Bully Ray recently spoke to Chris van Vliet, and while a number of topics were discussed, those included his thoughts on IMPACT Wrestling. He was, after all, once a big part of TNA and actually became a top singles star in the company. Things have changed a lot for "TNA" since then, of course, but Ray admitted that he still keeps a close eye on the product.
"I watch the TNA pay-per-views. I try to stay as up-to speed on the product as I can," he explained. "I think that obviously Tessa’s doing a great job and Sami’s doing a great job. There are a lot of people. I’m a big Su Yung fan. I don’t think anybody has immersed themselves into a character as much as she has since The Undertaker immersed himself into a character. And I’ve loved the stuff they’ve done with her."
Asked if he would be interested in returning to the company to challenge Moose for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, Ray dismissed that idea, but suggested facing Tessa Blanchard instead. "Bubba vs Moose doesn’t interest me. Bubba vs Tessa? That’s interesting. It’s a match that I would consider but when you say Bubba vs Moose? Okay. Two big guys. Bunch of clotheslines. Bunch of shoulder tackles. Meh. Bubba vs Tessa? Now my ears just perked up. Now you got me listening, because Tessa is a really, really great women’s wrestler, right?"
"I think if I were to jump the guardrails and stick her with a powerbomb into the concrete, that would be interesting," he concluded. Intergender wrestling remains a controversial topic, but we have seen it happen in a lot of companies outside of WWE, and those matches tend to be a big draw for wrestling fans.
"She could probably pull off any move on me that that I allowed her to pull off. If I was compromised on the ropes. could she possibly (suplex me)? Maybe, because we have enough rotational room. But is Tessa Blanchard gonna lift 325 pound Bubba off his feet into a standing vertical? Absolutely not. If Bubba missed two sentons and Tessa went to the top rope and gave me a missile dropkick, would I bump for her? Absolutely. Because it made sense within the storytelling and the realm of the match."
"It’s not just a real big guy bumping for a much smaller girl for no good reason," he continued. "Then it becomes gratuitous and then we’re just taking the art and throwing it out the door. Now it just becomes acrobatics for the sake of acrobatics."
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