A perfect send-off to Wyndham Rotunda
As wrestling moved from the mid-2010’s into the 2020’s, one name stood out more and more: Bray Wyatt. A WWE superstar who pushed through the ranks of the company’s NXT development phase and found his footing as a both physical and creative performer. It’s just a shame that we lost him too soon. Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal, a documentary executive produced by the WWE, tells the story of the rise and untimely passing of Wyndham Rotunda, otherwise known as Bray Wyatt.
Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal begins and ends kind of like your run-of-the-mill documentary about a famous and well-loved person coming into this world and leaving us too soon. However, in between, there is a lot of information and never-before-seen footage that can captivate even a fairweather wrestling fan.
Wyndham Rotunda was born in Brooksville, Florida, to a family of wrestlers. His father and uncle appeared at the very first Wrestlemania. Rotunda would make an effort to try and make it into the NFL after college but would recede in his college football career, which is where wrestling stepped in.
In his time at WWE NXT, his character had no depth; it was a generic, manufactured persona that played to his husky physical appearance. Rotunda would then go back to the drawing board. Being from the South, he would look into the Southern Gothic aesthetic to forge a character; he would research cult leaders, sadistic serial killers, and even Robert De Niro in Cape Fear to craft the alter ego that would become Bray Wyatt.
From there, Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal goes through the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows of Wyatt’s career in the WWE. The highest being making it to Wrestlemania within a year of almost leaving behind what he thought was going to be his lifelong dream of becoming a wrestler. The lowest is his divorce, eventually being released by the WWE, and having to regroup with what to do next.
The WWE only shows behind-the-scenes content of their character development, so since they produced this film, they take us behind the curtain of the creation of Bray Wyatt and explore the creative mind of the man behind the character. Rotunda was an avid fan of horror and fantasy films growing up, thus using that to craft his insane character that many fans felt chilled by and eventually would begin to follow and admire.
Bray Wyatt indeed does become immortal via this documentary. His passing was sudden and happened around the time he returned to the WWE. He was making positive strides to get back to the head of the company. Rotunda would die of a heart attack at 36, but he left behind years of creativity for us all to admire. Nobody, at least not since a performer like The Undertaker, has a persona in the WWE that comes along and amazes us to the point where you feel that person is real and not just an act.
It’s hard to make a critique of the quality of the documentary. WWE is backing the movie, so they tell the story their way. It’s a little lengthy, but Rotunda’s story is captivating and real, and boy did he leave us too soon.
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Verdict - 8/10
8/10