Bully Ray spoke with Dave Lagreca and Doug Mortman on Busted Open Radio this week. Here are some highlights.
Bully Ray on his relationship with Brooke Hogan: "I'm not even sure you can call us friends, because we have only known each other for a short period of time. When the whole Aces and Eights went down and I came to Hulk, I came to Sting, I tried to help out TNA because I thought the whole situation was wrong. Hulk just kept giving me the cold shoulder. He kept telling me he didn't trust me. Sting had to basically beg and plead with him to let me be his tag team partner. So the guy doesn't trust me. He was going through a lot of stuff in his own life where maybe he wasn't thinking straight. All Brooke did was one day she came up to me and she didn't apologize for her father. She was just kind of like 'listen he is under some stress lately, don't take it too personal.' She just tried to ease the blow for her dad and my relationship with him. So that was it. One thing lead to another and I told her 'listen I really appreciate it you telling me that.' Next time I saw her it was hello and how you doing. We just started talking, just friendly kind of stuff. Realized, she is just a nice girl. We just started talking and that is really it. Me and Brooke play Words with Friends on Twitter."
Does he feel any different getting cheers from the crowd: "Listen, you guys with this heel and babyface crap. I'm not a good guy, I'm not a bad guy. I'm me. I've had 70,000 people cheer for me in the Houston Astrodome. I've had 20,000 people boo me at Madison Square Garden. When they love me, they love me. When they hate me, they hate me. I let them make the decision. I'm just me. That's what makes me special in this business. I don't change for anybody."
What will his focus be after Austin Aries: "As soon as I am done with Austin, I'm re-focusing on Devon, Aces and Eights, and the World Heavyweight championship. One is personal and one is business. The number one goal should be to become the World Heavyweight champion. It's hard to stay one hundred percent focused on that when you know that your partner, brother, and friend just stuck it up your ass, that you have no choice in going after him."
Thoughts on cutting back pay per views: "Love it. I think it's an awesome idea. I think the wrestling world is entirely saturated with pay per views. I remember growing up as a kid and only getting those four to six pay per views a year which had that big time feel. Now every time you turn around there is a pay-per-view every month. I would love to see TNA go the route of doing something like the NWA did back in the day and put on almost like a free pay per view on Spike TV one Sunday. I don't make those business decisions, but I think it would be great for luring new fans to our product. I'm very, very confident that once wrestling fans who have never seen TNA, if they would just get to see it once or twice, I think they would be hooked."
Bully Ray on his relationship with Brooke Hogan: "I'm not even sure you can call us friends, because we have only known each other for a short period of time. When the whole Aces and Eights went down and I came to Hulk, I came to Sting, I tried to help out TNA because I thought the whole situation was wrong. Hulk just kept giving me the cold shoulder. He kept telling me he didn't trust me. Sting had to basically beg and plead with him to let me be his tag team partner. So the guy doesn't trust me. He was going through a lot of stuff in his own life where maybe he wasn't thinking straight. All Brooke did was one day she came up to me and she didn't apologize for her father. She was just kind of like 'listen he is under some stress lately, don't take it too personal.' She just tried to ease the blow for her dad and my relationship with him. So that was it. One thing lead to another and I told her 'listen I really appreciate it you telling me that.' Next time I saw her it was hello and how you doing. We just started talking, just friendly kind of stuff. Realized, she is just a nice girl. We just started talking and that is really it. Me and Brooke play Words with Friends on Twitter."
Does he feel any different getting cheers from the crowd: "Listen, you guys with this heel and babyface crap. I'm not a good guy, I'm not a bad guy. I'm me. I've had 70,000 people cheer for me in the Houston Astrodome. I've had 20,000 people boo me at Madison Square Garden. When they love me, they love me. When they hate me, they hate me. I let them make the decision. I'm just me. That's what makes me special in this business. I don't change for anybody."
What will his focus be after Austin Aries: "As soon as I am done with Austin, I'm re-focusing on Devon, Aces and Eights, and the World Heavyweight championship. One is personal and one is business. The number one goal should be to become the World Heavyweight champion. It's hard to stay one hundred percent focused on that when you know that your partner, brother, and friend just stuck it up your ass, that you have no choice in going after him."
Thoughts on cutting back pay per views: "Love it. I think it's an awesome idea. I think the wrestling world is entirely saturated with pay per views. I remember growing up as a kid and only getting those four to six pay per views a year which had that big time feel. Now every time you turn around there is a pay-per-view every month. I would love to see TNA go the route of doing something like the NWA did back in the day and put on almost like a free pay per view on Spike TV one Sunday. I don't make those business decisions, but I think it would be great for luring new fans to our product. I'm very, very confident that once wrestling fans who have never seen TNA, if they would just get to see it once or twice, I think they would be hooked."
