In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Bully Ray (aka Bubba Ray Dudley) commented on WWE nixing plans for the Bully Ray character, his talks with IMPACT Wrestling recently, joining the Ring of Honor roster and more.

On how close the WWE came to debuting the Bully Ray character, he noted that they were one day away in August from debuting the character and that at the last second, the decision was made to not go forward with it and that Bully Ray was ready to go, but that’s all he can say in that they were one day away and the company pulled the plug on it. For those wondering, the original plan was for Bully Ray to turn on D-Von the day after WWE SummerSlam to start the new direction, however the company changed their mind, leading to The Dudley Boyz being beaten down on their last day in Brooklyn, New York with Bully Ray departing the company and D-Von taking on a role behind the scenes in the company.

On why he did not sign with IMPACT Wrestling after recent talks, Bully Ray noted that at the last minute, IMPACT Wrestling came in hard and heavy and made him a significant offer, but the way he looks at it is that if he can’t go back to some place and top what he did before, then it is kind of pointless and said that he is not blowing smoke up his own a**, but Bully Ray was the top heel in the company and that he generated ratings and drew the biggest house of all time at LockDown alongside Jeff Hardy. Bully Ray said that now, if you look at the landscape of the company and their locker room, he doesn’t have anybody to top what he did before.

Bully Ray was also asked about what he plans to do with Ring of Honor and said that he is hoping to do for Ring of Honor what Terry Funk done in 1995 for ECW and said that by no means is he saying that he’s as great as Terry Funk, but that Funk helped ECW take the next step and that hopefully, he can do the same for Ring of Honor.

The interview is available in full at this link.