Bray Wyatt: Every persona the current WWE Universal Champion has portrayed on screen

Universal Champion Bray Wyatt is currently the hottest act in WWE and possibly all of pro-wrestling. The WWE Superstar is known for reinventing his personas from time to time and has been hailed as a creative genius by many.

He may not be an in-ring technician but Wyatt has captivated the WWE Universe with his charismatic persona and mic skills. Plus, he can create and delve the WWE Universe into engaging storylines, a feature that has been missing from the company in recent years.

Bray Wyatt, real name Windham Lawrence Rotunda, is a third-generation Superstar whose grandfather was eminent wrestler Blackjack Mulligan and father was Irwin R. Schyster, a popular WWE Superstar during the 1980s. His younger brother Bo Dallas also competes in WWE.

In this article, we will take a look at all the characters that Wyatt has portrayed till now on the screen.

But before we head on to that part, don't forget to check out the latest edition of our Dropkick DiSkussion where Tom Colohue and Korey Gunz discuss the aftermath of TLC, recent WWE releases, potential challengers for Brock Lesnar's WWE Championship, and more.

#1 Husky Harris

WWE NXT was different in its early days and followed a seasonal competition format in which talent from WWE's developmental territory FCW, competed in hopes of becoming the next 'breakout star' for WWE. The talents were dubbed as 'rookies' and they were paired with a WWE Superstar from either RAW or SmackDown who served as their mentors and were dubbed as 'Pros'.

In 2010, Windham Lawrence Rotunda used to go by the name of Husky Harris and participated in the first season of NXT. He was a burly, up-and-coming rookie wrestler and had former WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes as his Pro.

Despite his enormous size, Harris was agile and moved around the ring with such speed that one would not expect from such a person of his size.

During this time, Harris would later become a member of the heel stable, The Nexus, led by Wade Barrett and also its later iteration, The New Nexus, which was led by CM Punk. He would be written off television and be sent back to FCW in 2011 after Randy Orton delivered a punt kick to his head. He would then reinvent his character which we would talk about in the next point.

#2 Bray Wyatt

Bray Wyatt(center) with Luke Harper(left) and Erick Rowan(right)

This is the time when Rotunda took matters into his hand and completely reinvented his persona and came to be known as Bray Wyatt. After going back to FCW, Rotunda experimented with a few gimmicks until he came up with the Wyatt character in April 2012.

As Wyatt, Rotunda debuted a cult-like heel stable known as The Wyatt Family and became its leader with Luke Harper and Erick Rowan as its members. He grew out his hair and beard and wore attire that seemed to have taken inspiration from the character of the 1991 movie Cape Fear's Max Cady and his mannerisms drew a comparison to former Superstar Waylon Mercy. Wyatt along with Harper and Rowan made their debut on the main roster on the July 8, 2013 episode of RAW.

Despite being a heel, Wyatt would become a fan favorite for his eerie and intricate promos and use of the supernatural for which he was compared to The Undertaker. Wyatt feuded with many of WWE's top Superstars such as CM Punk, John Cena and even faced The Deadman in a match at WrestleMania 31 despite coming out as the loser.

Wyatt was drafted to SmackDown in the 2016 Draft where he later became a WWE Champion and a SmackDown Tag Team Champion. The Eater of Worlds would later return to RAW and would further tweak his persona.

#3 'Woken' Bray Wyatt

'Woken' Bray Wyatt with 'Woken' Matt Hardy

Bray Wyatt got drafted to RAW as a part of the Superstar Shake-up in 2017. After returning to RAW, Wyatt entered into feuds against the likes of Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, and Matt Hardy.

He prevailed over Rollins on two separate occasions but fell prey to Balor's 'Demon King' persona in a match at SummerSlam and again at No Mercy. They were scheduled to face each other for the third time at TLC but Wyatt suddenly fell ill due to a mumps outbreak and AJ Styles replaced him in the match which signaled the end of Balor and Wyatt's feud.

After returning from the illness, Wyatt began a feud with Matt Hardy in November and delved in mind-games with him. This led to the reemergence of Matt Hardy's critically acclaimed 'Broken' gimmick that he had during his stint at Impact Wrestling which was renamed as 'Woken' in WWE.

Hardy defeated Wyatt in an Ultimate Deletion match and following the match, pushed him into the 'Lake of Reincarnation' which has the power to alter a Superstar's gimmick. Wyatt disappeared after the incident and made a surprise return at WrestleMania 33 where he helped Matt Hardy to win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

Wyatt became a 'Woken' version of his previous persona and teamed up with Hardy which resulted in his transition to a babyface. The pair won the RAW Tag Team Championships on one occasion and soon disbanded in November 2018 after Hardy took time off to recuperate from his injuries.

#4 'Firefly Fun House' Bray Wyatt

After many people complained that Wyatt's character was getting stale, Rotunda underwent another persona change that has helped him to become one of the biggest names in WWE at the moment. He made his return to WWE by appearing on pre-recorded segments in April 2019.

This time, Wyatt portrayed the host of a bizarre children's show dubbed the Firefly Fun House which featured talking puppets. Wyatt also changed his appearance as he started sporting shorter blonde dreadlocks, a shorter beard with a leaner physique and wore full-sleeve sweaters.

However, it soon became clear that Wyatt was hiding something dark and sinister under the visage of his cheery and colorful character. He started showing signs of schizophrenia and talked about a mysterious character who protected Wyatt from harm. We will discuss this character in the next point.

#5 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt

It later became clear that the character that Bray Wyatt was talking about in his Fun House segments was a menacing and supernatural personality known as The Fiend who is none other than Wyatt himself even though Wyatt referred to him as a separate personality.

While this new persona of Wyatt's character focused on 'healing' people as he issued apologies to Superstars whom he has hurt in the past, The Fiend dwelt on 'hurting' people. The Fiend dons a frightening mask that represents the face of a hideous monster with bleach white skin and cat-like pupils with an omnipresent menacing grin.

Wyatt made his return to the ring as The Fiend by attacking WWE Hall of Famers and legends such as Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, Jerry Lawler, and Kane. The Fiend's first victim was Foley and he took him out by using the Mandible Claw, Foley's finishing move.

He then had feuds with Finn Balor and Seth Rollins in which he defeated both Superstars. He challenged Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship in a Hell in a Cell match at the namesake PPV but it ended in a no-contest after the referee stopped the match when The Fiend seemingly passed out after taking numerous Stomps from Rollins and getting hit with various weapons.

This is one of the characteristics of The Fiend as he seems to have supernatural endurance and bounces back even when he gets hit with multiple finishers and weapons. Another distinct trait is that he always wrestles under red lights which started in his match against Rollins at Hell in a Cell.

The Fiend Bray Wyatt finally became the Universal Champion after he defeated Rollins at the 2019 Crown Jewel. Another aspect of The Fiend's persona is that he seems to possess the power to alter the personas of those he defeats.

What is even more surprising that ideas for all his personas have come out of Rotunda's mind. The Fiend is one of the most interesting characters to have ever been created in the history of pro-wrestling and we hope that Windham Rotunda will continue to grace us with more entertaining characters in the years to come.

Edited by Zaid Khan