The 36-year-old has been out of action since late February with an undisclosed illness. However, according to a report from Fightful Select, Wyatt is “closer” to being medically cleared.
WWE and Wyatt are reportedly being extra cautious regarding his condition and long term health.
“After today’s update, it was explained to Fightful that the illness that Bray Wyatt is actively recovering from was both career and life threatening,” Sean Ross Sapp later posted to Twitter.
Regarding a potential timeline for Wyatt’s return, one source noted to Fightful that creative pitches have been made that would see him back on WWE programming next month, although this is dependent on him being medically cleared.
Wyatt returned to the promotion at Extreme Rules last October following a series of QR codes being shown on WWE programming in the weeks leading up to the show. The codes linked to a WWE website with various imagery that teased his return.
Wyatt hasn’t wrestled on WWE programming since defeating LA Knight in the Mountain Dew Pitch Black match at the Royal Rumble. He hasn’t wrestled at all since a 2/26 house show event in Rockford, Illinois.
The Undertaker is hoping to see Bray Wyatt get back on track in WWE.
In an interview with the Metro, Undertaker said he thinks WWE needs to get back to the original Bray Wyatt cult leader character. Undertaker said recent iterations of Wyatt’s character have made it difficult for Wyatt to have matches.
“They need to back Bray’s character up to the original character, get away from – they’ve kind of got themselves booked into a situation where it’s kind of difficult for him to have matches,” Undertaker told the Metro. “I think the original Wyatt Family Bray, that’s the money.”
Wyatt has been away from WWE for several months due to an illness. He was supposed to face Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania 39 this April before the match had to be scrapped.
Wyatt was playing the character The Fiend when he was released by WWE in July 2021. He returned with a new character last October but has only had one televised match since then, defeating LA Knight in a Mtn. Dew Pitch Black match at the Royal Rumble this January.
Undertaker told the Metro that he thinks a lot of Wyatt.
“I got to work with Bray at ‘Mania the year after I got concussed in the Brock match,” Undertaker said. “I worked with Bray – I think a lot of him, and I like what he’s doing. I think they just have to figure out how to… they need to back it up I think.”
Undertaker defeated Wyatt in their WrestleMania 31 match. The two also shared a moment in the ring at Raw’s 30th anniversary episode earlier this year.
During an appearance on Out of Character in January, Wyatt said he can’t be the Hawaiian shirt version of his Wyatt Family character anymore without Brodie Lee there. Wyatt said he thinks it would be disrespectful to his late best friend.
Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales discussed the latest on Bray Wyatt and Josh Alexander on Wrestling Observer Radio.
Gonzales noted that there is no update on Wyatt, who is out of action due to a medical issue. Bobby Lashley stated on social media despite Wyatt’s absence, he will still compete at WrestleMania.
“If they knew he was on the show, they could at least promote it, even if he’s not there,” Meltzer said. “From what I understand he’s not in Vegas (home to Friday’s SmackDown taping) and the next to last SmackDown is tonight.”
Meltzer also brought up Josh Alexander, who announced on social media Friday he would have to pull out of future dates and vacate the Impact World Championship as he underwent surgery to repair a torn triceps on Friday. Meltzer put over the run he had while champion.
“Because of the nature of Impact, because of so much content with WWE and so much product with AEW, Impact falls by the wayside,” Meltzer said. “But Josh Alexander has done a tremendous job in the ring as Impact Champion.”
Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales discussed the latest on Bray Wyatt and Josh Alexander on Wrestling Observer Radio.
Gonzales noted that there is no update on Wyatt, who is out of action due to a medical issue. Bobby Lashley stated on social media despite Wyatt’s absence, he will still compete at WrestleMania.
“If they knew he was on the show, they could at least promote it, even if he’s not there,” Meltzer said. “From what I understand he’s not in Vegas (home to Friday’s SmackDown taping) and the next to last SmackDown is tonight.”
