Tampa Bay’s Bray Wyatt Remembered
The Tampa Bay area is saddened to learn of the sudden passing of 3rd generation professional wrestler, Windham Rotunda aka Bray Wyatt aka the Fiend. Rotunda was born and raised in Brooksville, FL and comes from a long line of professional wrestlers. His father was Mike Rotunda, who wrestled in the WWE in the 80s and 90s under the name Irwin R. Schyster (I.R.S.). He also was the tag team partner of Wyatt’s uncle, Barry Windham. His grandfather Robert Windham, wrestled under the name Black Jack Mulligan.
Remembering Bray Wyatt as a Tampa Legend
Wyatt who attended Hernando High School in Brooksville was on the wrestling and football team. Wyatt made the Class 1A Florida state wrestling championships as a sophomore and junior. Wyatt made the Class 1A Florida state wrestling championships his sophomore and junior year. As a senior, he won the 2005 state championship in the 275lb weight class. A standout high school football player on both offense and defense, Wyatt was second-team all-state as a senior and finished his career with 147 tackles and 12 sacks. He went on to play college football at the College of the Sequoias, a JUCO in CA and then transferred to Division 1 Troy University in Alabama.
After college, Wyatt decided it was time to go into the family business, especially after his younger brother Taylor, aka Bo Dallas, was starting to make a name for himself in the squared circle. He made is professional debut February 5th 2009 under the ring name Alex Rotunda. He won the WWE Championship on February 12th, 2017.
Windham Rotunda aka Bray Wyatt died of a heart attack on August 24th 2023. Reports say he was battling an undisclosed illness since February and was making progress and was medically cleared to return to professional wrestling.
[Source: Tampa Bay Times/USA Today]
WrestleMania 37 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa
