with the audience.

That's it.

So if you find a way

to do that,

that's your ticket.

That's how you climb

the ladder.

And he clearly did.

[indistinct chatter]

- When people would approach

him, they wanted to meet Bray.

And Windham gave them who

he was and he took his time.

- Would you like anything else?

Oh, is this for me?

- Yeah.

- Oh, thank you.

- I appreciate

everything you do.

- Thank you very much.

- Whatever you have

going on in your life,

it matters to me.

Even if we have

a five-minute interaction,

whatever you want to tell me

is important to me

and I'm going to

genuinely listen.

And when I walk away from you,

I'm going to leave you

better than I found you.

- [laughs]

- Thank you.

- Ready? 1, 2, 3.

- He's my favorite wrestler

of all time.

I'm still shaking.

Love you, Bray.

Don't forget your autograph.

- Everything. You really are.

- He just had it.

And not only it,

he had everything else

to go along with that.

- I'm blessed to be here.

- Nice to meet you.

All right, man.

- I don't think

I've ever seen anyone

so committed

to being a character.

And when he was Bray Wyatt,

I don't know if anyone

was more believable.

I don't know if anyone

immersed you as much,

if anyone made you believe

as much as he did.

He was just one of

the most cerebral performers

I think that I'd ever met

because his preparation

was so real.

- And action.

- I'm here.

You're here.

We're all here.

- I remember being in

the backstage one time.

And as I'm walking past,

I see, like, Windham

out of the corner

of my eye like this

up to the wall in

this little alcove.

And he's just going over his

promo and going over his promo

and going over his promo.

And I remember thinking,

wow, I wish I could

have that type of focus

and that type of dedication

and that type of commitment

to the character.

He's such a creative guy.

- Windham's commitment

to his craft caught my eye.

I knew this kid was special.

And the time was right

for us to meet in the ring.

- When I got that message

that I was

going to have the luxury

and the privilege of competing

against the Undertaker

at WrestleMania,

I was immediately

like, oh, my God.

I am Bray Wyatt,

the new face of fear!

And then I remember

he was in the room.

And I remember him kind of--

you know,

when he does his finger.

[laughs] And he called me in.

And he sat me down real calm.

And he was like,

are you ready to do this?

And like, you know,

I'm like, yeah.

This is everything

I've ever trained for.

Of course I'm ready for this.

- It will be a night

forever etched in history

and legends will be born.

- It was huge.

Nobody can touch

the Undertaker.

I mean, he had his

action figures.

- You think Bray Wyatt

might be having

second thoughts right now?

- I enjoyed it because

it's like watching

the Freddy versus Jason live

or Godzilla versus King Kong.

- Bray Wyatt wanted

to dance with the devil?

Welcome to hell.

- That night on

the grandest stage,

Windham proved he was

a legend in the making.

[dramatic music]

- That, indeed, is

the new face of fear.

- That WrestleMania match

did more for me

than I could ever

put into words.

- Oh, what a WrestleMania

moment!

- At that time, I was

struggling with my confidence.

And that night,

Windham helped restore

not only the Undertaker...

- The Undertaker did it!

- But Mark Calaway, as well.

- He's like your father.

And he is responsible

for so much

of the progression

of this business.

You know, not just in the ring,

but what he did

behind the stages

to kind of show everyone

and lead by his example.

- By 2015, Bray Wyatt

was box office.

And all the while, he was

becoming a trusted mentor

behind the scenes.

- I hadn't been into

the business for too long.

The second he laid eyes on me,

he pulled me off to the side

and he was like, "I want you

to be a part of us.

I don't know how, when, where."

He was like,

"But holy cow, look at you."

- What the--

[cheers and applause]

This guy is a monster.

Look at the size of him.

- From day one, he treated me

like I was like a brother.

He taught me all kinds

of stuff in the ring.

But honestly, like,

I learned more from him about

the real world, I feel like.

You know, him being

a third-generation wrestler,

being in this business,

already been on TV,

established,

and stuff like that,

he'd already navigated

the wolves in the forest.

He was just that guy that just

made sure everyone was happy

and everyone was

well taken care of

and felt like they belonged.

- I remember coming up

and being afraid

and being scared and being

away from home.

And the warmth

and the humility with which

he talked to you like he

was on the same level as you

and with just

no pretenses about him.

- I think he really

loved people.

And I think he loved

positively affecting people.

And he loved seeing people

smile or laugh.

- Even when he was like,

you know, had been on the road

for two weeks and just wanted

to get home and see his kids,

like, he was still always

in a good mood.

He was just such a pleasure

to be around as a human being.

- Windham's lineage

and the fact that the business

is in his blood, not only was

he this interesting performer,

but he had a lot of respect

for the business.

A lot.

And he had a lot of camaraderie

with the superstars.

He was really fun to be around

and always wanted everybody

to have a good time.

- He could light up

a room in an instant.

He was the guy

who was a chameleon.

He was the guy that everybody

was best friends with.

He had a certain draw to him.

- He just had a charisma,

a zest for life.

Like, you were drawn to him.

He was a very magnetic person.

- This is the greatest night

in live entertainment.

- WrestleMania 32.

Over 100,000 Fireflies

lit up the sky

for Bray Wyatt, a spectacle

that was recognized

by one of the greatest WWE

superstars of all time,

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

- The Rock's had his eye on you

ever since you came

into the WWE.

You got it all.

You hold people in the palm

of your hands.

When the lights went out,

you came down,

100,000 people had

their phones up.

100,000 people.

- He was almost bulletproof

at that point.

I never saw him exhibit

any nerves

as he's lining up

for these huge main events.

You simply couldn't

take your eyes off him.

- After four years

on the main roster,

there was a milestone that

Bray Wyatt had yet to achieve.

- When everything

is said and done,

I will be leaving

the new WWE champion!

- Phenomenal form.

No, it's blocked by Wyatt.

Sister Abigail on AJ Styles.

- One, two, three!

[cheers and applause]

- Bray Wyatt has done it.

In the soul-stealing structure

known as the Elimination

Chamber, Bray Wyatt has won

his first WWE Championship.

- The company had put their

stamp on him and said,

this is going to be our guy.

I mean, there's not

many better feelings

from a performer's perspective

when you finally get that.

- In this hellacious match,

Bray Wyatt rose from the ashes

to taste the ultimate glory.

The era of Wyatt is here.

- He was the first

in the family to win,

which is pretty good

considering your grandfather

did it, your uncles did it,

your dad did it.

And you were the first.

So that's cool.

- Out of all of us,

that I'm the one that did it--

my whole entire life,

no matter what accolade,

what thing I did great,

the first paragraph

was about everyone else

in my family

that was not me and all

the things they had done.

And now it's like, when you

look at anything about them,

it's a whole paragraph

about me.

- When you're working

with talent,

you form a bond with them

and you know the human being

behind it

and you know how hard

they work at it.

Windham winning a title that

had eluded his entire family,

that was so special.

- I was there.

It was huge. I cried.

It was very, very cool.

- If I go back and look

at the landscape

of my life and my career here,

the ridiculously hard times

are kind of what

strengthened me.

