What’s the story?
Bully Ray, formerly known as Bubba Ray Dudley in the WWE, recently gave an interview to ESPN, where he spoke about his Ring of Honor debut being more exciting than being at WrestleMania.
He also spoke about the “Bully Ray” gimmick being too much for the WWE and revealed the reason D-Von Dudley didn’t follow him to Ring of Honor as well.
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Bully/Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley, known collectively as the “Dudley Boyz”, are one of the most successful tag teams in professional wrestling history. The two were an important staple of the WWE’s Tag Team scene during the late 90s Attitude era and had remained with the company for many years afterwards.
After they left the company, the duo joined Total Nonstop Action (TNA), where Bubba Ray came up with his “Bully Ray” gimmick. The Tag Team eventually returned to the WWE in 2015 under their original gimmicks and left the company again in 2016.
Also read: Bully Ray was one day away from debuting in the WWE
Bubba Ray/Bully Ray subsequently joined the Ring of Honor promotion.
The heart of the matter
During the interview, Bully Ray spoke about debuting in Ring of Honor and stated that it was better than being at WrestleMania due to the “intimate” feel of the Hammerstein Ballroom venue.
“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.”
As Bully Ray mentioned, the Hammerstein Ballroom was where he and D-Von initially made themselves popular, wrestling under Paul Heyman’s ECW promotion.
Ray would further go on to talk about how D-Von Dudley stayed back in the WWE as a producer instead of joining him in Ring of Honor.
“Ring of Honor reached out to me I think the day after I left WWE. 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.”
Ray also spoke about having "butterflies" before his Ring of Honor debut
"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."
Here’s a video of his debut in Ring of Honor:
What’s next?
Bully Ray is current competing in Ring of Honor by himself, as D-Von Dudley has stayed back with the WWE. He will be a part of the promotion for the foreseeable future and it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.
Besides his Ring of Honor and Independent Wrestling appearances, the Dudleys also run their own professional wrestling school called “Team 3D Academy”.
Author’s take
Bully Ray/Bubba Ray Dudley is undoubtedly one of the biggest legends of the original ECW. Not only that, if there’s ever a Mount Rushmore of Tag Teams, him and D-Von will probably be the first ones to be etched on there.
The Bully Ray character might have been a little too much for the politically correct child-friendly landscape of the WWE, but the gimmick certainly has a lot of potential and if there’s one man that can pull it off, it’s Bubba.
The Hammerstein Ballroom and Ring of Honor are lucky to be witnessing this legend and I hope he does great things in the promotion.
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