Thanks to Chris Van Vliet for sending in the following:
TNA Champion Bully Ray was recently interviewed by Chris Van Vliet of WOIO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, and the following are interview highlights:
On TNA not being competition for WWE: "Because there are only two major wrestling companies in the United States, so of course the public's perception is that we're in competition with each other. But I don't know how you can really, truly compete with a gigantic mega machine like the WWE when TNA's been around for 11 years. And in 11 years they're very, very successful and they're growing leaps and bounds and there's a tremendous amount of light at the end of the tunnel. But you can't compete. That's like, you know, an up and coming company's little bank trying to compete with Chase Manhattan or whatever. I like to look at it as two separate companies and two separate brands of entertainment that wrestling fans can thoroughly enjoy.
On Sting going to WWE: "You have to make the smartest business decisions for yourself, for your family and for your career. And if Sting thinks that he has accomplished everything that he possibly could in TNA and he wants to go do that, more power to him."
On not being a fan of technical wrestling: "Who gives a crap about technical wrestling? Listen, technical wrestling doesn't put asses in seats. Nobody wants to see technical wrestling. Technical wrestling is boring. People want to see car crashes and big explosions and they want to see guys fight and bleed and have sex with the other guy's girlfriend."
On Devon's recent departure from TNA: "As of right now, Devon is unfortunately not with TNA Wrestling. Here's the thing about Devon being gone, in my eyes it's a temporary thing."
On watching WWE: "I am a business man and I am a student of the game. I watch anything and everything that I can get my hands on so I can see where the trend in pro wrestling is going, so I can see what people are reacting to, so I can see what new moves guy might be doing. A good businessman always knows his competition and a good businessman always knows what's going on around him so I would never sit here and lie to you and tell you 'Oh no, I can't watch anything else'. I watch everything. Whether it's WWE or Japan or smaller independents or whatever."
On CM Punk: "I'm a big CM Punk fan. The reason I appreciate Punk is because he's fearless and because he reminds me of me back in the day because is so comfortable on the microphone and he will say what comes to mind and deal with the repercussions later."
He also talked about a number of other topics including bringing MMA guys into TNA, his own retirement, admitting that he never wanted to be a singles wrestler, and who his dream match would be with (he said The Road Warriors if it was a tag match, and Terry Funk it was a singles match. He also does a spot on impersonation of Funk).
Here is a link to the entire interview: http://youtu.be/cKSKvxSSDIY
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