I knew that sooner

or later I'd get to it,

it was just a matter

of how and when.

- It was huge for him.

Getting on top was one thing.

To stay there...

- Being on top means

numerous appearances,

new responsibilities,

and more time away from home.

- Me and Bray were very close,

especially for that stint.

We were working

so closely together

and we were really

telling some good stories

and having a lot of fun on TV.

- I feel like we're sh**ting

a [bleep] movie

for SyFy channel right now.

[laughter]

- But being on the road,

it's tough.

When guys start having kids

and we get a little older,

you know, things change.

It's very hard to balance,

especially when

you're a young man.

The work and home life

balance, if you will.

It's virtually impossible.

- Oh! RKO!

Randy Orton is champion!

[tense music]

- It was just after

WrestleMania in Orlando.

Things were not

what they used to be.

He was on the road

and traveling

and I was at home

with the kids.

And we ultimately

got divorced.

Our lives just grew apart.

- He was absent.

Mind, body, and soul.

The divorce in that time of his

life was a devastating ordeal.

[somber music]

- Windham's frustrations

affected his focus.

- So, guys, remember

long at the beginning.

- Just [bleep]--let's go.

- Yep. In five.

- Windham was very emotionally

attached to his work.

When things went great,

they were great.

And when they went not so great

and they were frustrating,

they were exaggeratedly

frustrated.

- You going to cut me?

- Sometimes the hardest thing

to talk him into was, OK, yeah,

but how do we make that work

in the ring?

I get it. That sh*t is crazy.

It seems genius.

It's like, man,

I'm intrigued by that.

OK. But now, ding ding.

And that was

sometimes the trick.

He was so creative

and so outside the box

that pulling it back

into a particular genre

was hard for him to do.

- While Windham's brother

Taylor was finding success

as a WWE tag team champion,

Bray's on-screen Wyatt family

was no more.

- Harper and Rowan

had branched off

and become a tag team

on their own

called The Bludgeon Brothers.

Braun Strowman had become

a bona fide

main-event superstar.

The Bray Wyatt character

kind of found himself

in a neutral position.

He was on TV, but he wasn't

really prominently featured.

- When I was working

with Harper and Rowan

doing the Bludgeon Brothers

stuff,

he'd come and check it out

and give the classic, like,

oh, baby.

Oh, you guys look good. Sexy.

You know, cracking jokes.

But you'd see every time

he'd see something artistic

and creative--like,

we'd make these things

for Harper and Rowan--

he'd be like, oh, I want that.

What can I do?

And you'd see the gears

start turning.

- And that's the thing

with Windham.

And like you said,

this was around 2018.

And behind the scenes,

there was a lot

going on in Windham's life.

And a normal person,

with everything

that he was dealing with,

could have let everything go

and kind of lost

the grip of it all.

But he's always been able

to find inspiration

in places I don't think

anybody else could.

- As Windham dealt

with the stress,

he leaned on his friends.

- We were together four

or five days a week.

We cried together.

We laughed together.

We did everything together.

The WWE, it's such a family.

It really is.

Like, we're all

together so much.

We're all away from our

families and stuff

like that--

our real blood families.

We all have a really cool

relationship.

- My name is JoJo.

And originally,

I started off as a wrestler.

And then I transitioned into

a role of the ring announcer.

The following

No Holds Barred match

will begin in Bray Wyatt's

House of Horrors.

We respected

each other's work.

And we slowly became really,

really great friends

through that time.

And so when we were both

able to, we started dating.

- I lived with JoJo

when I was in "NXT."

I never pictured JoJo

and Windham together.

Not for a single second.

Like, it never dawned on me.

But then you see them together

and you're like, oh, yeah.

Oh, that makes sense.

They're just these two

beautiful souls.

- JoJo made Windham happy,

and that's all

you can ask for is

to be happy in this world,

you know?

- It's just that old saying,

you can't fight fate.

And I think fate was just--

it just took a little while

for them to find each other.

- He loved her so much

and she meant the world to him.

[light guitar music]

- In 2019, Windham

and JoJo welcomed

their first child,

a son, Knash.

- When we found out

it was a boy--

[laughs] He was so happy.

He goes, "I didn't think

I could have boys.

I thought I was destined

for girls my whole life."

- Knash boy is the sweetest

little human

that I've ever met.

He looks more like JoJo,

but he has Windham's

personality.

- Two years later, they would

welcome a little girl, Hyrie.

- We got the yin and yang.

We've got the one that's

Windham, the firstborn.

And then the second one

is just full of fire.

- One of the things that I

loved the most about Windham

in general was how wonderful

a father he always was.

- Just going over

to their house,

it was like a scene

out of a movie.

Just loud and happy always.

- She changed his life

for the better.

all: Happy birthday to you

- Yay!

Time to blow this out.

- Blow it out.

- Make a wish.

[laughter]

- Yay!

- Windham's happiness

inspired his creative side.

By early 2019,

the idea for a new character

started to develop.

- He always joked about how

every time he's had a child,

it boosted his confidence

to come back even harder.

So we would be at home.

And we're laying in bed

and he's like,

"So I have this idea."

- Windham's journey took him

to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

- For years,

Windham was always like,

"Hey, we got to do something.

Let's do something.

Let's do something."

And I'm like, well,

you have my number.

Call me.

And then out of the blue

at, like, 2:00 AM,

I finally got the call

from Windham,

in classic Windham fashion.

And he was like, hey, man,

I've been sent home.

Creative has nothing for me.

I know what that means.

I got to do something drastic,

and I need your help.

[tense music]

- In the spring of 2019,

Windham had an idea

for a new character.

- I've always been a huge

fan of, like, horror movies.

So naturally,

the progression was--

you know, when I started

watching wrestling,

it was the horror characters

that always caught my eye.

One of my earliest memories

was Papa Shango

and The Ultimate Warrior.

- Well, take a look

at Papa Shango's face.

He's in a trance.

He's in another world.

And the curse is affecting

The Ultimate Warrior.

- That type of stuff

is the stuff

that really sticks in my head,

you know?

I think that wrestling needs

that kind of dark entity

in it.

- When we were children,

we weren't hearing

the stereotypical

bedtime stories.

We were hearing Stephen King.

- They needed their daily

update of where my book was

and what it was doing.

And they would both come

to the table

with these, like, characters

all with a Stephen King basis.

They have that influence.

I didn't mean to do it,

but I did.

[laughs]

- We both were huge fans

of horror movies

and the contrast

between good and evil.

But not only that, to make

what you would think to be good

seem evil and what you'd

think to be evil seem good.

- So yeah.

There's a bunch

of our old concept.

Good thing I'm a hoarder.

[laughter]

So yeah, man.

Again, working

with your brother is

the funnest time I've ever had

professionally and personally.

I remember he just called

and he was like, yeah,

I want to come up

with this idea.

I want this mask.

- We both loved wrestling,

but I was The Rock

and Stone Cold,

and he was Kane and Undertaker

and Papa Shango.

You know, anything weird.

He was always attracted

to that, I think

because if you look at him,

he looks like a monster.

But he had the biggest

and best heart.

