A candid interview with Scarborough.
It is coming up on a full year since Windham Rotunda a.k.a. Bray Wyatt passed away at the age of 36. Present day, his memory is being honored on WWE television via his brother Taylor Rotunda a.k.a. Bo Dallas and The Wyatt Sick6 faction (Bo Dallas, Joe Gacy, Erick Rowan, Dexter Lumis & Nikki Cross).
Excluding Dallas, the remaining group members are portraying characters that once existed as puppets in Windham’s Firefly Fun House. There’s an extensive interview that SOUNDSPHERE MAGAZINE conducted with artist Kyle Scarborough, who worked closely with Windham when it came to sketching up what The Fiend character would look like.
Scarborough shared that Windham was not a fan of the idea of Firefly Fun House characters coming to life and there being a group consisting of those characters. The idea had been pitched to Windham. To him, the concept was that all of it was in Bray Wyatt’s head and if there ever came a point when the characters had to come to life, he would portray each of those entities. Scarborough said that is a conversation they had a few years ago.
Speaking to that direct relationship with him (Windham Rotunda) because the corporate, creative side would come in and say, we’re gonna do X, Y and Z and he would go, oh, he hated it and he would say no so he would task me to design something else. He always wanted to have a counteroffer. If they came at him sideways with stuff, he would say, ‘No, I don’t like that. I wanna do this.’ He was very upset, at the time, about the idea of bringing the Fun House to life. I believe the company or somebody wanted to have an entire stable of people dressed up as the puppets and he was not into it. So, the counter that he made and I spoke to this already but, that’s why that Huskus, almost Leatherface with the big, giant metal spikes piece made it out there. That was something that he requested because his counteroffer was, ‘Well, I will play the characters.’ You keep it in that headspace of the Fun House. It’s not a real physical place and if I have to come out or the characters come out, I will play it because it’s all in my head. So I will be these characters come to life. That helps keep it in the mythos that I’ve created. Not, I’ve got five friends with me. That doesn’t make any sense. They wouldn’t be there physically. So, that’s what it was a few years ago.
He went on to share his opinion on The Wyatt Sick6. Kyle would circle back to that but mentioned that when WWE began putting out merchandise to support Windham’s family after his passing, he reached out to offer up material free of charge.
He did not hear back. Scarborough contacted Director of Character Development, Rob Fee, but that was not Fee’s department. He admitted that he suspects there was some bitterness because he began working with Malakai Black and AEW. Going back to the topic of The Wyatt Sick6, Kyle said positive remarks about the presentation but reiterated that Windham was not a fan of the ground-level concept. For the sake of Windham’s legacy, he hopes everything works out for the best.
If you’re asking what do I think about it (Wyatt Sick6)? I think that’s just been sort of a pickle but for starters, I was very happy that they did something to benefit his wife and kids like with merchandise and whatnot… And it’s been weird ever since I started working with Malakai (Black) and AEW and I think there was some bitter — I don’t care. I’m more than happy to get into my suspicions on that but, I had not heard anything from the company whatsoever so, I had reached out and just said, ‘I would really like to do something for no money, no recognition, don’t have to put my name on anything, I’m not looking for any of that.’ I was like, ‘I just wanted to do something that you could hopefully sell, benefit his kids. You want prints? You want shirt designs?’ I don’t know. I wanted to do something, I wanted to give back, and just nothing was responded to. I spoke with Rob (Fee), a little bit but, that’s not his department of things so, I don’t really know what the creative side was of any of that. I wished I could have helped him on that but, so anyway, when they started doing the characters and stuff and they finally debuted it and I already kind of said, you get burdened by information a little bit. I would love to know what it would be like to watch that as a fan because I love the theatrics and some people hate it. ‘It’s cheesy.’ I don’t care… As a fan, I would love to know how I would have reacted to seeing The Wyatt Sick6 stuff and visually, what they did, the production of it, I got to catch, like I said, the video of they destroyed the whole backstage, whatnot. Yeah, I mean, I think they’re doing the best they can with it. I think it has a certain, you know, that analog kind of horror quality to it a little bit, which I am kind of sucker for. I’m a huge fan of that stuff too. So yeah, I think it’s fairly cool overall. I don’t know if I’m missing anything. When it comes to the masks, it comes to the characters in masks and like I said, you can get mad at me for saying it, but I know that he didn’t like it. So, it doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. I’m not saying that… I believe, because I think Rob is really smart and I’m sure that the last thing anybody’s gonna wanna do is disrespect his legacy and I hope that first and foremost. As long as it’s not just one of those, let’s just pump out this stuff and is this really helping people? And from a wrestling standpoint, from characters because as pro wrestler, if your character kind of gets changed up a lot and they kind of write you into a weird spot, no matter how talented you are, it’s hard to come back from that. So you got all these characters in that and speaking specifically to Dexter Lumis who’s (a) super kind guy, like him a lot, always liked the character. Joe (Gacy), I’m not super familiar with the NXT stuff but now that you’re sort of saddled with this, you are now one of those puppets, it’s like where’s your dimensions as a character? So I think about that. I hope that it all works out for everyone involved. I just hope that it does accelerate people’s careers and whatnot. I’m sure people are probably really enjoying doing it because they really enjoyed Windham and whatnot and I hope as fans, everyone gets to keep enjoying it. For him, his legacy, I want it to work because for as amazing as all of his character stuff was, man, there’s a history of leave it alone. I understand you gotta wrangle in some of the ideas but, I feel like they could have done more if Windham would have a little bit less reins on him to — I liked it. Maybe it wasn’t for television, maybe it’s not for pro wrestling but, if anything, that guy should have written screenplays or movies or something.