Meltzer also brought up Josh Alexander, who announced on social media Friday he would have to pull out of future dates and vacate the Impact World Championship as he underwent surgery to repair a torn triceps on Friday. Meltzer put over the run he had while champion.
“Because of the nature of Impact, because of so much content with WWE and so much product with AEW, Impact falls by the wayside,” Meltzer said. “But Josh Alexander has done a tremendous job in the ring as Impact Champion.”
As mentioned by Dave Meltzer in both his Sunday daily update and appearance on Sunday Night’s Main Event, Bray Wyatt is dealing with an illness that has kept on the sidelines in WWE.
He was supposed to be on Friday’s SmackDown, but missed the show due to the unspecified illness.
On SNME, Meltzer said that when he asked WWE about whether the planned match between Wyatt and Bobby Lashley was still on for WrestleMania 39, he didn’t get a definitive answer either way.
Meltzer said Wyatt is still with the company and that his gut instinct is the match is “up in the air” for whether it actually happens with less than two weeks to go before WrestleMania weekend.
The match hasn’t been mentioned on WWE TV since the Monday, March 6th Raw.
Wyatt was pulled from a Madison Square Garden house show earlier this months with no reason given. Since returning last year, Wyatt has wrestled on TV just once, that being at January’s Royal Rumble against LA Knight in a Pitch Black match. He has been working with Knight in SmackDown dark matches and house shows, but hasn’t been in action since February 26th.
WrestleMania updates, including status of different matches that have been planned and not announced
Ticket sales notes and demand for tickets, plus notes on NXT Stand & Deliver
A study of the buying patterns of PPVs for AEW, including comparisons with one year ago, how many shows the average AEW PPV buyer purchases each year, the difference between satellite owners and others in the viewing patterns, update on Revolution numbers and how many different people bought an AEW PPV this past year
Letters from WWE to the Alamodome in San Antonio show how WWE counted Royal Rumble attendance, along with the actual numbers from the show
Richard Schaefer, the famed boxing promoter, heading Anthem’s wrestling, MMA and new boxing divisions and what are future plans for the divisions
New Japan Cup coverage with all the matches from the past week
Notes on AEW’s Canada tour
Mexican star taken to prison on domestic violence charges against another Mexican wrestling star
Full coverage of this past week’s major pro wrestling events and the UFC show
Update on the WWE Hall of Fame including stories on the careers of the inductees
Coverage of the WWE’s return to its most famous arena, Madison Square Garden
The life of former wrestler Jeff Gaylord and his very checkered life after wrestling and during wrestling
The most detailed look at the weekly television ratings, competition, how segments did, where shows are strong and weak.
Promotion adding a ton of new talent after young wrestlers impress in a special format
Mainstream angle being done in Mexico
Joint show announced in Japan for the Himeka retirement
A look at the Guerrero wrestling family
Legendary athlete passes away that a wrestling move done all over the world was named after including the person who actually named the move
New promotion starting taking the name of a legendary regional company
International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame 2023 inductions and ceremony
Ric Flair Twitter war of words
Lots of indie notes including some big crowds this week
16 Carat Gold tournament in Germany news
Notes on recent Will Ospreay matches
Notes on major AEW negotiations
AEW cancels TV tapings and why
Update on social media abuse of Riho
Chris Jericho honored
Ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
Streaming numbers for WWE & AEW this past week
International TV ratings updates including a company sets its all-time viewing record in Canada
Notes on AEW signees
UFC TV renewal talk even though it’s years away
Former UFC champion Benson Henderson retires
Update on WWE’s attempt to get legalized betting on its matches
Update on Jay White
Interest level mainstream of UFC, WWE and AEW big shows including geographical popularity split between AEW Revolution and WWE Elimination Chamber
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Sunday Update
Bryan and I did our weekend show last night covering UFC, Smackdown, Rampage, the first AEW house show in a long time and other news notes. We will be back tomorrow night after Raw.