- I'm obviously paraphrasing,

but I remember

he said one time that

the only way to judge darkness

is through

the absence of light.

So you know, just doing that

was like this beautiful thing.

Then he's like, no, let's show

the world if you use something

that's dark, you can show

the world how beautiful

it is by contrast.

[indistinct chatter]

- Are we ready, Bray?

- I'm ready.

- All right. Let's do it.

- This new character

needed a new world.

- And action.

- This is the Firefly

Fun House.

[dramatic music]

- I had the opportunity

to work

on the first

Firefly Fun Houses.

The Firefly Fun House only

existed in Bray's mind.

It was not a real place.

He would allow us

inside that head.

And you can accept it

because it was fantasy.

When you walk in,

you want to just say, really.

- Really.

- Then you'll go, really.

- Really.

- And then look back

at the camera.

[soft music]

- sh**ting the Fun House

was unlike anything

WWE has done before.

And that was always

our intention

was to do something

completely different.

And in wrestling,

that's tough because

everybody's done everything

at some point.

- I'm trying

to make it different.

- Yeah. Follow the leader.

Follow the leader.

Follow the leader.

- I was blown away

by how talented he was.

- See you later! Bye! [laughs]

Can I see what that

looks like real quick?

- Windham's brain is just

like a tornado of ideas.

- Could it be warped somehow?

- He has so many different

things he wants to do,

wants to say.

And it's just so many

different things at once

that the hard part is

kind of containing it.

- What about if I deliver

the line before

while I'm standing

and then the next thing is

the music's playing

and it's just

da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da

at the end?

- All you have to do is...

- Let me in.

- His range of interests

were so wide.

He knew something

about everything

and he drew inspiration

from everything.

- Oh.

And I want to introduce you

to some very special friends

that I've met along the way.

- A key component

of Windham's vision

included multiple puppets that

would enhance his character.

This is my friend

Huskus the Pig Boy.

- Join us. Join us.

- Huskus was obviously

a representation of Bray

and the stuff that he'd gone

through with his weight.

The Ramblin' Rabbit was

sort of the personification

of people's opinion of Bray--

of him rambling

too much in his promos.

- Oh, OK.

Yeah.

- Mercy was a little bit

of an homage

to Waylon Mercy,

the character that

Bray drew so much

influence from.

Abby was Sister Abigail,

an imaginary sister

of Bray Wyatt in his story.

- After several weeks

of preparation,

the Firefly Fun House

premiered in prime time

on Monday Night Raw.

[cheers and applause]

- Did you miss me?

Oh, how I

have missed you.

- When I first saw

the Firefly Fun House,

I remember texting one

of the writers saying,

this is brilliant.

- Hi.

Did you enjoy my little secret?

- Really enjoyed

the Pee-wee's Playhouse

take of the Firefly Fun House.

- Sociopath is

the word of the day.

Sociopath.

- He thought of

all that stuff himself.

Puts himself

in the genius category.

- Let me in.

- It was like Mister Rogers

meets Tales from the Crypt.

- Whenever there was

a Firefly Fun House going on,

on a screen in the back

as the show is going,

there would always be a sellout

at one of those monitors

to see what Bray was going to

do in that Fun House that week.

- Today, I have something super

serious to talk to you about.

Exercise!

- For him to be able to pivot

and all of a sudden go,

hi, welcome to the Fun House.

We're going to work out.

He had the charisma that

so many guys don't have.

- I really appreciated

the Firefly Fun House

because it was the public eye's

first opportunity

to see Windham be silly.

- Yowie-wowie!

You found me.

- Knowing Windham, you knew

it was going to go dark.

- I will always light the way.

And all you have to do

is let me in.

- And it was going to be scary.

- After months of hosting

the bizarre program,

in the summer of 2019,

Windham would introduce

the WWE Universe

to his darker side.

- As tight as it can go.

That's perfect.

Let's go make some nightmares.

- The Fiend.

[dramatic music]

- Yowie-wowie!

- It was a brand-new character

that lived in Bray's head.

However, it could take over

Bray's body.

And then The Fiend became real.

- The dichotomy of this

sadistic character

in the children's setup,

it was so bizarre,

and it felt wrong.

But it was one of those things

you couldn't look away from.

- Coming up next

here at SummerSlam,

it is the in-ring debut

of The Fiend.

It's Finn Blor

versus Bray Wyatt,

who went through this

bizarre transformation

in a place called

the Firefly Fun House.

- He showed up on the day

of SummerSlam,

and I seen what

the character was.

I just said, oh, wow.

This is cool.

- We're seeing so many

different forms

of intimidation

from The Fiend.

- This is just disturbing.

- The thing about

professional wrestling

is it's one of the only

forms of entertainment

where you have to do it

live in front of an audience

with no CGI,

no camera effects.

So when The Fiend shows up

in the arena

and he's literally

a horror movie monster,

I was like,

this is unbelievable.

- I love it.

- That's cool.

- Awesome.

Happy for you, brother.

[tense music]

- The Fiend is

my favorite character

in WWE, of all time.

Someone had finally pulled off

a split-personality character.

- I was like, you genius.

You just printed $10 million

worth of merchandise overnight.

[laughs]

- I'm really excited to see

The Fiend, Bray Wyatt.

- Seeing all these kids

wearing the mask,

just the way it captivated

the audience, it was awesome.

- Within months,

The Fiend's popularity

skyrocketed and had him on

a collision course

with an old foe, John Cena.

[cheers and applause]

- WrestleMania was

scheduled to take place

at Raymond James Stadium

in Tampa

where the Buccaneers play.

Due to COVID, we were not

able to have the audience

and be able to have the show

that we wanted to have

in front of an audience.

So we had to take it

to the Performance Center,

where we had been doing TV.

And The Fiend

did not lend itself

to be in an empty arena.

And we were looking for matches

that were unique.

We just got to thinking

one day and said,

why don't we have

a Firefly Fun House match?

- The story of the Firefly

Fun House goes like this.

We are sitting

in a conference table

at the NXT Performance Center.

Someone opens the door

and says,

"You have

a Firefly Fun House match

at WrestleMania

with Bray Wyatt."

And I said, well, what's

a Firefly Fun House match?

They said,

"Well, we don't know."

I said, [bleep] great.

This is going to be somethin'.

I was like, OK,

what story can we tell?

- There's a world that exists

beyond the realm

of our comprehension.

- Like, yo, we can make this

a meta journey.

So--and the lighting

stays the same.

And yeah.

- Boom. Boom.

So basically, this is in

two of the scenes.

That's in another scene.

That's a scene.

And then there's a scene

over there.

- If all I got is rapping,

I'll use it to my advantage,

'cause I'm like Husky Harris.

It's a weight

that I can manage.

Windham immediately channeled

right in, and he got it.

And he was like, and then we

do this, and then we do this.

- It's time to rewrite

my own story.

- No idea was off-limits.

We start working out.

And I just start working out,

and we have to stay there

absurdly long.

- Yeah.

- [laughs]

Let me tell you something.

Any idea

that I relayed to him,

he could make it better.

And any idea that he brought

to me, I was willing to do.

- I need a printout of that.

