Last month, WWE shocked the world when they released Bray Wyatt from his contract. As one of the company's top merchandise sellers, pretty much everyone was baffled by the decision, especially as the former Universal Champion is considered something of a creative genius when it comes to his various in-ring personas.
Now, "Bray Wyatt" and "The Fiend" are no more, and all eyes are on what Windham Rotunda does next. An AEW debut seems likely, but it could depend on whether they want to take on yet another former big-name WWE Superstar.
Talking to Metro to hype his match with Edge at this Saturday's SummerSlam PPV, Seth Rollins shared his reaction to the release and whether he ever drew inspiration from the inventive former WWE employee. "Bray Wyatt – God, I miss him. But I wouldn’t say that I drew much inspiration from him. He was way out there with the stuff he wanted to do character-wise – and it worked for him. For me, not so much."
"That’s not really where I sit when it comes to characters in wrestling, but it worked well for him."
Rollins was referring to his current, somewhat wacky in-ring persona, and admits that "it’s definitely been really interesting." He adds: "The character’s in a weird place right now. I definitely take inspiration anywhere I can get it."
"So, when you look at the arc of my career, you’ll be able to see the whole picture I suppose. You mentioned that it’s really naturally evolved over the past couple of years – I would say even longer than that, to be fair." Something Rollins' admitted to being a little surprised by was the site's suggestion he is, in some ways, similar to a comic book villain. "I mean, I’m a bit over the top but I don’t know that I consider myself a comic book character. So that’s pretty cool!"
As both a member of The Shield and as Universal Champion, Rollins spent a lot of time in the ring with Wyatt. However, the way he was booked against The Fiend led to fans turning on him, and was a big part of why he's a heel again. Still, there's clearly a lot of respect there from Rollins.