WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray delivered a scathing critique of a women’s No Disqualification tag team match on a recent AEW Dynamite, labeling the bout as having “too fucking much” content and placing significant blame on AEW’s producers and agents for what he perceived as a poorly structured match that “fell short” and failed to protect the talent. The match featured Harley Cameron & Anna Jay vs. Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford.
Speaking on the “Busted Open After Dark Podcast,” Bully, while praising Harley Cameron and commending all four women for trying hard, stated, “After it was all over, you know, it fell short. Harley got busted open. The finish was missed completely.” He attributed these issues to an overly ambitious match layout. “I’d be like girls E for effort. Great job. Putting so much thought into it. Cut it in half. Take 50% of all the stuff that you want to do and get rid of it, because it’s too fucking much. Nobody is going to remember it.”
Bully Ray heavily criticized the wrestlers’ proficiency with weapons and furniture. “None of you are experts at using furniture, none of you are experts at swinging chairs,” he said directly of the competitors. “I want to know when these four women ever were able to practice their use of using weapons… I don’t know what makes anybody think that they’re just going to show up on a Wednesday night or a Saturday night and be proficient in this stuff and make it look good.”
He firmly placed responsibility on the match’s producer/agent: “It’s on the producer and the agent to protect the talent from themselves.” He detailed how he would have assessed their abilities: “I would be asking Anna. Anna, let me see you swing a chair… Penelope, let me see you do this.”
<p”>The botched Doomsday Device finish was a particular point of contention. “Harley became so gun shy from that [getting busted open] that when she was sitting on top of Megan’s shoulders, she was completely folded over because she didn’t want to get hit in the face again, thus creating absolutely no target for Penelope Ford to hit… So it looked really, really, really bad,” Bully explained. “It’s a producer’s job to make sure that the women are positive, that they can execute on live TV. I don’t give a rat’s ass what you can do in practice. You have to be able to do it on television.”
Bully Ray also criticized the amount of action occurring during picture-in-picture breaks, suggesting important spots were wasted. “If you’re going to go to picture in picture back it off 50% fight around the ring, punch, kick, choke, spit a beer in somebody’s face. Don’t do shit that should be seen.” He concluded by referencing rumors about AEW’s production: “I hear these rumors. There were no production meetings in AEW, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand was doing… based on watching what I watched tonight, yep, I believe it.” He hoped Harley Cameron was okay after getting busted open.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Busted Open Radio with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