Sanada faces David Finlay in Tuesday’s New Japan Cup finals in Nagaoka. Sanada beat Mark Davis and Finlay beat Tama Tonga on today’s show to reach the finals.
On A&E tonight, the Jerry Lawler biography is at 8 p.m. and the Paige biography is at 9 p.m., plus WWE Rivals is Lita vs. Trish Stratus at 10 p.m.
There was a split-second Bray Wyatt sign on Smackdown that was very easy to miss. I guess that’s the signal saying that he’s around. He was originally scheduled on Friday’s show and wasn’t there. Wyatt is reportedly ill and we don’t have definitive word on the status of his match with Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania, which wasn’t pushed or mentioned on either television show this week.
Rolling Stone had a story about Tom Cole which is an excerpt from the new book “Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmasking of America” by Abraham Josephine Riesman. There’s nothing really new past it’s the story from 1992 brought back in the book.
Just a note regarding the Tony Khan Twitter mention of me on Friday. I had been asked a question more than a week ago regarding whether WWE still didn’t pay for talents hotels and rental cars while on the road, and answered that they do pay for that internationally but at the domestic house shows they don’t. Khan responded that it was mistaken and hat he pays for that stuff even though other companies don’t and noted he pays millions a year in covering hotels and cars for the talent, but that this isn’t the case with other companies. But the question didn’t even involve AEW that I was answering. Khan and I cleared it up already, very quickly as he said he didn’t know and only saw the answer and not the question. Everything is fine past people using it for a headline when it was all cleared up immediately.
Notes from last night’s UFC 286 PPV event. At the post-fight press conference, Dana White said that Colby Covington would be the next contender for Leon Edwards, who beat Kamaru Usman to retain the welterweight title in the main event from London. That decision has been heavily criticized, including by Edwards, noting Covington hasn’t even fought in the last year and a half. Edwards said as champion he thinks he should decide who was next, and wants to face Jorge Masvidal, although Masvidal last lost three in a row, including to Covington, and his last win was late 2019. Belal Muhammad has eight wins and a no contest (with Edwards) in his last nine fights and Khamzat Chimaev is undefeated. Covington is the No. 2 contender behind Kamaru Usman, who lost last night, in UFC’s own rankings. White said Chimaev will be fighting at middleweight next and wants him to face a top ranked guy in the division there. Chimaev missed weight badly. Dana White talked about Shavkat Rakhmonov for an opponent for Muhammad.
White said last night’s fight was tough to score. Both myself and Ryan Frederick had it 48-46 for Edwards, The MMA Decisions web site wasn’t up so we don’t have how other reporters had it, but judges Ben Cartilage and Chris Lee both had it the same. David Lethaby had it a draw, giving Edwards rounds one, four and five and a 10-8 third for Usman due to the penalty point. You could reasonably score it a draw but not an Usman win. Edwards was the better fighter most of the way, but he also committed four flagrant fouls, two low blows (appearing to be accidental), a fence grab blatant that he lost a point for and grabbing Usman’s glove which was also blatant and he was warned.
White also said they would be taking Power Slap events to the U.K
The UFC show last night had 1.1 million searches, which is not that big for a major UFC event. It was still one of the four biggest searched for items in the U.S. this weekend. The biggest was the death of Lance Reddrick while the UFC show, Donald Trump and Barcelona vs Real Madrid in soccer were the other big ones.
We’re looking for reports tonight from the WWE shows in Springfield, IL and Sioux Falls, SD, and the AAA Lucha Libre World Cup from Guadalajara (on FITE) tonight with results, finishes and highlights from both events.
Thanks to John Edwards Adam Adkins and Shannon Walsh for the WWE and AEW reports from the weekend shows.
There were AEW Dark banners up at last night’s house show in Troy, OH and they wee filming. ROH’s Bobby Cruise was used as the ring announcer. We got questions from a few people who were hoping for a wider variety of merchandise to be available but they enjoyed the show and it was 200 tickets shy of a sellout in a 3,400-seat set up, so that was a success.
