On the WWE product: “There are so many things that don’t make sense”
Bubba Ray Dudley was a recent guest on Jim Ross’s podcast, The Ross Report, and talked about WWE TV not making sense, Drake Maverick, and why SDLive is better than RAW.
WWE TV not making sense: “There are so many things that don’t make sense. And when I watch, I try to watch as the professional, but I also try to watch as the fan because then I have to talk about it on Busted Open [Radio] and the things that don’t make sense I find are often insulting my intelligence. And I’m wondering if other people feel that way. Does the 13 year old in Sheboygan, Wisconsin really know whether his intelligence is being insulted? No, but the 40 year old man in New York [New York], Philadelphia [Pennsylvania], and Chicago [Illinois] knows that it is. However, when WWE looks at its numbers, JR, I think that everything is pointed in a positive direction for them, so why should they change their product?”
Drake Maverick: “I remember the first time I saw him in TNA. My exact words to Jeremy Borash, who know works down in NXT [were], ‘that kid has ‘it”. And [Ross is] right – if he was 6’4″, 250 [pounds], he would be a gazillionaire by now. But I agree with [Ross].”
SDLive being a better show than RAW: “We’re talking about RAW maybe dropping the ball sometimes or being lack luster, to take this on a positive note, they’re doing quite the opposite on SmackDown. On SmackDown, I’m more invested in the characters there; I’m more invested in the story; I’m more invested in the actual wrestling matches that are taking place. As a tag team guy, I have The Bar, The Usos, and The New Day, three teams with tremendous chemistry duking it out for those tag team titles. I have Becky Lynch and Charlotte [Flair] there doing probably some of the best work in the company right now. So it’s crazy. It’s night and day between the two brands and despite the fact that SmackDown is the better show and over the course of history has had times when it is definitively been the better show, it’s still always labeled as the B-show.”
If Vince has any involvement in SDLive: “[McMahon] will be the first to tell you that the buck stops with him, so you hear stories that Vince is at RAW, but he may not be at SmackDown. Well, he [has] been at SmackDown plenty of times when we’ve gotten great SmackDowns. Am I to believe that Vince is at SmackDowns, but his hands are off the product? No, that’s not true because he has his hands on everything. At the end of the day, this billion-dollar company is a mom and pop fruit stand. It’s run by mom, dad, sister, brother, brother-in-law. It’s a family business and they have their hands all over it.”
(The Spotlight)
