Mike Rotunda Married His Wife Six Months After They Met
Mike and Stephanie Rotunda have an old fashioned love story, plus a lot of travel.
Published Oct. 29 2025, 3:50 p.m. ET
Three months ahead of his retirement, professional wrestler Mike Rotunda chatted with the Tampa Bay Times about a career that spanned more than two decades. He left wrestling behind in May 2004 and spent much of his career in arenas all over the world. He started in 1981 and confessed that wrestling was never on his radar apart from the "stuff of UHF channels on Friday nights."
Three years into his professional career, Mike was wrestling with the World Wrestling Federation. He also had a tag-team partner named Barry Windham, whose sister was visiting her brother in April 1984. That's when Mike met Stephanie Windham. "We were married six months later," he recalled. "She never went back to Texas." Mike and his wife went on to have three children, including wrestler Bray Wyatt, who passed away in August 2023. Here's what we know about Mike's wife, Stephanie Rotunda.
In the early days of their marriage, Mike and his wife spent a lot of time on the phone.
When they were newlyweds, Mike and Stephanie lived in Tampa, Fla. for the first four years of their marriage. When it came time to start a family, they moved less than 30 miles away to Zephyrhills. They named their first son Windham. Mike was back on the road almost immediately.
As the WWF's popularity went up in the late 1980s, Mike's travel schedule increased. "It was grueling, but it took off. They didn't know how long it was going to last," said Mike. When Mike began wrestling for a competing league known as World Championship Wrestling (WCW), things only got worse. "We had tremendous phone bills," said Stephenie. "He didn't take advantage of the notoriety handed to him. He was very family-devoted."
The couple soon welcomed two more children, son Taylor and daughter Mika. A neck injury in 1995, coupled with Mike's desire to be with his family, was the catalyst behind his retirement in 2004. Stephanie and Mike started their own businesses: a security company and an auto store. It's unclear if those businesses are still around, as Stephanie is now a real estate agent in Florida. She works with her daughter.
Reports of Mike Rotunda entering hospice care were incorrect.
In October 2025, Mike's brother-in-law, Barry Windham, shared that the former wrestler was in hospice care. In an interview with Bill Apter, Barry asked for prayers for Mike. The news spread like wildfire all over the internet and social media. Thankfully, Barry got the information wrong.
Mike's daughter Mika Rotunda took to Facebook in order to correct her uncle. "Our family would like to take a moment to clarify some information currently circulating online regarding my father, Mike Rotunda," she wrote in a post. "He suffered a massive heart attack on September 20th, was in a coma for a week, and spent over a month hospitalized."
Mike went on to say that her father has since been moved to a rehabilitation center. "Anyone who knows my dad knows that it’s his strength, work ethic, and athleticism that have carried him through not just this, but every challenge life has thrown his way," Mika wrote. "If there’s one person I have faith in, it’s Captain Mike."