And I think yeah, everybody

should have it just

so you know

where I'm coming from.

Give it up for John Cena!

- Watching it back,

you'd think we'd had

six months to prepare for it.

But in reality,

it was, like, two days.

Somehow, it got pulled off.

- This is going to be spooky.

- You got to see all of these

different characters

come to life.

- It's like a mini-movie.

- It used to just be

challenging enough

to do something good.

That's hard.

But now in the age of content,

what's harder is

to do something memorable.

So full credit.

Because we're still talking

about it, and we still

will be talking about it

for years to come.

- Following the success

of that match,

fans were introduced

to a new Fun House character.

- He had all these ideas

for me and different ways

that the character could go.

Let him in.

He always had

these off-the-wall ideas

that once he explained them,

you're like,

that's freaking genius.

Do you like my playground?

[laughs]

He built this for me.

He taught me to open my mind

more creatively

and to step my game up.

And I had a lot of fun.

It's fun.

[laughter]

That was the best--

still is the best--

moments of my career.

- I think we can do

better than that.

By you--by we, I mean me.

[laughter]

- Windham's happiness

behind the scenes

translated on screen.

But he was about to experience

a heavy loss.

[somber music]

- In December of 2020,

one of Windham's

closest friends,

John Huber,

tragically passed away.

He was 41 years old.

- [crying] I didn't want

to believe it was true.

I don't think my brain let me

do it--let me believe it.

I'm struggling.

- I know he was hurting a lot.

Because I know

I was hurting a lot.

- They were so close.

They were like brothers.

When you're in a group

together with someone,

you share so much

of your lives together

and they talk about their

families and their kids

and all those things.

So I know it was

a profound loss for him.

- I know more than anybody

that no one can fill

the void that he left behind.

But I swear to God, I'll try.

- He always just carried

the heaviness around.

And he had a really,

really, really hard time.

[tense music]

- Windham struggled

emotionally

and professionally.

- Bray was a creative genius

for his characters.

To work with Bray was

very challenging because--

I don't think that

Bray came from a bad place,

but Bray had his visions.

Bray had what he wanted to do

and Bray would fight you on it.

- You can't put

the sweatband on?

- No.

- What's the transition?

How do I get to the rabbit?

- I'm grabbing him now anyway.

- He didn't like when other

people were getting involved

and telling him what to do

and telling him

how the character should act

and how he should speak.

So it took a toll on him.

- Bray was

a tremendous success.

But I think he created

something that was

larger than another

individual's thought process.

- While there's a clear line

between Windham and Bray Wyatt

and The Fiend

and all those things,

they're all pieces of him

that he put out there.

Sort of his heart and soul

out on his sleeve.

He never stopped

thinking about it.

- There's something

we're missing here.

- It's one of the geniuses

of him creatively.

It's also one of

the things that was

difficult to work with him on

because he was like

this whirlwind of ideas

at all times.

Harnessing him into one thing

got harder and harder--

keeping him focused

on the one idea

at hand, getting him

to agree to the idea

that everybody was working on,

and then stay committed to it

and not, all of a sudden,

show up one day and go,

"Guys, I think we're going in

the wrong direction.

We need to start over here."

- As the tension grew,

the Bray Wyatt character

was about to undergo

a drastic change.

- We had an Inferno match.

I remember seeing

the look on his face

as he's getting covered

with just all this goop

to keep him safe.

That was a stressful day.

- So frustrated?

Yes, to put it lightly.

- The only way to win is

to light any part of your

opponent on fire.

[dramatic music]

- Oh! The Fiend's on fire!

- Oh, my God! Orton!

Orton just lit

The Fiend on fire!

- He got b*rned.

That was extremely

frustrating to him.

- He was very particular

with his story

from beginning to end.

You can't pay off something

if it took a turn.

He didn't know how to do that.

And I think that was

very frustrating for him.

- That was the problem

with the burnt Bray.

Because you had to have

everything on you burnt

and melted and smoldering.

No one thought about that.

- Let me bring this to you back

when I got this sh*t off of me.

But we ain't going

to take pictures.

This is really brutal.

- All of a sudden now you're

going from wrestling gear

and a hot mask

to a hot mask and hot gear.

- I don't know

if I can work like this.

- It was very difficult

to move in.

It wasn't as pliable.

It wasn't as easy to maneuver

and do everything

that you wanted to do.

- It moves and turns

when you grab it.

[soft music]

- Remember this one.

- Wild looking at this,

'cause we both know

what a hard time

he was having at this point.

You know, like...

- You're putting it politely.

He hated this thing.

Your brother knew

the responsibility.

I think it weighed a lot

on him, and it was hard.

And I felt really bad for him

because I know

he gave it his all,

he tried 100% to try to carry

you know, not only his

character and the brand

and the company and everything,

but it just--

- It all led

to that WrestleMania.

- Yeah.

[dramatic music]

- WrestleMania 37,

the first time in over a year

that the WWE fans

would be in attendance.

- Who are you excited to see?

- Mostly The Fiend.

- I'm really excited

to see Bray Wyatt.

I like his mind games

that he plays.

- I want to see The Fiend

go on and burn Randy Orton

down to the ground.

- Yeah, at WrestleMania,

when we finally were

in front of people,

you see the transformation--

The Fiend is stepping out

of hell and of that burnt.

And now you have The Fiend

again, and a pissed-off Fiend.

It was a way to get back

to The Fiend.

Because the burn--the whole

outfit didn't work,

and it was tough

to continue that.

- And The Fiend

has been restored.

- I think everyone was

just as excited as we were

to see the Fiend back,

and it immediately turned into

I turned on him...

- What the...

- Causing him

to lose the match.

- And now Orton

from behind with an RKO!

- And it wasn't what

people wanted to see.

- If you love something that

much and you put that much

time and effort, you want it

to go the way your vision is.

And that was, like,

very frustrating for him.

- At the time, I don't know

exactly what the downfall was.

Creative minds can often be

misinterpreted very easily.

So you can begin

to have disagreements

of how things go,

but it can be interpreted

in many different ways--

as creative differences

or he's just difficult

to work with.

I don't know the exact answer.

I just know that

it fell apart somehow.

- At that time,

WWE was still dealing with

the fallout of the pandemic.

And they released

a bunch of superstars,

one of them being

Windham's brother, Taylor.

And then a few months later,

they ended up releasing

Windham as well.

You just kept clicking, trying

to find the thing that goes,

no, that was fake.

That's not true.

No, of course it's not true.

- We all were shocked.

In retrospect, I can look back

and I can look at pictures

and I'll zoom in on his eyes

and I see it destroyed him.

That was bad.

- Aside from being invested in

his family and his children,

wrestling was his life

and that was his art

and that was his outlet.

And all of a sudden,

instantaneously was--

that's supposed

to be just gone?

- For the first time

in over a decade,

Windham was not part of WWE.

In its place,

he found a new passion.

- So we're here in our home.

And this room, in particular,

was Windham's art room.

It was his space where

he created a lot of his magic.

And it has been untouched

since he's been here.

So this is it.

This is the mind of Windham.

The first piece he did,

and it's of me.

[laughs]

So it's one of the first pieces

he actually completed.

