Several months ago, the internet buzzed about Bully Ray’s “retirement” after his emotional speech. However, the speech was simply a device of Ray’s on going storyline with Jay and Mark Briscoe, who turned on him after losing the ROH Six Man Tag Team Titles. Now, tonight on Ring of Honor’s Final Battle pay-per-view, which features Cody (Rhodes) taking on Dalton Castle for the ROH World Title, Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer take on The Briscoes in a New York Street Fight.
Bully Ray sat down and talked with ESPN about his match tonight and here are some of the highlights from the interview:
On Scripting in Pro Wrestling:
"I've never been a fan of scripted anything in pro wrestling, especially when you're talking about moments like the one I had in Chicago," Bully Ray said to ESPN on Tuesday. "There's too many emotions that run through your head a week before, a day before, 10 minutes before you're gonna go out there. It's not until you are out there and you feel the room, especially the arena that night with the overwhelming response from the fans in Chicago, and I just said what I felt in my heart. They were awesome. They gave me one helluva respectful moment. That's probably one of [the] things I will never forget in my career."
The Most Important Aspects of Professional Wrestling:
"The most important thing in professional wrestling is storytelling and character development," Bully Ray said. "I know in 2017 moving into 2018, there are a lot of wrestlers out there and a lot of fans out there who are not necessarily as much into the story and the characters as they are the actual wrestlers and the wrestling moves. But when you look at the history of wrestling, the foundation is storytelling and character development. I pride myself in the art of my storytelling. Anything I do in wrestling has to have substance. It has to have meaning. There has to be a foundation to it. There has to be a reason. I never go out there and do something just for the sake of doing it because then it's here today, gone tomorrow, and people will never talk about it again. We can talk about stuff I did from 20 years ago that is actually still relevant today. How many people can we say that about?"
The Match Card on Final Battle:
"From top to bottom, whether it's Cody vs. Dalton, or the Bucks, or Kazarian and Daniels vs. War Machine, or Ospreay vs. Taven, or the Jay Lethal match, it's all great stuff. What makes my match different is my match has nothing to do with wrestling moves," Bully Ray said. "My match has to do with violence -- pure, straight-up violence. There will be blood. There will be moments that people will be talking about 20 years from now. I think it's pretty apropos that Final Battle will be my final battle."
To read the entire interview click here:
http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/21748978/ring-honor-final-battle-bully-ray-wrestle-one-more-retirement