Bully Ray believes AEW has a golden opportunity with Zoey Stark following her WWE release and is urging Tony Khan to act on it.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray outlined exactly how he thinks AEW should handle a potential Stark signing, arguing that her story of working through a devastating knee injury only to be released before she could return to the ring is tailor-made to generate an immediate emotional connection with a new audience.
“If you’re Tony Khan, and you invite Zoey Stark in, what’s the first thing you allow her to do? Here you go sister, here’s a microphone, you’ve got five minutes. Go tell your story, go make people love you, and if you tell your real story, not only will they love you for your determination, and your passion, and your drive, but they will hate the WWE for letting you go. It’s right there on a silver platter for Tony. You don’t have to do any work. Wait 90 days, sign the girl to a contract, end of story. And Zoey is good in the ring, she’d be good for your women’s division,” Bully Ray said.
He also stressed that the opportunity would need to be followed through on properly to have the desired effect.
“If you’re gonna allow her to go out there, and give her five minutes, and in that five minutes people emotionally connect with Zoey, give her a standing ovation, ‘thank you Zoey,’ whatever it is, you’ve gotta follow it up. You’ve got to give Zoey time to prove that her knee is 1000%. She talked the talk, now she has to show you what she can do in the ring with her new knee, and let the world understand the WWE should have never released me,” Bully Ray said.
Stark suffered a torn ACL, MCL, and Meniscus during a match involving Rhea Ripley and Kairi Sane on the May 19, 2025, episode of Raw. She had reportedly been recently cleared for an in-ring return before being let go as part of WWE’s post-WrestleMania 42 roster cuts on April 24.
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.
