Brian Gewirtz: Bray Wyatt Was On A Completely Different Level, The Rock Wanted To Work With Him
Brian Gewirtz speaks highly of Bray Wyatt’s creativity.
Brian Gewirtz speaks highly of Bray Wyatt’s creativity.
In an interview with Steve Fall for WrestlingNewsCo, former WWE head writer Brian Gewirtz shared his thoughts following Wyatt’s passing. He recalled Wyatt’s run as Husky Harris in the New Nexus and emphasized that Bray put in the work, the effort, and the creativity to reinvent himself as a new character when he had a chance to break free.
“I could tell, from Bray’s standpoint, obviously Husky Harris wasn’t something that he wanted to do. But at the same time, you get called up, and you get an opportunity to perform on television, you’re really not in a position to say anything otherwise. So he kind of paid his dues, I guess, but you could tell that there was a lot more going on in the brain than being part of a group. Yes, you’re on television, and yes, you’re getting exposure. You’re even working with top talent, but you don’t have much opportunity to show your personality and show what you’re capable of. So it was really post-Nexus 2.0 Bray coming back and him, him being Windham, putting in the work and the effort and the creativity to emerge as this brand-new character, this hypnotic, mesmerizing character,” Gewirtz said.
Gewirtz continued by comparing Wyatt’s creativity to LeBron James showing up in a 1920s basketball game, as he was on a totally different level. He highlighted the way Wyatt did things nobody had ever seen before, which struck him as especially impressive, as everything has been doing in wrestling. Gewirtz pointed to Wyatt’s run with the Firefly Fun House promos and his cinematic match with John Cena as some examples.
“I likened it to this. Imagine 1920s basketball, where they’re all throwing it through a peach basket and doing all those old-timey moves and everything, and then LeBron shows up. You’re like, ‘Yes, we’re technically playing the same sport, but this person is on a completely different level than anything we’ve ever witnessed before.’ That was Bray Wyatt. As a writer on the creative team, this happens to everybody I think on the creative team, sometimes you get stuck in a funk, where you’re like, ‘Oh my god, this has been done before, and this has been done. Everything’s been done before. How can we possibly do something new when literally every story, every iteration of wrestling…’Yes, that’s just like McMahon and Austin’, or , ‘Yes, that’s just like Hogan versus Andre’, or whatever. Here comes Bray, doing stuff that had never been seen before. It’s all coming out of his brain. The promos, the first time you saw Firefly Fun House. My brain was like, ‘What is this? This is insane, this is hypnotic.’ When he’s doing the dance and the song and the Vince puppet, and the match with Cena at the COVID WrestleMania, and all that stuff, it was truly mind-bending. That all comes from Bray. That wasn’t Bray sitting down. I know he worked with several members of the creative team and collaborated with them. But he was the driving force behind all of this stuff,” he said.
The former WWE writer then recalled working with Wyatt for his promo segment with The Rock at WrestleMania 32. He detailed how he gave Wyatt an outline, as he didn’t want to strictly write anything out for him. Gewirtz again emphasized that Wyatt was responsible for his character and his presentation, and he was remarkable.
“Even when we worked together at WrestleMania 32 with The Rock, we wanted to, I know taking to Rock, it was like, ‘This guy, Bray Wyatt, he doesn’t have a match. This is the promo we should be doing.’ That’s basically what we discussed with each other. Rock wanted to work with him, I wanted Rock to work with him. Bray obviously would be more than happy to do a segment with The Rock. But even when we put that segment together, it was like, ‘Alright, Bray, you’ll say your stuff, I’ll just let you do it. Because I’m certainly not writing anything for Bray Wyatt. Here’s the outline. Whatever you say, Rock will respond to.’ That’s sort of, it’s not necessarily a given with a lot of performers. A lot of performers can and do write their own promos. But Bray, from the start, from the incarnation of the Bray Wyatt character, it was all him putting forward the character, the aura, the mood, the atmosphere. He’s just really, really remarkable,” Gewirtz said.
Speaking of that segment, Gewirtz made it clear that The Rock wanted to put Wyatt over as a dynamic personality. He looked back on the way the fans were actively listening to everything Rock and Wyatt had to say. Gewirtz also stated that he enjoyed working with the two stars on the segment.
“The other thing I would add is that in putting that promo together, the one key in that promo that we wanted to do, above everything else, is Rock putting Bray over. Usually, there’s this dynamic where the heel comes out, and maybe there’s a line, some lip service or whatever, of ‘Yeah, you’re a great athlete, but,’ blah blah blah, typically with a heel and babyface. But in this particular case, we had the spotlight on us. The world of wrestling is watching. This is a good opportunity for The Rock to really put over the dynamic personality, the magnetic presence, the fact that he’s supposedly a heel, and 101,000 people are holding up their cell phones. I always thought, certainly at the time, at WrestleMania 32, that the Bray Wyatt character should transcend babyface/heel. He’s just this agent of chaos, and you can either like him or not like him. I don’t like that be as sometimes pigeon-holed as, ‘You gotta be a heel because wrestling is babyface and heels.’ I thought he was just an anomaly in the sense that he transcends that and is much more than that. So we definitely took that opportunity for The Rock, and the fans responded too, by the way. When The Rock’s talking about how he’s got the look, he’s got the charisma, he’s got this magnetic power about him, and of course, you can’t teach this stuff, and I couldn’t teach it, but Bray and Rock, with the presence to take that moment and take their time, acknowledge the crowd. They’re popping, they’re responding to it. There’s not a ‘What?’ in the building during the time where lots of ‘Whats’ would happen, where Bray and Rock would go back and forth. Everyone was truly listening to hear what they would have to say. So yeah, that was really great to be able to work on that promo with those guys,” Gewirtz said.
Gewirtz went on to share his belief that Wyatt could have ascended to the next level of stardom by branching into film and television because he was such a talented actor and performer. He detailed how Wyatt was ahead of his time by playing a horror character in the wrestling world, as this combination sometimes contradicted itself. Gewirtz closed out his message by stating that the numerous tributes to Wyatt spoke to the kind of person that he was.
“When we talked about it before, the ascension or progression from WWE to film and television, with Rock and Cena and Batista and several others have made inroads. But in the back of my mind, and the back of probably lots and lots of people’s minds, that was where you could easily see Bray, Windham, ascending to. Because he’s such a good actor and such a good performer, and had such great instincts, and so genuine. This scary guy, this horror character, was really ahead of his time in a wrestling world. It’s difficult in a wrestling world. It’s not easy when you’re sitting in the rocking chair going back and forth, and talking about these cryptic promos, otherworldly type promos. But at the end of the day, your goal is supposedly pin someone’s shoulders to the mat for a count of three and/or get them to submit in order to win a championship. The motivation and the goals aren’t necessarily aligned in that particular case, and so it’s a challenge sometimes to have them be aligned. It’s like, ‘Yes, if you’re not trying to be champion, then what are you doing?’ Well, Bray Wyatt is operating on a much different plane than everyone else. I would have loved to, like everyone… basically, yeah, I agree. Go back, treasure back the materials that we do have, the legacy that he left as far as a performer. But all these outpourings, the tributes that are coming, you can tell, whether you knew him or you didn’t know him, what a genuine human being he was, above being a performer, and he was a remarkable performer. He was even more valued and more loved and treasured as a human being,” Gewirtz said.
Seth Rollins paid tribute to Wyatt on the August 28 episode of WWE Raw. More information is available here.
Check out more tributes to Wyatt from around the wrestling world here.
WWE is donating net proceeds from Bray Wyatt merchandise to his family. More information is available here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
