Ryan Satin’s latest guest post on his site FOX Sports Show out of character He’s the big one – Bray Wyatt.
Whatever your feelings on Wyatt as a professional wrestler/sports entertainer, he’s a great interview. Part of that’s because he rarely gives them, and when he does it’s not always clear if we’re hearing from the Windham Rotunda guy or the character Bray Wyatt. There are parts of his conversation with Satin that undoubtedly revolve around the Rotunda’s life, but even some of those lines get blurred because they’re things Wyatt has used in the fictional WWE universe as well.
It’s hard to play “action or shoot” in Interview with White because he seems to have almost the same feeling for what’s happening on screen as he does for everything else – perhaps because he puts so much of himself into his process and performance.
Anyway, I recommend giving everything a listen here. There are enough quotes to drag posts through a week, but we’ll collect them together in this post for you.
Satin asked how Wyatt feels about returning to WWE last year after being released in 2021:
“I think there’s a part of any athlete when you’ve been away from something for so long. There’s something in the back of your head like, ‘Are you still? Am I what I am, what should I be? I think for the majority since I got back, I’ve kind of been there in some form, and as the weeks progressed, I’m really starting to come back to my country again and I’m starting to remember why I’m doing it and how much it means to me to be there and perform at things like the Royal Rumble. So the closer I get, the more I really start to sink my teeth into becoming what I should be.”
Bray talked about his other options and why he chose to return:
“I’ve had opportunities to do great things, movies and TV shows and stuff, and I just — I wouldn’t do it because I felt broken. It was like something was just shutting down, and I didn’t understand why. People were literally telling me, keeping me alive.” Life and they pull me back, and they tell me, “You still have to do this. We miss you.”
“I didn’t feel that way at first. I felt the damage, and that kind of gave me the strength to rebuild and explode. So it was directed at them.”
Some of that has made its way into the promotions he’s made since returning last year Strict rules appear, as well as the losses he suffered in his personal life during his absence. He opened up more about dealing with those – especially Brody Lee, who like Luke Harper was a member of Bray’s Wyatt Family Act:
“There was a lot going on and coming out of nowhere. I wasn’t ready for any of it. I lost Brody. I lost my best friend from college, Mark. It was something I didn’t deal with very well. Brody’s wife, Amanda, dealt with it. The kids dealt with it.” better than me.
“There is something that reminds me of him every day. I think that period of time was a bit of a mystery to me. I wasn’t myself and it took me a while to remember what makes me me.
“It’s been a long journey, man. But he’s got me here to this moment, and it’s the best I’ve ever felt.”
He said that the cult leader character who shared the screen with Brody could not return without his friend. Bray also says that despite the recent teasing, the villainous character is also “dead”:
“For me, a Hawaiian brai shirt, who was–it can’t be without Brody, to me. I can’t be that without Brody. It’s not the same, and it’s disrespectful to my best friend. It’s–it can’t be without him.”
But The Fiend died that day in Tampa, Florida at WrestleMania [37] to me. And again, The Fiend isn’t just an idiot in a mask as people might think. That’s just ridiculous [laughs]. For me, it’s much more than that. And once you see where all this stuff comes from. How they sculpted me, how they fashioned me as a human being – but that day he died for me. It can’t be again. he is gone “.
Speaking about the character of Uncle Howdy who’s been so integral to his current career, White revealed why these things aren’t “an idiot in a mask” for him:
“There are things about me that people don’t understand. When they see all these chapters in me, they look at it as, ‘Oh, like split personalities or something.’ If you meet anyone with personalities, you’ll see that it’s not cut and dry. It’s not like that. Simplicity.It’s not like a movie.
“I have a diagnosis that I’m not going to share with people, and I like being the voice people see based on real life rather than a cartoon version. But Uncle Hoody and Bray and all that stuff is all real. It’s based on moments and things that really happened.”
“Uncle Howdy, there’s a lot more to it than you think. It’s not just cut and dry, the creepy guy in the background. There’s more. There are intricacies you haven’t had to see yet. There are things I don’t understand, and that’s the beauty of it. It’ll grow organically, but its story, I don’t think.” that it has been told yet. Once you understand what it really is and where it came from, in my childhood, and who Howdy really is, it is much deeper than you think, then you will perceive it as it is.”
In terms of current action, Bray is like his opponent LA Knight in that he doesn’t know what they’re going for tomorrow (January 28) when they face off in a Mountain Dew Pitch Black match. He looks up to her regardless:
“I think that’s kind of the beauty of it. Usually in these kinds of situations, there’s all this crazy mysticism surrounding it and it seems derived from my mind, but it’s not.
“It’s kind of cool, being pushed in a situation where I don’t really know what a Pitch Black match is going to be like. I’ve made sure it’s like nothing that’s been seen before that I can’t imagine. I love innovation. I love taking risks and doing things no one else would dare.” Another to do because I’m half an idiot and half a genius, I guess. But I have no idea and I think it’s exciting to me. It’s cooler that way. I’d rather go into the unknown. I think it’s the best of me.”
And, what did Undertaker whisper in your ear on Raw XXX?
“I guess everyone can see it for what it is, right? When something like that happens, it’s something no one can take away from me. That moment belongs to me. No one in the world, in the history of time, gets to have that moment. Nobody except me.
“What he said was something that only I would have understood, and something that only I can appreciate when and where it happened. It was something I didn’t think would come, but exactly what he said was between me and him and God and the Devil. I would never tell a soul. I would go to my grave with it.”
But it was powerful and unexpected. Very cool. Something I will cherish the rest of my life.”
Listen to the entire Bray Wyatt version of out of character here.
