During a recent appearance on the Wrestling with Freddie podcast, former WWE writer Nick Manfredini revealed that the late Windham Rotunda (Bray Wyatt) was actively developing a non-wrestling television series just before his passing in the summer of 2023.
Manfredini explained that he and Rotunda always saw their creative partnership in WWE as a stepping stone to other entertainment projects.
“We always — both kind of looked at it like, this is a springboard to that,” Manfredini said. “So let’s stick together at WWE and then, move on to something else. Because that’s always what he wanted to do.”
The Final Project
Manfredini shared details of one of his last conversations with Rotunda, which took place in June 2023. Rotunda was already in the process of setting up his next venture.
“The summer of 2023, he called me,” Manfredini recalled. “I think this was the last time I spoke to him on the phone and he said he was having these meetings with people about developing stuff for TV. So his mind goes 100 miles an hour, and he’s like, ‘We gotta do this, do this, do this.’ So, we started putting together an idea for a TV series. This was like June 2023.”
Manfredini stated that he “started putting together stuff, doing research” for the new series, but “obviously, nothing came of it” following Rotunda’s untimely death.
Honoring His Legacy
Manfredini expressed his desire to ensure Rotunda’s creative concepts are not lost. “He had all these ideas that were not used,” he said. “We had a lot of WWE stuff that wasn’t used. I don’t wanna see it go to waste.”
He made it clear, however, that any future project would have to be done in collaboration with Rotunda’s family. “Gotta figure out a way to take some of that, do something with him, obviously with his family. I’m not doing it on my own, and kind of figure out a way to bring this stuff to life and make his dream come true, in a way. So, hopefully we can do that at some point… I wanna start re-looking at that stuff again and finishing it. Seeing if we can do something with it.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Wrestling with Freddie with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
