‘Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal’ a fitting tribute
On April 1, WWE debuted the much-anticipated documentary Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal.
Bray Wyatt, born Windham Rotunda, died August 24, 2023. Less than a year later, WWE has produced this retrospective of his life and career. The production is state of the art, typical of WWE, and includes interviews with family, friends, and coworkers. The highlights of this production are the archival and personal footage, and the interviews with those inventive minds that helped develop Bray’s on-air character.
“The Undertaker” Mark Callaway, a one-time foe of Bray, narrates the piece. The documentary is framed by a conversation between Bray’s brother, Taylor Rotunda aka Bo Dallas, and Bray’s close friend Jason Baker, a makeup effects artist, who worked closely with Bray on his different costumes. The conversation takes place in a workshop and the two men look over concept art and artifacts from Bray’s unconventional character incarnations. For example, Baker shows Dallas the concept art for The Fiend and the various versions of the lantern that Bray used.
The documentary follows a chronological order. Bray Wyatt’s family has an extensive history within wrestling. His grandfather is Blackjack Mulligan, his uncle is Barry Windham, and his dad is Mike Rotunda, all very successful wrestlers. The family talks about Bray’s athletic background in both amateur wrestling and football. He was a state champion wrestler and all-state in football. He went on to play football at Troy University but left the team shortly after his brother began working as a wrestler.
The audience is shown never-before-seen footage from Florida Championship Wrestling, the former developmental promotion for WWE. This includes footage from house shows that never aired on TV. The footage is grainy, shot on a handheld. It is a small crowd with his dad standing near a door. There’s also footage of promo workshops with a young Bray developing the verbal skills that would make him famous.
Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas started as a tag team. They were Duke and Bo Rotunda. Eventually, Bo becomes Bo Dallas and Duke becomes Husky Harris. Bray’s family feel the Husky Harris moniker is an insult, the husky part poking fun at Bray’s physique. As Husky Harris, Bray competes on the original incarnation of NXT, a reality show to win a WWE contract. Cody Rhodes served as Bray’s “pro” on that show.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque says he decided to repackage Husky Harris. He makes no bones about his dislike of the Husky name. He brings Husky back to FCW and the Bray character is developed. Dusty Rhodes was an early supporter of Bray and collaborated with him on his promos. Triple H provided a sounding board for how to present the character in a wrestling context. As Bo Dallas explains, however, the character was Bray’s artistry. Bray drew inspiration from the movie Cape Fear and, strangely, from a little remembered wrestling character named Waylon Mercy.
As Bray begins to develop his character, his personal life was also at a high point. He was unfortunately in Europe for the birth of his first child but was overjoyed to be a father. Viewers get to see videos and photos of Bray’s children. He appears to be, and his family and friends describe him as, a doting father.
As the Bray character develops, he is joined by a “family.” Luke Harper, born Jon Huber, joins Bray followed shortly by Erik Rowan, born Joseph Ruud. Later, Braun Strowman, born Adam Scherr, joins the “family.” These men would become close friends of Bray’s. Erik and Braun are interviewed throughout the documentary, while, sadly, Luke Harper’s part is all archival as he passed away in 2020.
Luke Harper’s death has a deep effect on Bray. Bray is seen crying throughout an interview about his friend. This is one of a couple of down periods covered in the documentary. Bray goes through a divorce during a period of creative frustration over the direction of his character. These creative frustrations would also show up once The Fiend character debuts, and the creative direction once again stagnates. Triple H is blunt in describing the frustrations the creative team had with Bray and there is footage of Bray arguing with them during production of the Firefly Funhouse segments.
Bray hits another low point when he is released from WWE shortly after Bo was also released. The brothers set out to make a reality show pilot where they explore the occult, conspiracy theories, and other oddities. This filming, rather than developing into a show, becomes an inspiration to both for a return to wrestling.
Bray Wyatt, Jason Baker, Bo Dallas, and Triple H come together again as part of the creatives developing the latest incarnation of Bray Wyatt. Rob Fee also becomes an important cog. He is a WWE executive in charge of character development. Together they use a promotional campaign made to look “grassroots.” Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” is played off camera during TV tapings and on the road for house shows. Then other “easter eggs,” as Triple H calls them, begin popping up on TV and the WWE’s website and social media. QR codes link viewers to bizarre messages and videos. Even GPS coordinates show up leading viewers to satellite shots of a giant rabbit in a field.
The latest version of Bray Wyatt is seen for a brief time. His last match takes place at the Royal Rumble 2023. Bray Wyatt would disappear from WWE television. He contracts COVID and is diagnosed with heart issues. The documentary revealed that he had to wear a cardiac vest, which shocks the heart of the wearer if their heart stops. The family and friends of Bray then described his last day in heartbreaking detail.
Throughout the documentary Jason Baker and Bo Dallas tease “something big” as a tribute to Bray. It is revealed that Baker and Bray were working on a new mask, lantern, and outfit for The Fiend. These artifacts are shown, and the details of these items are explained (he has a tribute to his fiancé on it). The documentary ends with a teaser. The Wyatt Family intro video is shown and a silhouette of what appears to be Bo Dallas in an outfit like the Uncle Howdy costume.
In recent news, a former WWE writer has spoken about how WWE rejected a pitch for Bray Wyatt to meet with cult leader Charles Manson.
