Posted By James Walsh on 10/27/25


While speaking to The Stunner, former WWE star Real1 (previously known as Enzo Amore) revealed that he wrote a tribute song to the late Windham Rotunda aka Bray Wyatt. Here is what Real1 said about the song…

“‘Family’ is a song that I could not write without breaking down into tears, screaming at God, asking Him why—still not understanding. The trouble I went through writing that track means more to me than probably any song I’ve ever written, besides ‘Grace,’ which is about my grandmother. I’d put it right up there with that one in terms of difficulty. My grandmother was still alive when I wrote ‘Grace,’ and I got to give her that song. It’s gotten a million streams, and it touches people’s lives. Folks come up to me at shows and tell me they lost a grandparent and watched that video—it’s special.

But ‘Family,’ the song I wrote for Windham… I was going to call it ‘Friend of the Family,’ but truth be told, that was family, man. Windham was my brother, and I love him. Writing that song, I felt kind of selfish when it happened. He died, and I thought, ‘Why would I make a song about this?’ But then I realized—who better? Who else could write it? Somebody else might try, but nobody was there.

So, if wrestling fans really want to know what it’s like to go through that, to experience it, listen to the song. Understand where I was mentally when I wrote it. I was sitting in front of a gym every day, working the indies, wondering what was next. I wasn’t the ACW National Champion. I wasn’t the Flyweight Fourth Champion. There was no independent scene to run to. There was no place to go—quite frankly.

I’d sit there in front of that gym every day, procrastinating getting in there, and penning these lyrics. The hook goes:

‘I always thought I’d see them again.
They were fathers, they were husbands, they were good men.
Dear Lord, why’d You take them?
They were my friends.’

It’s a testament to the place I was mentally. And that’s what music should be—where you were, what you were thinking, what you were doing. I was screaming at God, asking Him why He took my best friend. I just didn’t understand. I don’t know that I’ll ever have clarity, other than believing he went to be with the Lord—and the Lord takes His best soldiers right when He needs them. He’s got a soldier up there now.

One of the lyrics in the song goes:

‘When you walked through the pearly gates,
I can’t imagine the pop you got.
The color red shines bright in a world full of black and white.
These words are hard to write,
And these tears are hard to fight.’

The boys got the boys through life. And Windham got me through really hard times. He taught me a lot about this business, and I owed it to him to write that song—because he believed in me and in my music. He pushed me in that direction as a friend.”