Bully Ray Reflects on his Feud with Flip Gordon
Bully Ray recently spoke with Wrestling Inc, discussing fans getting offended and his extended feud with Flip Gordon…
On Their I Quit Match: “You can’t have a good ‘I Quit’ match or Last Man Standing match with restrictions,” Ray stated. “Obviously, in the WWE the guys that they put in those scenarios, their characters are so over that they can carry the match based on character. They don’t necessarily have to do some of the things that you could do in ROH, ECW or TNA.”
On Being The perfect Opponent For Gordon: “Before I had gotten to ROH, I had no idea who he was,” Ray said of Gordon. “I saw talent despite the fact that I may not like the way he came up in the wrestling business. That doesn’t mean that I can’t spot talent when I see it and I knew that he was the perfect guy for Bully Ray and Bully Ray was the perfect guy for him. White-meat babyface that everybody already liked,” Ray said of Gordon contrasting with his character. “When Flip Gordon goes to the ring and he has those matches where he’s flipping and diving and super-kicking, everybody loves all the moves that he does, right? Was anybody emotionally invested in Flip Gordon before I came along,” asked Bully Ray. You can take Flip out of the equation and put another guy with his talent in place and they’re still going to respond to his moves. But after eight months of storytelling, people are now emotionally invested in Flip Gordon… People now love him for putting his body on the line. People love that he got caned and came back from it. People love that he got kicked in the balls and came back from it. Now we’re emotionally invested in our good guy. Flip can now go out and stand in the middle of the ring and not do anything and people will react to him.”
On Attacking Daniels Before The I Quit Match: “Let’s just say that going into the match, there was even one person in the arena who wanted to see me win,” said Ray. “After I came out and nut-shotted Daniels, do you think anybody in that arena wanted to see me win? When Flip came out on that balcony, was that entire arena chanting for Flip and behind him? From the moment our match starts to the moment it ends, the emotion that runs through that entire match is designed to steal the show and be unfollowable.”
On Teasing The Flaming Table Spot: “That’s because people are afraid,” revealed Ray. “People are afraid to go down that route and not pay it off. We did pay it off, just not in the way you thought we would pay it off. The table didn’t get lit on fire, why? Because The Sandman came out,” said Ray. “Once you saw The Sandman, did anybody care about the flaming table? I dare anybody in wrestling to attempt that kind of psychology in 2018.”
On Fan Double Standards: “I’m just curious,” Ray asked. “Did you call Charlotte and tell her she was too violent with the kendo stick a couple of weeks ago with Ronda? Were you offended? Oh, so you were on the hook with that but you weren’t on the hook when I caned Flip in the ECW Arena,” asked Bully Ray. “You can’t be offended by one but not be offended by the other. You can’t say one was gross physicality. It’s a kendo stick. It’s a legitimate weapon. She was bruised, black and blued and blood came to the surface of her skin. It’s the same thing whether she had three welts and Flip had nine – it’s the same thing. We can’t pick and choose what we’re offended by.”
