When Bully Ray returned to Impact Wrestling at the Bound For Glory 2022 pay-per-view event in Albany, New York, it sent ripples through the wrestling world. Those ripples turned into full-on waves when Ray won the Call Your Shot Gauntlet Match, earning himself a world title match. Ray would challenge current Impact Wrestling World Champion Josh Alexander at the recent Hard To Kill pay-per-view event in a Full Metal Mayhem match.
While Bully was unsuccessful in his challenge, it made headlines for Impact Wrestling. Many thought he would depart the company following his loss, but Ray is seemingly hanging around. Ray filmed more matches as part of Impact’s most recent round of tapings. Recently, commentator Tom Hannifan spoke about what Bully Ray brings to the promotion.
Hannifan (the former Tom Phillips in WWE) spoke with the Sports Guys Talking Wrestling podcast about Ray bringing viewers to the product, even though some fans view him negatively. He said,
“Yeah. What’s the line from the Joker, ‘some people just want to watch the world burn?’ I think Bully Ray cares about Bully Ray and the success of Bully Ray, period. But it’s a double-edged sword because Bully Ray is a legend. He’s a two-time hall of famer in two different companies. He’s a two-time IMPACT World Champion. There is so much that he’s done positively and negatively throughout the history of IMPACT Wrestling. Having him gets eyeballs, whether you’re tuning in to hate him or love him. There are positives, but there are certainly negatives when it comes to Bully. I got to use a lot of expletives to explain him at the beginning of Hard To Kill – thank you to Scott D’Amore for allowing me to do that and the beauty of pay-per-view. I think Bully Ray has earned every last one of them at this point, and to your point, he’s just like a bad penny. He keeps turning up.”