And it's spray paint.

[soft music]

This one right here,

it's Kendyl and Cadyn.

He wanted to recreate

the picture that he had

in his phone of his girls.

And it's a beautiful picture

of them standing

like that in the street.

He was in the middle of doing

this as a gift for them.

I don't know if he ever

truly felt like

anything was quite finished.

[laughs]

He did this over a course

of two years.

He kept working on this--

stopping, starting over.

But he always kept that part,

which I thought was

really cool.

And he kept it because

I told him how much I loved it.

I was like, oh, I love

those eyes, the face.

I said,

you did so good with that.

And he always kept it,

which I thought was

really cool.

This one hung in our home

in St. Pete.

And it reminds me a lot

of when we got engaged.

He surprised me by getting down

on one knee in St. Pete Pier.

So this art really ties in.

They're pieces that I won't

let go of ever in my life

because it reminds me

of that time.

- 100% art is where he really

just threw himself into that,

and he loved it.

Just always, oh, come do

this with me and let me

show you this latest thing

I'm trying out.

- Next thing you know,

he would be showing us

these paintings.

Then we're like, you did that?

I cannot believe you did that.

He's like, I've been working on

this for three nights in a row.

[laughs] Go to sleep.

It was amazing

to see, once again,

this anomaly of a human.

When he invested

into something

that he was going to do,

it was going to be phenomenal.

[light twangy music]

- While he immersed himself

in his art,

Windham also started filming

a reality TV pilot

with his brother.

- [laughs]

Can I touch it?

- Yeah. Yeah.

- We got the opportunity

to go sh**t a pilot

hunting monsters and cryptids

and conspiracy theories

and going after cults.

- I can't believe

we're in here, man.

- Our whole lives,

we've always been into

the odd things in the world.

- When I was a little kid,

when you watched, like,

"The Goonies"

and all that stuff,

I remember thinking,

oh, man, that's so cool.

I would love to just go around

with my friends one day

and do that.

So this is how

horror movies end.

- The more we hung out

and started working on that,

the more it kind of morphed

back into talking

about wrestling.

- I dive in and I think

about it to the point

where it almost makes me nuts.

- We got excited again

and realized maybe

we don't want to do this.

Maybe we want to go

back and wrestle.

The more we talked,

the more we collaborated,

the more we needed

to make it back.

- In the summer of 2022,

after a year away from WWE,

Windham started talking about

making a return to the ring.

- There is not a lock

on the door to the WWE.

And I think the audience was

craving some Bray Wyatt.

- From the first time I got on

the phone with him to discuss,

do you want to come back--

like, hey, I'd love

for you to come home.

And his part,

hey, I'd love to be home.

I think that very first

conversation we had,

it went from, hey,

what are you thinking

about potentially coming back

to us riffing ideas

for an hour and a half.

- He wasn't done.

He wanted to fix things

about his legacy

and he didn't want

to go out unexpectedly.

He had a lot more stories

to tell the WWE Universe.

- He was in the gym a lot.

Like, three, four hours a day.

He really busted his ass.

- In the fall of 2022,

Windham, now 35 years old,

was preparing for his return.

- He was coming back.

He was working for it.

[tense music]

- So when Windham was

negotiating with WWE

to make his return,

he reached out to TJ

and asked TJ,

hey, I need you

to keep this to yourself,

but would you and Natty

be OK if I started

coming down to your ring?

- Bray was super motivated

at that time.

I did want to gauge

where he was mentally.

And he said, TJ, I know.

He said, I'm super excited.

And he went from it being

kind of a private thing to him

going around and giving

each person specific,

individualized advice.

That just shows you

how his brain was working

from a creative standpoint.

- You could just feel

that excitement.

You felt, like,

that childlike wonder.

He really wanted to get in

the best shape of his life

and he wanted this

to be his best run ever.

- He started talking to me

about what my ideas were

and if I should go back.

And I decided I was going

to pursue a conversation

with the company again

to see where I would stand

and started getting

excited again

like it was my first time

getting into the ring again.

- About the same time

I brought into the company

a guy named Rob Fee.

- I met with Hunter and Bray.

If I would ask him

a question and be like, hey,

what do you think about this

thing, an hour and a half

later of completely

off-the-wall ideas,

we'd land on something.

And I'm like, man, if he's

bringing this energy back

to WWE, it's going to be

a wild ride.

- It sort of started this kind

of three-way collaboration

on this project.

And Bray would

call us both and say,

hey, I have this idea.

[tense music]

- Who...

- k*lled...

- The...

- World?

- You...

- Did.

- We started coming up with

all these crazy, Easter-eggy--

like, how could we riff these

ideas to lead to this return?

That was me, Bray.

And Rob was

really instrumental.

- It was Bray coming up with

crazy bits of lore.

Then he'd be like, here,

make this into something.

- Friday Night SmackDown!

- Brought up

the first QR code.

It led to a puzzle.

I believe viewership was up

25% because people were

so excited to see

what this was leading to.

- The White Rabbit teases

are all that

any wrestling fan wants

to talk about.

It was so vague

and complicated that

it allowed us to just speculate

wildly for weeks at a time.

- We did rabbits in the crowd.

We had latitude and longitudes

in Italy that if you

viewed it from overhead,

was this giant pink bunny.

All the clues were just enough

to where it felt like

a Bray thing,

but it wasn't for sure.

The final one we did,

fire sh**t out

and it brings up the date

of Extreme Rules.

'Cause we were like,

at this point, you know,

let's stop [bleep] with them

and just show them

exactly what it is.

- October 8, 2022.

The day had finally arrived.

After 15 months,

Windham was home.

- I didn't know I could draw

a year ago.

You want to see something cool?

I was really proud of this.

It's the first time

I ever did this by myself.

This is the concept art.

Sitting at home for a year

by yourself and painting

and kind of, you know,

thinking about these things

and designing all these ideas

that I'm dreaming of--one day,

maybe we can get a chance

to do this stuff--

it's such a cool feeling

to be on the cusp of it.

This is always the most

exciting part for me,

this joy you get from creating.

And you're stressing me out

hovering over me

now that I'm doing it.

This is how I keep calm

kind of in

stressful situations.

[tense music]

- He was nervous, for sure.

I was not there

for Extreme Rules.

But I remember

he would call me

and he'd just be like, ugh.

He'd pace back

and forth constantly.

He was like, I can't.

I just can't right now.

And I'm like, OK.

But just to make sure

that it was

done the way

he wanted it to be done

was so much pressure on him

that it made him nervous.

He's like,

I got to do this right.

- I always think, oh, no,

so this person is not

going to like this.

This person is not

going to like that.

[booming]

- 15,944 WWE fans

are here tonight.

We are sold out

for Extreme Rules.

- I remember Hunter came

on the bus and was like,

we just think it'd be

kind of cool to just

show your characters

just sort of invaded back

into the world of WWE.

And we're like, yeah,

sounds like a plan.

Bruce and Hunter are like,

we want The Fiend, as well.

We were just going to grab

a random extra or somebody.

And Windham goes, "No.

"Jason, you're

the only person I trust

and you're the only person

that deserves to do it."