Jake Lee beat Kaito Kiyomiya with a front high kick to win the GHC tile earlier today at a show at the Yokohama Budokan.
WWE last night in Milwaukee:
Bianca Belair retained the women’s title over Becky Lynch, Bayley and Chelsea Green
Bronson Reed b Johnny Gargano
Dominik Mysterio b Santos Escobar
Michin & Candice LeRae b Dakota Kai & Iyo Sky when LeRae pinned Kai. Bayley was booted out before the finish
Cody Rhodes b LA Knight
Ricochet & Braun Strowman b Maximum Male Models
Bobby Lashley b Baron Corbin
Austin Theory b Seth Rollins to keep the U.S. title. You know the drill there.
WWE last night in Fargo, ND:
Usos b Butch & Ridge Holland to keep the tag titles
Shotzi b Shayna Baszler
Viking Raiders b Joaquin Wilde & Cruz Del Toro
Charlotte Flair b Sonya Deville to keep the women’s title
Rhea Ripley b Raquel Rodriguez. Ripley beat her down until Liv Morgan ran out
Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson & Drew McIntyre b Gunther & Ludvig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci
Solo Sikoa b Sami Zayn after a ref bump and interference from the Usos. Holland & Butch tried to make the save but they were beaten down until McIntyre made the save (thanks to Shannon Rose and Steve Nixon)
Warrior Wrestling announced some changes in Saturday’s show in Grand Rapids, MI. Eddie Kingston vs. Sam Adonis is off because Kingston has COVID and Adonis was booked for a show n Mexico. Queen Aminata is out with a knee injury so Warhorse now faces Max the Imapler. With Davey Richards retiring, Clark Connors will now face Jake Something.
Scrapper Mania from yesterday in Dublin, Ireland: Don’t have results but told Robbie X vs. Pac vs. Big Damo vs. Leon Slater was great in a four-way that Pac won. Santino Marella worked a comedy match doing the snake bit. The crowd was hot for everything but the card was hurt by Kingston not being there due to COVID (thanks to Tony Coleman)
Other Notes
The brother of Matt “Kid Zombie” Mann on his facebook page said that Matt Mann passed away in San Francisco this weekend. Mann and I were contact all the time years ago and helped me out a ton. He was an insider fan who did a lot of podcasts and worked with a lot of West Coast independent promotions over the years. He had a show on Karl Stern’s network called Life and Times with KZ where he’d talk about his time in independent wrestling. He was going to appear as a guest on the Wrestling with the Dawg podcast but missed the show and Eric Darsie tried to get a hold of him and found this out. (thanks to Karl Stern)
Matt Cardona did an angle for a match with Mark Long, a reality show star of The Challenge, Challenge All-Stars, Road Rules and Worst Cooks),. The two are scheduled for a 5/7 match for Boca Raton Championship Wrestling. (thanks to Scott Yager)
Lance Anoa’i was announced for the 4/8 MOW Battle Bowl event on Philadelphia’s 2300 Arena.
United Wrestling Coalition in New Egypt, NJ on 3/25 at the American Legion has a Conquering Cancer event.
Want to mention Jay Dumont, who we actually wrote about this past week in the new issue of the Observer for the situation with Riho. He’s been battling health issues for three years now and his situation has been serious for some time. If you know him through twitter as the Great Fowler, just send him nice words of encouragement please.
