Bully Ray revealed that Sting once told him never to call him old during their feud, explaining the logic behind one of professional wrestling’s longest-standing unwritten rules, as both he and co-host Dave LaGreca debated why the word “old” was the trigger that caused CM Punk to punch Roman Reigns on Monday Night Raw.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray said Sting pulled him aside and laid out the reasoning directly.
“Sting told me, ‘Bubba, don’t call me old,'” Bully Ray said. “I’m like, why, are you sensitive to this or something? He goes, ‘No, because if you call me old, when I eventually kick your ass, you just got your ass kicked by an old man. Do you really want that?'”
Bully Ray said he disagreed with the logic at the time and still does. He said as a heel, he was confident enough in his ability to recover his heat that it did not matter to him if the crowd framed the loss as an old man beating him.
“I’m like, I don’t care. I’m the heel,” Bully Ray said. “So what? I’m so confident in myself and my ability to get my heat back. I don’t care if I get beat up by an old guy. You’re old, Sting. You’re washed up. Your better days are behind you. And then all of a sudden I get my ass kicked. Okay, so the old man just kicked my ass.”
Wrestling’s Unwritten Rule
Bully Ray referenced Tommy Dreamer’s comments from the previous night’s Busted Open After Dark, where Dreamer outlined what he called “promo class 101.”
“When you’re insulting your opponent, the biggest thing you’re never supposed to do, you’re never supposed to call your opponent fat and out of shape or old,” Bully Ray said, recounting Dreamer’s comments. “Because when you get punched in the face and you get dropped by the old guy or the fat guy, you just got dropped by the old or fat guy.”
Despite understanding the rule, Bully Ray said he has never agreed with it, particularly when the person using it is playing a heel character. He said Roman Reigns came across as heelish in his delivery during the closing segment of Raw.
“I never understood why that was such a horrible thing, especially if you are the heel, and Roman came off heelish to me last night,” Bully Ray said. “Roman was in condescending Roman voice last night.”
“That’s the Word That Triggers You?”
Bully Ray said he was caught off guard that it was the word “old” and not a reference to Punk’s late father that served as the trigger for the punch. Earlier in the rivalry, Punk brought up Reigns’ late father Sika Anoa’i, and Reigns could only sit and look “bewildered,” according to Bully Ray. But it was one word from Reigns that finally drew the physical response from Punk.
“Punk talked about your dead father in the grave and was going to put you next to him, and all you could do is sit there and look bewildered,” Bully Ray said. “But you called Punk old, and that would trigger Punk to pop you in the mouth. It’s never resonated with me.”
LaGreca said he looked at the moment differently. Rather than being disappointed by the choice, he said he was intrigued by it and now wants to know why the word carries so much weight for Punk specifically.
“When it comes to Roman Reigns, family is the trigger,” LaGreca said. “That’s the way to get that punch in the face. I was surprised by the word ‘old’ is the one that got Punk fired up, but it did. But now I want to know why. Does he feel he’s that old? Does he feel this is the end of his career? Like, does it mean that much to him?”
The Lost Years
LaGreca offered a theory rooted in Punk’s time away from wrestling. Punk left WWE in January 2014 and did not return until 2023, spending nearly a decade away from the business. LaGreca said that absence has redefined how fans perceive Punk’s age and identity.
“CM Punk, because of his beliefs, walked away and was gone for over a decade,” LaGreca said. “You’re never getting those 10, 11 years back. So when you look at CM Punk in your mind as a viewer, you’re not looking at a guy that’s 47, 48. You’re looking at a guy that’s 37, 38, because there’s a whole chunk of his career that he completely threw out the window and you’re never getting back.”
LaGreca added that Punk’s entire persona was built around being the young rebel who bucked the system. “The whole thing with CM Punk is he’s the punk. He’s the young punk that’s bucking the system and anti-corporate. And he’s not that guy anymore,” LaGreca said.
Bully Ray said if WWE had positioned the insult that way, building up to the word by first stripping away Punk’s identity as a rebel, the trigger would have landed harder.
“Punk, you’re not the young rebel that you used to be. You’re a shell of what you used to be. You know what you are, Phil? You’re old,” Bully Ray said, acting out how he felt the line should have been delivered. “Now I get it, because you’re reminding him of everything that he used to be in his youth, but that’s slipping away from him now.”
Reigns Found the Trigger
Both Bully Ray and LaGreca agreed that regardless of their personal feelings about the choice, Reigns now has a clear psychological weapon heading into WrestleMania. Bully Ray compared it to the movie Rounders, where a poker player discovers his opponent’s tell.
“Roman knows what Punk’s trigger is,” Bully Ray said. “Now, what does Roman have to do for the next four weeks? ‘You’re old, Phil. You can’t beat me because you’re old, Phil. You can’t perform for your wife because you’re old, Phil. You can’t do this at the same level anymore because you’re old, Phil.’ It has to be old, old, old, because he knows what the trigger is now.”
LaGreca pointed to Reigns’ reaction after taking the punch. He said if Reigns had looked shocked, the moment would not have worked the same way. Instead, Reigns smiled from the mat, which LaGreca interpreted as Reigns realizing he had finally cracked Punk’s armor.
“Roman didn’t look shocked,” LaGreca said. “He had a smile. He’s like, ‘Alright, now I got you. Now I know what gets to you.’ Because Roman’s been throwing jabs. Has it really connected that well to Punk? Punk’s been able to keep that persona up the entire time.”
CM Punk defends the World Heavyweight Championship against Roman Reigns in the main event of Night 2 of WrestleMania 42 on April 19 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
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