- You got this, man.

[laughs]

- The honor is definitely

not lost on me.

- You only get this a couple

times in your life, you know?

The feeling of pure bliss,

you know?

The nerves.

The bliss.

It's pretty wild, man.

I want to show everybody

what all the hard work is,

you know?

It's time, bro.

- Windham emerged

just 15 minutes before

his long-awaited return.

- They knew something was

going to happen on the show.

And this was after

the main event.

So you know, they're like,

did we miss something?

Was it wrong?

The logo comes up

at the bottom.

You think the show's over.

[cheers and applause]

- Corey, are we still

on the air?

- He's got the whole world

[crowd roaring]

In his hands

[eerie music]

- God, what the--

- He's got

the whole wide world

In his hands

He's got the whole world

In his hands

He's got the whole world

[dramatic music]

[cheers and applause]

all: Holy sh*t!

Holy sh*t! Holy sh*t!

Holy sh*t! Holy sh*t!

[crowd roaring]

[soft music]

- I don't think

I've ever experienced

a sensation quite like that.

I felt like I was just

hovering out there--

like I wasn't walking.

I've never felt

anything like it.

Bro, I seriously--like,

I'm on [bleep] edge right now.

I feel like I was just almost

in a car wreck, you know?

Holy sh*t.

- It literally blew the effing

roof off the place.

And I was like, holy cow.

It was a sight for sore eyes.

[laughs]

- We're going to make this way

bigger than it's ever been,

all right?

- I'm down.

- When you talk about blowing

the roof off of a place--

they may still be trying

to put it back on.

It was an expl*si*n

when Bray returned.

They knew.

They wanted it,

then they got it.

- Not everybody gets to spend

their 40th birthday

dressing up

as their best friend

and helping them

come back to their job.

- Biggest thing in wrestling

in a very, very long time.

- Yeah.

I've never heard anything

that loud in my life.

It was insane.

- It was so cool.

It's just wild.

And just seeing this jacket

and his re-debut, coming back.

And he sparked a fire

under me like I never felt.

And it was all him.

- Part of professional

wrestling is

the theater of the mind.

It's to take you away

from reality.

And when you have a character

that you look forward

to seeing each week

and then they're gone,

you can't wait

to have that back.

There was something about him

that made people feel better.

And people missed

seeing that on TV.

[crowd chanting]

- [laughs]

I don't know if y'all

can read this on me,

but I am incredibly grateful.

And I'm really, really

nervous to be here.

I never thought that

this would happen.

[cheering]

[laughs]

This right here,

this is just me, OK?

This is a version of me

that I've never

got to introduce

to you guys before.

This is just me being me--

genuine me--for the first time.

- I felt like people were

just so grateful for him

and grateful to have him back.

And then that promo where

he was just kind of raw

and spoke more as Windham was

so unique and so different.

- I can sit here right now

today and I can look all of you

in the eyes and I can say

that you were there

when I was weak, when I was

vulnerable, when I was down.

So I just wanted

to say thank you.

You all saved my life.

[cheers and applause]

- That's my favorite

Bray Wyatt promo.

Because not only do

they already love him

for his commitment

and for everything he's done

and for the rides

he's taken them on

with these different

characters all these years,

now they get to see

a window into him

as the actual person.

When he did that promo, I was

like, oh, now we're cooking.

[crowd chanting]

- He forgot how much

he meant to people.

When he got reminded of that

is what I loved.

[somber music]

- If I didn't have

such passionate fans,

I wouldn't be here.

I really wouldn't.

- What's the best part

about being a wrestler?

- The best part is--

you know,

this may sound corny,

but it's the truth--

is the fans.

To have fans that are

so into what I do,

it feels like it's part

of their life too.

[laughs]

- Oh, my God.

- Are you trying to scare me?

It's them that led me

back here.

This is the best

I've ever felt.

- He felt like he was

getting a second chance,

and he had a lot

more perspective

on what that could be.

And so he was excited

to bring as much of himself

into that character.

- Bray wanted to take

the audience on a journey.

Here I am.

I'm Windham Rotunda.

I'm just a regular guy

just like you.

But yet, I'm different.

[dramatic music]

- My emotions, they don't work

like most other people's.

I don't have control.

And sometimes, they can send me

to a very, very dark place.

- Bray Wyatt once had

a family.

The Fiend had his Fun House.

But this time,

Windham needed someone else--

his brother.

- We wanted to use Taylor

all along.

And I thought it was

a pretty cool concept.

- The whole thing came

from this nightmare

that he used to have

when he was a child

that would haunt him

in his dreams.

That was the catalyst

to create

the Uncle Howdy look

and design.

- To be able to freely work

with him for the first time

as colleagues and as brothers,

it was like a dream come true.

Windham had already

accomplished

the most unbelievable things

you could do in this business.

And his only goal left

was to do it together.

[somber music]

We were both becoming

monsters.

I was going to work just

to hang out with my brother.

That was my job.

You know,

and to play with my brother.

- What is that thing?

- Oh, that's Uncle Howdy.

- Being two little kids again,

developing the characters,

and coming up

with ideas for them

to be able to work together

and complement each other

was awesome.

- Uncle Howdy just launched

himself off the top!

- We're going to be

in WrestleMania together.

We always had that dream.

And that dream never changed.

It only got stronger

and more real.

That time period where

we were working together...

- And Sister Abigail!

- It meant everything to me.

- You're welcome, Montreal.

[cheers and applause]

- It was too good to be true.

- All of a sudden,

he had this, like,

second lease on life.

Man, it came out

of everything he did--

the joy of it.

And you know, as we were doing

it, sometimes, we would talk,

and then we'd get done

an hour of creative whatever.

And then he'd call me back

two seconds later and be like,

hey, man, I just want you to

know how much this means to me

and how much fun I'm having.

And it made me want

to work harder for him.

It made me want to run

through a wall for him

to get this stuff done and to

get it where it needed to be.

[tense music]

- February 26, 2023.

- Here I'm getting to stand

across from a guy

who had really built a name

and a whole aura for himself.

That's huge.

He said that his calf

or his knee started to, like,

seize up or something.

And I was like, are you good?

Are you good?

And it was just like,

all right, well,

we were trying to work

as best we could

to kind of protect him.

- Nobody knew at the time--

not even Windham Rotunda--

that he had just completed

his final match.

[tense music]

- March 2023.

The Bray Wyatt character

was suddenly

absent from WWE programming.

- I was at TV and found out

Windham wasn't there.

And I called him like,

where are you at?

And he was at home.

He had COVID.

- He went to the hospital.

He tested positive for COVID.

They were like, oh, my God.

They admitted him.

His heart.

He had to go do stress

and echocardiograms

through this period of time.

- It was a weakened heart.

It was like, the way his heart

performed and functioned,

it was not where

it needed to be.

It kept making him feel off.

He kept saying, I feel off.

- I didn't think

it was that serious.

I mean, to me,

he's my big brother.

Nothing can hurt him.

- He didn't share

too many details.

He just always wanted to assure

everybody that he was fine--

I'm fine.

But I could see that

he didn't feel amazing.

