We Almost Saw the Bully Ray Character in WWE But There’s an Interesting Reason Why it was Nixed
Photo by Ring Of Honor
Bully Ray is on his own again as a singles wrestler since long-time tag team partner Devon Dudley is retired and working behind the scenes in WWE. But this is how Bully Ray prefers things and he revealed that his first WWE stint ended because he wanted to be a single wrestler. He almost got his wish on this recent stint because he was very close to splitting off and becoming Bully Ray in WWE.
In an interview with ESPN.com, he talked about how close WWE was to pulling the trigger on that character. He said;
“We were one day away from becoming Bully Ray in WWE.” He continued, “One of the problems with having Bully Ray in the WWE was the word bully. How could they have a guy named Bully when they had the ‘Be a STAR’ program? It was a little too risky for them.”
Although many WWE heels play bullies, the issue with the Bully Ray character is that the company felt that the entire character was centered around bullying people and that was too risky for Be a STAR.
He left WWE on good terms and eventually joined ROH. He said, “They were actually interested in bringing in both me and D-Von into Ring of Honor, which would’ve been insane. D-Von had made a life decision where he wanted to devote a little more time to his family and physically in the ring wanted to slow it down just a little bit. I still have gas in the tank. I think Ring of Honor was the perfect place for me to continue as Bully Ray.” He added that he had a huge offer to return to Impact Wrestling but he knew that it was not the right decision and he is in love the the passion of the ROH locker room and the fans.
He still has a lot left in the tank so it doesn’t look like retirement is in his immediate future but when the day comes then he could end up taking on a role behind-the-scenes. He added, “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’d say that things are going well for him and the move to ROH was a wise one. He hasn’t been with ROH for too long and he is already a 6-man Tag Team Champion alongside The Briscoe Brothers.