Earlier this month former WWE, Impact Wrestling, and Ring Of Honor (ROH) star Bully Ray (a.k.a. Bubba Ray Dudley) announced his retirement from in-ring competition after 26 years in the business. He recently joined First Thing to discuss his life outside of the squared circle and revealed that his new passion will be helping young talent in the industry. You can check out the highlights here:
Working with young talent at ROH:
“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,” he said. “I totally enjoy seeing other guys succeed based on some of the advice I’ve given them.”
Wanting talent to approach him versus offering advise to talent randomly:
“I don’t go up to guys and say, ‘Hey, you should do this,’ or, ‘I think you should do that.’ If they come to me I’m more than happy to help them out, because if they’re coming to me they obviously have thought about it and they’ve [sought] out the help on their own,” he said. “‘Hey, can you help me with this aspect of my character,’ or, ‘What do you think I should do for a move over here?’ Anything that they want to do to help tell their story in the ring better, I’ll be there for.”
The biggest piece of advise he can offer young talent:
“Character development and storytelling, because a lot of young wrestlers today think it’s all about the moves,” he said. “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 listen to Ray’s interview on First Thing by clicking this link here.
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
