Bully Ray Harps On Referee Issues From AEW Dynamite

The June 14 episode of "AEW Dynamite" opened with a 30-minute time-limit draw between AEW World Champion MJF and Adam Cole. While the match drew rave reviews from fans, Bully Ray was none too pleased with the work of referee Bryce Remsburg. During a recent episode of "Busted Open," Ray detailed the three instances that irritated him.

"The ugly is the same ugly that I have been talking about since day one — the referees," Ray said. "When I'm watching a great match, the refereeing in these matches, or the poor refereeing in certain circumstances, is as blatant as the great wrestling."

Ray noted that he saw three definitive things during MJF vs. Cole that led him to question what the ref was doing, and the first time was when the two wrestlers fell to the floor during a picture-in-picture commercial break. While they were down, the ref followed them out and checked on them for a whole minute.

"Why is the ref on the floor with the two guys for a minute before he even climbs back in the ring, walks around for a little bit, and then decides to get to a count? There are more creative ways to do this," Ray continued. "Forget about the creativity, there are more ways to do this that keeps the credibility on the referee. I'm actually trying to protect the referee."

Ray suggested that the ref could've checked on both and then returned to the ring to start the count. One of the wrestlers could've rolled back into the ring at the count of nine before continuing to sell it by falling out again or doing a forearm strike to the other competitor to knock each other down.

"Then we get to the table spot. They go to the outside. The ref is not counting. They do the table spot. Referee comes back outside, talking to them, talking to them, talking to them, talking to them. Then the referee decides to roll back into the ring, and once MJF gets back in the ring, [the ref] starts counting Adam Cole only. How does that make sense? I'll take the silence as you agree. It makes zero sense," Ray stated.

"Unfortunately, it does take away from the match because the referee is as much a part of the match as the wrestlers," Ray added. "Not that the referee should be seen, not that the referee should be a focal point, not that the referee should command the spotlight. But the referee has a job to do. Without the referee, there is no law and order in a wrestling match, and we can't stick to the stipulations. If you don't want a referee to count, just make it a No DQ match, make it a no count-out match. Give me a stipulation to which I don't need to pay attention to the referee's job. But three times in that match with the same mistakes of the referee not counting."

Ray said he could chalk it up to creative liberty if it happened one time, but three times is laziness in his eyes as it shows a blatant disregard for the industry and the match's credibility. He believes that if this was a real sport, the ref would've been fired for not doing their job.

This isn't the first time the former Impact World Champion has criticized AEW's referee work. In March, he hailed their work as "lazy" and made comments about refs holding a ladder so Powerhouse Hobbs could safely win a match. AEW ref Stephon Smith responded and expressed his frustration with the critiques.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Busted Open" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.