It was a sad week in the world of wrestling last week with the passing of both Terry Funk and Bray Wyatt, real name Windham Rotunda. WWE Chief Content Officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque announced the tragic news of Rotunda’s passing via his X account and WWE went on to pay tribute to both stars on Smackdown. The company opened the show with a 10-bell salute, added a special match in tribute to Funk onto the card, and closed the show with Wyatt’s signature lantern sitting in the ring as it went off-air.
The tributes also extended to AEW All In: London this past weekend which saw both Renee Paquette and The House of Black make notable homages to the late star. Paquette quoted a now-famous Instagram post from Wyatt in the opening of the Buy-In stating, “Wrestling is not a love story, it’s a Fairy Tale for masochists. A comedy for people who criticize punchlines. A fantasy most can’t understand, a spectacle no one can deny.”
Later in the show, The House of Black included a subtle yet powerful nod to Wyatt during their entrance. Buddy Matthews brought a lantern to the stage, similar in appearance to Wyatt’s, and held it up for the crowd to see before leaving it lit on the ramp. Following the show, it’s now being reported that Tony Khan is making a special exception over the next two weeks in the wake of Wyatt’s passing.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reports that there may be some talent absences on either this week’s AEW Dynamite or the September 6th edition. Khan has reportedly given permission to all AEW talents to attend the services of Bray Wyatt and miss whichever episode of Dynamite conflicts with it.
Wyatt competed in his last match on WWE programming this past January at the Royal Rumble where he defeated LA Knight in a Mountain Dew Pitch Black match. He went on to compete in a series of live event matches following the Royal Rumble and wrestled the final match of his career at a live event in Rockford, Illinois on February 26th.