WWE released a documentary about the life of Windham Rotunda on Peacock. Kyle does not feel he should have been interviewed for it, but stated that it hurt him to not be mentioned. He took issue with sketches being showcased and highlighted but not being linked to him in any way.
Well first and foremost, I have not seen all the (Bray Wyatt) documentary if I can be completely honest. As I said, back to the wheel analogy, all that, by no means does that documentary, does the company, does anybody — do I feel by not being, you know — some very kind people would say, ‘Well, you should have interviewed as well.’ I don’t know about all that… I think to have zero mention in that narrative is what — that hurt. It hurt because when it’s presented to me by Windham… I’m not going to repeat even things that he said. But Windham was frustrated. Windham expressed frustration and had his opinions because what he wanted people to illustrate, people weren’t doing right. I don’t know what they look like, I don’t know what the drawings were, I don’t know why they weren’t working, I don’t know if it was — there are people who can, let’s say, sculpt something and they see that, whether it’d be anything they’re sculpting and they can see the image in it and that artist can pull — I can’t do that. I have no idea how to do that. But even though they can do that on that sculpt, okay, well I want you to draw what you see in your head, they can’t draw that. So I imagine, it really was as simple as that. Whether it was Jason (Baker), whether it was someone else in the design process. People that go, ‘Oh! I know what you’re saying.’ But they can’t quite put it on paper because it’s the paper that has to sell it to the people to get the approval. That’s where I came in, so, that’s my one little lucked out, that’s my spot in that and luckily, I was also used for creativity in other ways but, the initial thing that got me in the door wasn’t — it was Bray’s idea. It was 100 percent, the Bray Wyatt, this is my Fiend character concept so it was his creation. Someone else had to sculpt it, make it work. I was like a middleman in that scenario. So, do I need to have an interview in a documentary? No, no, I don’t. I think the part that stung was watching the history start to play out and I’m watching along and at first, you’re definitely just kind of caught up in the moments of it, of him not being there anymore and whatnot. It’s still shocking. Sometimes I still kind of go, ‘Oh, yeah.’ It’s wild. But to watch that and then have the narrative play out of, oh yeah, he’s still got all the old sketches here and it’s sort of the way the documentary gives us a presentation of, yup, here’s Windham’s idea and here’s the person who created it. That was it and I thought, that’s just factually not accurate. That’s not entirely not true and to, you know, not have your name at least referenced. If you’re gonna show a bunch of, whatever, artwork that was never used because it wasn’t approved but you won’t even toss mine on the screen? It’s not clout chasing stuff, it’s not about — who’s gonna know? Nobody’s gonna know that it was mine but it was an acknowledgment of that. But, it wasn’t done. Why? I have no idea and like I said… So I think once we kind of got past that and I realized where it was going, I said, ‘That’s fine.’ I go, because you know, you don’t want to complain. If you start complaining, you’re coming off like you’re owed something and you make a fool of yourself and it’s like, I’m not… If anything, I’ll be the first to say, I have gotten far more than I ever deserved from that…
Following up on that, Scarborough explained that he was frustrated about the whole situation because of the friendship he formed with Windham. They were around each other’s families and enjoyed each other’s company.
If I can defend my emotional connection to this, it is because I got to know him (Windham Rotunda) and you know, if we had a conversation on the phone for an hour-and-a-half, majority of that would be about whatever, who knows what. We talked about personal interests, family matters, just whatever, right? As you do, you’re talking to someone and he’s a very chatty person and I can certainly be long-winded if the subject matter calls for it. So, we could just talk like two old hens on the phone and you get to know someone… I do have an emotional connection to Windham beyond just a client. I found him to be a great person, we spent hours together in my studio, hours with JoJo (Offerman) and they’re firstborn, Knash, as a baby. Him meeting my family and my children and I remember he introduced himself as Windham and I almost said, hey, this is Bray Wyatt because I’m, you know… He was a gentleman and he was just a sweet guy and so, I was honored to be a part of that life so yeah, I’m gonna carry a little emotional weight to that. It is what it is.
Speaking about the artwork, Kyle said he signed freelancer contracts with WWE. He added that once they have the rights to it, they can do whatever they want with it.
And a lot of that, when I was saying about I don’t work — wasn’t straight for the company (WWE), the initial design had to be signed to the company. We had to sign freelancer contracts with that and then once they owned the rights to it, they can do whatever they want with it and then it’s showing up on a shirt and all that and I had nothing to do with that. They can change and alter the artwork which is another thing that the company does a lot. So, that can be frustrating. But, yeah, that’s basically it with that.
The latest from The Wyatt Sick6 unfolded on the 7/8 Monday Night Raw. Bo Dallas appeared in General Manager Adam Pearce’s office and for more on that, click here.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit SOUNDSPHERE MAGAZINE with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
