I was reading some news stories earlier and I literally threw my phone. I couldn’t believe what I just saw. Windham Rotunda aka Bray Wyatt has died. He had instantly become one of my favorites when debuting with Luke Harper and Erick Rowan in 2012. You will be missed. RIP.
WWE is saddened to learn that Windham Rotunda, also known as Bray Wyatt, passed away on Thursday, Aug. 24, at age 36. WWE extends its condolences to Rotunda’s family, friends and fans.
Joseph Ruud (born November 28, 1981) was an American professional wrestler who was signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under the name Rowan. In WWE, Rowan was known for being a member of the Wyatt Family from 2013 to 2017, and later with Harper as part of the Big Stick Brothers tag team from 2017 to 2018. Rowan is a three-time Tag Team Champion, including an NXT Tag Team Championship with Harper, and a two-time SmackDown Tag Team Champion, with Harper and Daniel Bryan respectively.
Before signing with WWE, Rudd competed in several independent promotions in the United States and Japan. In 2007, he fought pro wrestler Noah under the Thoruf ring name in Japan, competing in both tag team and solo, though without much success. After his Japan tour, Luther returned to the United States in 2008 and began wrestling in Minnesota’s F1rst wrestling promotion under the ring name of Thoruf Marius. After joining the promotion, he began his feud with Brody Hoofer and had two trade victories in multiple events.
In 2011, Rudd signed a developmental deal with WWE and was assigned to their Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) developmental area. On April 14, 2011, he made his FCW debut as Erick Rowan, defeating DeSean Bishop and DT Porter in a tag team match with Buck Dixon. The following week, Rowan suffered his first defeat when he, Bobby Dutch and Axana were defeated by Derek Bateman, Xavier Woods and Kate in a six-man transgender doubles match. Lin beat. Rowan later began competing in the tag team, where he competed in the FCW Tag Team Showcase Championship alongside James Bronson. However, he and Bronson were eliminated by Epico and Hunico in the quarterfinals. Still, Rowan and Bronson came up short against Florida tag team champions CJ Parker and Donnie Marlowe, but fell short. After Rowan and Bronson’s team disbanded due to lack of success, Rowan made his singles attempts in 2012 with some modest success before returning to the doubles division with Luke Harper.
With WWE breaking new ground with NXT, Rowan made his debut as a follower of Bray Wyatt on the December 12, 2012 episode of NXT, Bray Wyatt Introduce Rowan as his “second son”. A member of the Wyatt family, Rowan teamed up with Wyatt’s “eldest son” Luke Harper to defeat Percy Watson and Yoshida on the January 9, 2013 episode of NXT. On the Jan. 23 episode of NXT, Harper and Rowan once again defeated Watson and Tatsu in the opening round of the NXT Tag Team Championship. After defeating Beau Dallas and Michael McGilli-Cutty in the semi-finals, Harper and Rowan were beaten by Adrian Neville and Oliver Gray in the final. On May 2, Harper and Rowan defeated Neville and Beau Dallas and replaced the injured Gray to win the NXT Tag Team Championship. On June 5, Harper and Rowan successfully defended their title against Corey Graves and Cassius Ohno. On June 20, Rowan and Harper lost the NXT Tag Team Championship to Adrian Neville and Corey Graves.
