After a legendary career spanding from 26 years through the likes of ECW, WCW, NWA, New Japan Wrestling, both WWF and WWE, and Ring of Honor, decorated wrestler officially hug up the boots for good after a brief run with the Six Man Tag Team titles in Ring of Honor at Glboal Wars. Bully Ray gave a passionate retirement speech and says that now his duties lie behind the scenes of Ring of Honor.
Ray was a guest on First Thing and discussed his life away from in-ring competition. He also talked about his new passion of helping young up and coming talent improve their storytelling:
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I'm gonna be able to work behind the scenes with Ring Of Honor, help a lot of the younger guys develop their characters and help them out there. I totally enjoy seeing other guys succeed based on some of the advice I've given them", he says.
Bully Ray says the biggest advice he can give the younger talent is to develop their characters and work on their storytelling. Ray believes those two aspects form the foundation of professional wrestling, in which has become a lost art in the new age of wrestling due to wrestlers relying on huge spots all the time.
"Character development and storytelling, because a lot of young wrestlers today think it's all about the moves. They just go out there and flip all around the place, and listen, there is a section of the fan base and the audience that likes that. But for the most part, for 100 years, what has professional wrestling been built on? The art of storytelling and characters. Good vs. evil. Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker. Black hat vs. white hat."
You can watch Bully Ray's farewell speech below.