Real Reason Brock Lesnar Rejected Match With Bray Wyatt At WrestleMania 39

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Despite seeming like they would eventually stand across the ring from one another at numerous points through both men’s WWE careers, Bray Wyatt and Brock Lesnar never faced off one-on-one inside the squared circle.

The first major tease of a potential match came at the Royal Rumble 2016, when the Wyatt family collectively eliminated Lesnar from the match.

However, this would not lead to a match at that year’s WrestleMania 32 with Lesnar instead facing Dean Ambrose, and the Wyatt Family being involved in a segment involving The Rock.

The second major opportunity seemed to come at this year’s WrestleMania 39, with Wyatt declaring his intentions to face the winner of the Bobby Lashley vs Brock Lesnar match at Elimination Chamber.

Lashley would go on to win that match by DQ and Lashley proceeded into an angle with Wyatt, that was sadly cut short due to Wyatt’s illness.

Around the time reports suggested that Lesnar was initially supposed to beat Lashley but had turned down the match with Wyatt, leading to Lesnar facing off with Omos instead, and now Dave Meltzer has elaborated on these plans further in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Meltzer confirmed that it was Lesnar who asked out of the planned angle with Wyatt, however, the reasonings for the decision were strictly in relation to his character.

Meltzer wrote:

Lesnar asked out of the match. It was nothing personal, just felt it was the wrong opponent for his character.

Wyatt, real name Windham Rotunda, passed away aged 36 on Thursday, August 24.

WWE recently released a 35-minute video of several stars talking about the death of Wyatt and the impact that the real-life Windham Rotunda had upon them. You can watch that video below this article.

The Friday, August 25 episode of SmackDown featured multiple tributes to Wyatt, and after the show, several WWE stars got matching tattoos of Wyatt’s logo.

The Monday, August 28 Raw followed suit, as the video package that was played on SmackDown was shown on Raw too, with Wyatt’s entrance music being played in the arena and a spotlight being shone on a rocking chair on the stage.

Seth Rollins, who emotionally paid tribute to Wyatt at a house show over the weekend, also went the extra mile on Raw.

He started his in-ring promo by saying Yowie-Wowie, a catchphrase of Wyatt during The Fiend era, and there was another reference as well.

Rollins’ WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt was modified to have a Rollins logo on one sideplate, and a Fiend mask logo on the other.

As the show went off the air, Lynch held up her “Bray” armband and broke down in tears, and after the show she shared a heartwarming story about Wyatt with the audience.

The aforementioned video package was also played during the following night’s NXT, with commentators Vic Joseph and Booker T noticeably joining in with the crowd in holding up their “fireflies” in Wyatt’s memory.

WWE has added the following note to the item descriptions for Wyatt merch on the WWE Shop website:

In the wake of Bray Wyatt’s death, WWE will donate all net proceeds to support JoJo Offerman and his children.

You can find said merch at this link.

On Thursday, August 24, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported:

I was given permission to reveal that earlier this year Windham Rotunda (Bray Wyatt) got COVID that exacerbated a heart issues.

There was a lot of positive progress towards a return and his recovery. Unfortunately today he suffered a heart attack and passed away.

Our thoughts and condolences continue to be with the family, friends, and everyone affected by the passing of Windham Rotunda.

• Brock Lesnar
• Bray Wyatt
• wwe

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