Kirk White’s Big Time Wrestling from last night in Newark CA: Bret the Hart b Eddie Cuervo, Tru X b Levi Shapiro, Sir Samurai b Kal Jak, The Freaks b Too Fresh, Aaron Solo (AEW) b Big Fronz, Willow Nightingale b Viva Van, Colt Cabana b Kaka Meng. The show sold out and the next show is 5/13 (thanks to Jim Davis)
Pure Pro Wrestling from last night in Flint, MI: Mason Keller b Tango Jones, Brett Bahama b David Weston, Don Tone Leone b G-Money, Alpha Adams and Big Buford, Road Rash & Shaun Moertakai b Vinny Davinci & Noah Raditz, Danny Astro b Gideon Malice, Nick Xero & Mr. One Night Only b Abdul Hakim & Global Flyer Drake, Luerano b Father Time, Dylan Derringer b Jheras Grey, Betty Bruiser & Sophia Beretta & Maddy Red & Khaos b Princes Tenshi & Hannah Henderson & Alexis Royale & Heather Blue, Dylan Night b Tommy Dreamer (thanks to Leonard Brand)
Total Kaos Wrestling in Taylor, MI at the Taylortown Trade Center on 4/21 with a fans bring the weapons match.
Pro Wrestling Phoenix from Thursday night in Omaha: Arjun Singh b James Moore, Joey Daniels b Luke Luna, Purple b Chaac, Vic Douglas b Xander McIntosh Kit Sackett b Ryan Romantic, Omar Pachecco b Kyle King, Duke Cornell b Nono Hatcher, Pat Powers & Moonshine Russell & Jack Darling b Con Artiest & Angus Keyser & Tank Bryson. Next show is 4/19 at the Waiting Room Lounge in Omaha.
Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel have been added to House of Glory Final Hour on 4/14 in Queens, NY at the NYC Arena.
We opened talking about the news Andrew broke concerning a possible new AEW TV show on one of the Warner Bros. Discovery networks. Andrew also talked about going to Sunday’s WWE house show at Madison Square Garden.
Then, we looked at two of the current WWE storylines with a direct road to WrestleMania; Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio, and Edge vs. Finn Balor in Hell in a Cell.
Finally, we took a look at the latest news that Brie and Nikki are no longer calling themselves Bellas.
You can watch the show above or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts in addition to the link below.
Despite a recent absence from WWE events, it looks like Bray Wyatt is still planned to face Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania.
Wyatt hasn’t been on WWE television in two weeks and missed WWE’s house show at Madison Square Garden this Sunday. Though neither Wyatt nor Lashley appeared on Raw last night, Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that — from what he understands — their match is still on for WrestleMania.
“From what I understand, the match is still on for WrestleMania,” Meltzer said. “And [Wyatt] should be back very soon, so we’ll see. That’s pretty much all I can say. There is something to it, but I’m not at liberty to discuss it. As far as I know, everything that I’ve been told is that it’s not a creative issue or anything like that.”
Amid rumors about Wyatt’s status, Lashley tweeted before Raw on Monday: “I’ve worked too hard to be denied. I will be ready to fight on the biggest stage of them all, #WrestleMania. I don’t care who it is, somebody will feel the wrath of the All-Mighty.”
A Firefly Fun House segment with Wyatt aired on SmackDown on February 24. The next Monday, there was an angle on Raw where a clip from Wyatt interrupted Lashley.
The March 3 episode of SmackDown included an angle where Lashley fought off an attack by Uncle Howdy.
Wyatt has had one televised match since returning to WWE last October. He defeated LA Knight in a Mtn Dew Pitch Black match at the Royal Rumble.
SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California is hosting WrestleMania 39 on Saturday, April 1 and Sunday, April 2.
