ESPN spoke with a great name in the wrestling industry currently known as Bully Ray. ESPN & Bully Ray spoke on numerous topics including: how he loves performing in front of more intimate crowds opposed to a WrestleMania crowd, what left is there to prove in his career & much more.
Here are the highlights:
Bully Ray On Feeling Home Again In Ring Of Honor:
“It was really cool, because this had been the first time in a long time I was genuinely excited. I’ve told people that going out there in the Hammerstein for Ring of Honor that night was actually more exciting for me than walking out in front of 100,000 people at WrestleMania. A lot of people say, ‘That’s impossible. It can’t be. You’re crazy.’ For me it’s more exciting because of the intimate feel. When you come up in a company like ECW and you’re used to that intimacy, that’s what you really crave.”
“Earlier in the day I thought I had an upset stomach. Like, ‘Oh man, I don’t feel well. There’s something wrong. What’s wrong with me?’ And I was like, ‘You got butterflies’. I actually had a little bit of butterflies. It was nervous energy. I was really excited to be back in my hometown of New York City for Ring of Honor. But what a surprise.”
On Wanting To Help Ring Of Honor Grow:
“ECW needed something in 1995 to help them get more notoriety, and Terry Funk was that guy. He was that veteran wrestler who was able to help with the credibility of the product and that’s what I hope I could do with Ring of Honor. No matter what they have me doing, if they want me wrestling in six mans with the Briscoes, if they want me working with the World Heavyweight Champion or they want me working the opening match, it doesn’t matter to me. As long as I can lend the name credibility of Bully Ray, or Bubba Ray, or the Dudley Boyz, or Team 3D, whatever it is to help get that company more exposure.”
“Ring of Honor picked up where ECW left off. When ECW was gone there was a huge void left to be filled and Ring of Honor did it. They’ve been around for 15 years and they have gotten better, and better, and better. They are a perfect example of how slow and steady wins the race.”
Bully Ray Speaks On The Remainder Of His Pro-Wrestling Career:
“It wasn’t time for me to hang up my boots yet. I have been asked in the past by the higher-ups in WWE if I’d be interested in being a producer, and when the time is right hopefully that position is still available.”
“I have nothing left to prove in ring. Zero. People will be talking about the Dudley Boys, or Team 3D or Bully Ray for a long time to come, whether that’s from what we did in ECW, being the nine-time WWE tag team champions, stealing shows at WrestleMania, being the most decorated team in the world, the Bully Ray run, what I was able to accomplish in TNA. What is left to do?
Here is the full interview from Bully Ray’s talk with ESPN, if you are going to use the quotes from the article, credit ESPN and give a H/T to EWrestlingNews from the transcriptions.
