Bray Wyatt laid his soul out for the fans on SmackDown (Picture: WWE)
Bray Wyatt left WWE fans in tears as he brought SmackDown to a close with an emotional speech before a gut punch of a twist.
The former world champion – who made a sensational return at Extreme Rules last weekend – appeared essentially out of character as Windham Rotunda for the first time and offered a heartbreaking insight into the ‘past year of his life’, including dealing with the death of Brodie Lee and getting fired by the company.
After making a haunting entrance with an incredible new theme song, Bray said: ‘I am incredibly grateful and I’m really, really nervous to be here. I never thought this would happen. This right here, this is just me OK? This is a version of me that I’ve never got to introduce to you guys before.’
What following was an emotional rollercoaster as he admitted he lost his ‘self confidence’, his career and thought everything he’d ever done in WWE was ‘meaningless’.
‘I was wrong,’ he added, fighting back tears and opening up about fans coming up to him to thank him for saving their lives, leading to a huge ‘Thank you Bray’ chant.
He continued: ‘The thing about that is… is that I can sit here right now today and I look all of you in the eyes, and I can say that you were there when I was weak, when I was vulnerable, when I was down. I can say, thank you. You all saved my life.’
He noted that every time he ‘tried to run away and hide’, fans were there behind him, but his emotional moment was halted as the creepy mask he wore at Extreme Rules appeared on screen.
‘Come with me. Your life is done. Forget the future. Life is over,’ a sinister voice said. ‘You’ve got no idea who you’re dealing with, do you? Ooh but you will! You will!’
Not surprisingly, the promo itself resonated with plenty of fans, with many admitting they found themselves overwhelmed watching from home.
One viewer tweeted: ‘I was in tears listening to Bray Wyatt talk. That man put his heart and soul into letting us know he cared about us.’
‘Watching Bray Wyatt right now got me near to tears,’ added another fan, while a third said: ‘I never seen this safe side of Bray Wyatt before but I had tears in my eyes.’
A fourth person wrote: ‘This meant everything to me Bray’s return is the biggest return in my life that had an impact. Tonight that was special and left me in tears. His words really moved me. Thank you Bray Wyatt and welcome home.’
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Fans met the real Windham Rotunda.