Bo Dallas’s current Uncle Howdy character is as much a tribute to his late brother Bray Wyatt, real name Windham Rotunda, as it is a continuation of the character he developed to initially stand beside Wyatt.
In a new interview with “SHAK Wrestling,” Dallas looked back on the brief time the two of them got to work together before Bray’s tragic death in 2023.
“Right before his passing we got the first chance to work together,” Dallas said. “So we were getting excited like little kids. Just calling each other at three in the morning.”
Dallas said they were bursting with ideas when they were finally given the green light to work together. Soon the new take on Wyatt’s Fiend persona took shape, as well as the character that would become Uncle Howdy.
“I thought I lost that chance when he passed,” Dallas admitted. “With everything that we’re doing and have done. He’s a piece of everything we’re doing.”
Wyatt passed in 2023 before many of the ideas could be implemented. The two have been added to “WWE 2K24” as a DLC pack, which has many of the costume and entrance ideas manifested in the brothers’ digital avatars. Dallas said it was an emotional experience to see the ideas finally play out, albeit in the digital realm.
“It means everything to me and I know it means everything to [Bray] and I know he’s up there and watching and loving this,” Dallas said.
We were always weird, says Dallas
Bo Dallas chalks up Bray Wyatt and his darker twist on wrestling characters to their childhood, which was far from the whitebread suburban ideal some might imagine.
“We were always weird. The family itself, we played sports and everybody knew us in town, but we always thought differently,” Dallas remembered.
He looked back on a childhood that was spent watching “Beetlejuice” or the Francis Ford Coppola film “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” instead of traditional child entertainment fare. “I think we always thought like that,” he added.
Dallas said that he watched Bray develop his in-ring character while he was stuck in a more traditional role, and often gave his brother more absurd ideas that wouldn’t work in Dallas’s usual presentation. The opportunity to finally work together on something they liked was one Dallas didn’t take lightly.
“It was unbelievable and it was a dream come true,” Dallas gushed.
Due to Windham’s death, there were numerous ideas that Dallas couldn’t carry over, even as part of his new Wyatt Sicks stable, which pays plentiful homage to Wyatt. Dallas said that he and Wyatt also filmed a monster-hunting show during their brief time away from WWE. The Wyatt Sicks debuted in June, mainly feuding with Chad Gable’s American Made, and the group has been a dominant force on the “WWE Raw” roster.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “SHAK Wrestling” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
