Bray Wyatt has undergone several major character changes over the past ten years. He has gone from a cult leader, to Matt Hardy’s tag team partner, to a monster with a split personality, to his current gimmick that involves a bizarre person named Uncle Howdy.
Wyatt will have his first televised match at tonight’s Royal Rumble event, which is being promoted as a ‘Mountain Dew Pitch Black match’. Details remain scarce on this match and its parameters, as well as which persona Bray Wyatt will embrace on the match starts.
But one thing is for sure: one of his previous gimmicks won’t be seen in tonight’s match, or ever again for that matter.
Bray Wyatt discusses whether his previous gimmicks will ever be seen again
Wyatt spoke in an interview with Ryan Satin of WWE on FOX to discuss his match with LA Knight that’s taking place tonight. The discussion turned towards his previous personas and whether fans could expect a surprise appearance from one or more of them.
Wyatt responded to this question by confirming that not one but two of his previous gimmicks will not be resurrected, albeit for different reasons.
His first gimmick, the cult leader dressed in Hawaiian shirts that cut esoteric promos, will never be seen again because Bray Wyatt thinks doing so would be disrespectful to John Huber, a.k.a. Luke Harper/Brodie Lee, who passed away in December 2020.
“For me, the Hawaiian shirt, cult Bray, he can’t be without Brodie [Lee], to me, you know? So I can’t be that without Brodie. It’s just not the same. It’s disrespectful to my best friend. It just can’t be without him.”
As for his more controversial Fiend character that he portrayed between 2019 and early 2022, Wyatt insists that character “died at WrestleMania 37” in a match against Randy Orton. Furthermore, Wyatt also explained that was more to The Fiend than what was seen on the surface.
“To me, it’s so much more and what you see, where all these things come from, you know, or how they sculpt me or how they molded me as a human being. But he died that day to me and it could never be again. It’s gone.”
h/t PostWrestling for the transcription