- He worked with

a cardiologist.

And he was on medication.

He was already cleared

to work out, but not a lot.

They'd say just light cardio

was fine, so he would do that.

He was doing a little

bit better and then

it kept getting better

and better and better.

And then a couple times,

it kind of backtracked.

- My sister, she was staying

at his guest house.

And when she walked

in the garage,

there was a rattlesnake.

So we freaked out

and drove there.

And we had to lift up

some stuff and get to it.

And afterwards--

he always sweated,

but it was more than that,

and in his eyes.

And he said, I don't feel good.

I just got to take a nap.

And it was, like,

3:00 in the afternoon.

And it crossed my mind.

And I worried for him

because he's my brother.

In that moment,

I go, are you OK?

And I asked him then.

Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.

But I never really worried.

I never thought,

oh, Windham is really sick.

Never for a second.

I was just waiting for the call

to come back as monsters

like we both wanted.

- He was still under

the doctor's care.

And we were right there

to where, oh, he's fine.

He should be able

to go back soon.

But he didn't feel good.

And they set him up

with a vest that

was actually to where it

would shock him if he stopped.

And they released him

from the hospital with that,

and he swore he would wear it.

Mike and I picked him up

at the hospital

and brought him home.

We watched it get fitted

and everything, and he wore it.

And then he went for

the follow-up with his doctor.

- Thursday, August 24.

Windham had a morning checkup

with his doctor.

- He called me and he said,

probably, at some point,

I'm going to have to do

a pacemaker or something.

So he didn't tell me there

was good news or bad news,

but he was--

Ma, I'm going to be fine.

- It was that morning.

I had called him

and he answered the phone.

And he was like,

hey, what's up Sam?

I said, well, do you want to

get the kids from school today?

And he was like,

I would love that.

Yeah, I'm going to pick

the kids up from school.

I said, OK, cool.

I think this was, like,

10:00 in the morning.

- He walks in the house,

he's excited.

Just, hey, guys, what's up?

All the kids jumping on him

and everything.

So he was just

really, really happy.

And he's like,

I'm going to go take a nap.

And I was like,

all right, cool.

He goes to sleep

around 2:00 PM.

[tense music]

So I'm doing my thing

in the kitchen.

My mom's there.

And then his alarm

starts going off at 3:00.

And so then I walked over

and I was like, babe,

your alarm's going off.

And then I touched his leg,

and he wouldn't move.

And so then like I started

shaking him and hitting him,

and he wouldn't move.

And so I screamed for my mom.

I call 911 immediately.

In the meantime,

my mom is calling his mom.

- She's screaming, Windham's

having a heart att*ck.

Windham's having

a heart att*ck.

And I'm like,

no, no, no, no, no.

Put him on the phone.

Put him on the phone.

And I immediately

called Taylor.

- She said she didn't know

the details.

He just stopped breathing.

- I'm following them

with him in the gurney.

And I kept yelling at him.

I'm like, please

just come back to me.

I'm like,

please just come back to me.

[somber music]

- My car was in the shop,

so I had to call Taylor

and say, Taylor,

I need you to come get me

and the baby now.

And I remember getting

my baby dressed.

And I just kept saying to her,

everything's going to be OK.

Everything's going to be OK.

And in the back of my mind,

I just knew it's not OK.

- As soon as we walked in,

they pulled us

in a room alone.

The doctor walked in.

And it's like something you see

a million times in movies,

but you really don't know

what it feels like

until it happens.

He said, we got bad news.

He's gone.

And it's like time slowed down.

I could see the reaction

of everybody in the room.

My mom and dad crumbling.

And my sister, she's got her

baby wrapped to her chest

and she's falling.

And I've never been more sad.

But something in me--

and I still to this day

think it was Windham--

something in me gave me

the strength to go, stop.

You need to hold them up.

He gave me strength

in a moment where

I would think I would crumble.

And I really believe

it was him.

And he was telling me,

be there for Mom.

Hold her up.

- Taylor had to pick me up

off the floor

and I just remember

his hands felt so big.

He just held me, picked me up.

There was nothing we could do.

It was absolute disbelief

that this isn't happening.

This is not real.

And I kept looking

at Mike going,

Mike, you got to do something.

Fix this. Fix this now.

- It was just heartbreaking.

Somebody sticking their fist

in your chest

and pulling your heart out.

- My sister called me.

And all she said was...

Windham is gone.

- My phone rang when I was

sitting on the plane.

And I answered it,

and JoJo said, he's gone.

And I said,

what do you mean he's gone?

He's dead.

And I literally was

walking off the airplane,

I dropped to my knees

on the jet bridge.

And I just--

I felt like, all of a sudden,

something was missing from me.

- I got a phone call,

and it was Jo.

She goes, Windham's gone.

And I screamed.

- All I could think about is,

how am I going to tell

my children--

they're three and four--

that they just lost their dad?

- People say like,

it was a nightmare.

But you don't know what

that feels like until

you live a nightmare.

- It was and will forever be

the worst day of my life.

- He didn't have the vest on.

Don't know what happened.

- Windham Rotunda passed away.

He was 36 years old.

Just 24 hours after

Windham's passing,

WWE's Friday Night

SmackDown program

was set to air live

from Louisville, Kentucky.

Life is short.

This doesn't tell you

anything else.

It's short.

It still feels--

it's still surreal.

I still feel like I just

haven't seen him

for a little while, you know,

because he was so

larger-than-life as a person

and so big personality-wise

and everything was so good.

And for somebody that young,

it's just a crazy--

I don't know how

to put it into words.

36 years old.

Cherish it.

Cherish each other.

- Sitting here doing this

whole thing about Windham,

and even now, there's still

a huge part of me

that's in total denial.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

- I just didn't believe it.

I just thought it was bullshit.

I just thought it wasn't real.

Sometimes, even now,

I still don't think it's real.

Yeah. I don't know.

It sucked. It still sucks.

- Everything we wanted to do

was a tribute to Bray.

Just to say thank you.

[bell dinging]

- Just a barrage of different

feelings in my head.

I miss him.

- He was just a light

in everyone's lives.

- He was one of the greatest

people I've ever met.

And I wouldn't be

where I am in my life

without meeting him.

I miss you. I miss you.

- He touched a lot of people.

He was loved by millions.

- Windham's sudden passing

left the entire WWE Universe

in shock.

Honoring his legacy

would be a tall task.

all: Thank you, Bray!

Thank you, Bray!

Thank you, Bray!

Thank you, Bray!

- Following Windham's passing,

in arenas across the country,

superstars and fans paid

tribute to Bray Wyatt.

- I know that all of you

can feel the spirit

of Bray Wyatt in this building.

[cheers and applause]

- That was the one time

where I kind of struggled.

It started to break me.

I had to look at the ceiling

to keep everything together,

and just big deep breath.

- This one is for Windham.

Hug the ones that you love.

He was a special human being.

He was a good human being.

There's just not very many

people like Windham Rotunda.

There's nobody

like Windham Rotunda.

- I'll always think of him

for the rest of my career

every single time

I see these fireflies.

[cheers and applause]

It was the only therapy

that I was able

to get was in that ring.