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including the death of Dick Fosbury, Barrett Lunde, an update on WWE’s attempts to legalize gambling, Bray Wyatt, new man in charge of Anthem and TNA, New Japan Cup, ratings, your weekly RAW REPORT, and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Dick Fosbury, Barrett Lunde pass away
3:58: WWE & gambling update
6:04: Bray Wyatt update
6:43: Richard Schaffer named Anthem president of sports properties
10:50: New Japan Cup update
15:21: Ratings
18:58: Ric Flair to announce next Hall of Fame inductee, other HOF updates
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including Bray Wyatt, a potential new AEW show, WBD cost-cutting and why it’s not an automatic disaster for AEW, Smackdown and Rampage and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including AEW potentially getting a new TV slot, Bray Wyatt no-showing Madison Square Garden, Taya Valkyrie, AEW Revolution buyrate estimate, New Japan Cup, ratings, Smackdown and Rampage, mailbag and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Potential new AEW television show, buyrate for AEW Revolution
5:57: Bray Wyatt not at MSG house show on Sunday
7:23: Taya Valkyrie headed to either WWE or AEW
9:15: Dragon Lee wrestles at NXT house show, JD McDonagh update
11:27: Cuartero arrested for domestic assault
12:52: Ratings
15:31: New Japan Cup update
18:18: UFC from this weekend, Power Slap, Benson Henderson retires
Brock Lesnar did not want to have a WrestleMania match against Bray Wyatt.
As first reported by Fightful, Lesnar is said to have turned down wrestling against Wyatt on the show. This has led to Lesnar vs. Omos being scheduled instead and Wyatt now working a program with Bobby Lashley.
Our own Dave Meltzer addressed the situation on Wrestling Observer Radio and noted that the finish of Lesnar vs. Lashley at The Elimination Chamber had to be changed as a result of the modified WrestleMania plans.
Meltzer said:
Fightful reported this and I checked it out and it’s definitely accurate.
This was also not the original idea but an idea for Brock Lesnar was Brock Lesnar and Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania and Brock said no to that, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. When I heard that story, it made all the sense in the world to me because for Brock Lesnar to be involved in that hocus pocus with the aura that he has…
Originally, what was going to happen was Brock was beating Bobby Lashley at Elimination Chamber and that was going to lead to Brock against Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania and that’s why Bray Wyatt did that interview but after they did that, they had to change the finish.
That’s why we ended up with Lesnar and Omos. Remember I said that this has just changed and it changed from Wyatt but Wyatt had also been the change so I don’t know who the original one was, but it was not Gunther, I know that. So, they had two changes in that one in the last few weeks.
Lesnar vs. Omos was made official for WrestleMania on Raw this week when Lesnar accepted the challenge made by MVP and Omos the week prior. Also on Raw this week, a video featuring Wyatt doing “The Muscle Man Dance” aired following Lashley’s defeat of Elias.
A new segment today: “Down in the Valley”, going off on all of the depressing and annoying crap in pro wrestling this week like high ticket prices. Why do we put up with this, people tolerating ridiculous prices for “premium” or “platinum” tickets. It will just get worse.
What about Bray Wyatt? Are we sitting through another three months of pointless interviews and vignettes so he can introduce another person into his group? Get to the point, Bray. Plus some other rants, check it out.
It’s time for another episode of Speak Now Pro Wrestling. Join me as I recap everything that happened on Friday’s WWE SmackDown and AEW Rampage ahead of Saturday’s WWE Elimination Chamber.
Among the things that happened Friday:
Sami Zayn returns home to Montreal
Bray Wyatt issues a challenge to both Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley
The Elite rematch with Top Flight & AR Fox for the AEW Trios titles
TBS Champion Jade Cargill looks to remain undefeated…and more.
Bray Wyatt has issued a challenge to the winner of Saturday’s Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley bout.
Appearing on Friday’s SmackDown, Wyatt and Uncle Howdy cleared the ring of Hit Row. Wyatt then took the microphone and said that now that he is in control of himself and of Howdy, that the winner of Lesnar vs. Lashley “should run.”
Wyatt last wrestled on WWE television at the Royal Rumble on January 28, defeating LA Knight in a Mountain Dew Pitch Black match. That bout remains Wyatt’s only televised match since returning to WWE on October 8, 2022 after being released on July 31, 2021.
Since the Rumble, Wyatt has also defeated Knight twice in dark matches at SmackDown tapings, and also in two Pitch Black matches at house shows.
Lesnar and Lashley’s contest on Saturday is their rubber match, as each has one victory in their two prior singles meetings.
