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[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-executed 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 shit matters."
None of that shit 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 explosive 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 shoot, 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 beat 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 shit, 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 shit.
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 shooting 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 shit 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]
- Shooting 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 Bálor 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 burned.
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 shit 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 shoot 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... - Killed...
- 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 shoots 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 shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!
[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 shit.
- 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 explosion 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 attack.
Windham's having a heart attack.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
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.
[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!
- 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 killing 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.