He was truly a beautiful soul

inside of the ring and out.

- It was touching to see

so many people care

and know that he touched

so many people.

- He really touched lives

from all over the world.

- It was just overwhelming--

really overwhelming to see

how much he was loved.

I was like, wow.

Wow.

He was loved.

[soft music]

- September 6th.

Two weeks after

Windham's passing,

a service was held

in his hometown

of Brooksville, Florida.

- To go and plan

your son's funeral

is the worst thing

in the world.

It was the hardest thing

in the world.

- We wanted it to be very

Windham down to his urn.

Very much like him.

And it's a flame.

- The smoke going off

and the red lights,

it was a Windham funeral.

And it made me smile.

- Seeing everyone together--

how important he was

to so many people--

that speaks volumes

for the man that he was.

- I did get to go

to the funeral.

And there was

some closure there.

But at the same time,

how can there be closure

on a guy who was just stepping

into his prime, really?

- I was hurting more that day

than I ever thought possible.

I really don't know how

I'm going to get through this.

But I know Windham would

have done this for me,

and he would have

ended up k*lling it.

He really would have.

He wasn't just my big brother

or my best friend.

He was my idol.

- Windham was

Taylor's superhero.

The eulogy that Taylor gave

at Windham's service

was unbelievable.

- He is and always will be

the most beautiful,

amazing person I've ever known.

I love you so much, Windham.

- I could feel

Windham's comfort

as I stood up there to speak.

A couple months ago,

I had this unique opportunity.

My dad actually asked me

to do it.

He's working on a book.

And he said, you know,

set something up with the boys

and interview them

and get some transcripts.

Just talking about

our family and the values

and how we grew up.

I had no idea that

Windham was going to tell us

how he wanted to be remembered.

- I want to leave a mark

that makes me

a first-ballot Hall of Famer

and makes all my kids proud.

But honestly,

at the end of the day,

when I go into the dirt,

I think that

I will be remembered

for far more things

than just wrestling.

Making sure that my kids

and JoJo, everybody,

that they know

they can count on me

and that I will be there

for them no matter what.

- Windham was gone,

but his ideas live on.

He still has

one final creation

to share with the world.

- He was here a bunch.

He came, like, three

or four times over the summer

spitballing ideas--

I want to do this.

I want to do that.

And from there, we started

working on the new Fiend.

We made the new lantern.

We threw a little

animatronics in there

so the eyes move

back and forth.

We made the new mask,

started talking about gear.

Windham always wanted

something new,

something fresh,

something different.

What would the next evolution

of The Fiend be?

[soft music]

We 3D sculpted

a body form of Windham.

The mask had already

been approved by Windham.

This jacket was actually

something he had purchased,

and his mother and father

had sent it to us.

So we were able to use that.

Windham always loved

little Easter eggs.

When we did the original

lantern, if you look,

the eyes just look

like stitches,

but they're actually

Roman numerals

of Knash, his son's, birthday.

So we just kept

that tradition going.

The pinstripe,

Windham got the idea

to do each one

of his children's names.

He loved making you look

at something twice to find

something else more about it.

The stitches we did in a way

to where they're actually

the Roman numerals

of what would have been

his wedding anniversary,

which is December 6th.

12 on this side.

And then here, we have the six.

One of the ideas

that Windham had was,

instead of doing the spider

walk where he leans backwards,

if we did something where

he could lean forward.

His hair would

kind of fly up over.

So when he was crawling around,

he would expose

the second mask,

which would be hidden

by his hair.

Gross, disgusting face

on the front.

But then on the back,

we'd have this beautiful face.

And to Windham, the most

beautiful face was JoJo's.

So we 3D scanned JoJo's face.

And we were able to make a copy

of that and then sculpt it.

And we decided to put

these mockingbirds on there.

That's another homage to JoJo.

Windham's nickname

for JoJo was Mockingbird.

It's devastatingly

heartbreaking that

this is the last thing

I ever get to work on

with my best friend.

But I couldn't be more proud

of my crew and everyone

that came together that

helped us bring this to life.

I think it really

just hurts the most

that I never got to tell him

how much he meant to me.

It never felt work with him.

I just felt like I got to

hang out with my best friend,

and I miss that.

If I can give this to his fans

which meant the world to him,

then not all of him

is completely gone.

So if I get to help

my friend live on

in some way or capacity,

I'll be OK with that.

I can do that.

- He's not gone,

because the art he left

and his ideas will

live on forever.

- The real him was

much, much more

and much more entertaining

than any of his

characters could be.

He was very entertaining

always.

And he did that for them,

but you know, we got him.

And he's missed a lot.

[somber music]

- January 2024.

It's been five months

since Windham passed.

While he is gone,

you can still see him here.

- We can put a little bit

of pink on the rainbow.

- Good idea.

- His smile.

His life.

His hope.

- My name is

Cadyn Cole Rotunda.

- My name is

Kendyl Marie Rotunda.

- I like to play sports.

I just like shoes. It's fun.

I just liked it 'cause like,

me and my dad did it together.

So yeah.

- I want to travel everywhere

and become an artist.

- He's definitely

in all four kids.

They all four take after him

in some way.

- Hyrie, I'd probably say

chaos.

Cadyn, probably smart.

Knash, he's just a dinosaur.

Just a dinosaur.

- Knock on wood--if you

believe in afterlife,

you know,

we will get to see him again.

- My fire and love

for the business

has to burn brighter

than it ever has

because he's given me

the strength and passion

to want to carry his legacy on.

If you asked him what he was,

he would say he's an artist.

- He's got the whole world

In his hands

- The dad he was,

the son, the brother...

Everything of who he was,

he was the best at it.

- I'm something

completely different

than has ever been in the WWE.

We're here.

- Windham once said,

wrestling is not a love story.

It's much more.

It's hope,

a spectacle no one can deny,

an excuse to be a kid again.

And nothing matters except

the moment we are in.

- Walk by my side, and I will

lead you to paradise!

[dramatic music]

- And that is how

Windham Rotunda lived.

- I am the color red in a world

full of black and white.

- One of the most

unique minds.

Changed the landscape.

- He inspired

not only the fans,

but a lot of the boys

in the locker room

to push themselves

to be more creative.

- There's a love

for this industry.

And what he gave to it

was something special.

- Nobody ever has taken

the risks that he has.

- He opened up a world

that no one could ever do.

- I am forever.

- I think he is the template

for taking chances

and the template

for being brave.

- Do I have your attention now?

- The greatest human I have

ever known, hands down.

- One of a kind.

There will only be one Windham.

- He's got the whole world

- OK. Stand by.

Ready to roll.

[funky music]

- I've been very honored

to be asked

to be part of this project.

It's kind of bizarre to know

that I worked with Mike.

And then I remember meeting

both boys

when they were small kids.

And then actually working

at WrestleMania with Windham.

You talk about things

coming full circle.

I could always see in Windham

that he was so different.

And you have very few people

that come along

that actually think

outside of the box.

He was obviously taken

from us way too soon.

I know what

he would have been,

and it would have been

really, really special.

- Broken-hearted love

[static]

[beeping]

[eerie music]

- Run.