Bully Ray On Why Madison Square Garden Is Special Venue For Wrestling
New York City's Madison Square Garden is one of the most important venues in all of North America, playing host to some of the most legendary moments in wrestling history.
On "Busted Open," Bully Ray and others spoke fondly of their memories in Madison Square Garden, including how the venue staff would pull old wrestling photos out of storage to decorate the halls of the famous arena. According to Bully Ray, his many matches in MSG made him acutely aware of how special wrestling in the arena can be.
"When Ring of Honor and New Japan did the Garden [for the G1 Supercard event in April 2019], it was supposed to be me versus Juice Robinson in a singles match," Bully explained. "Now there are a lot of Ring of Honor guys that were being left off the show. Flip Gordon was not on the show, [Brian Milonas], there were a bunch of guys that were not on the show and I genuinely felt bad for these dudes because I had wrestled at the Garden a bunch of times, been there, done that, I know what it feels like."
Getting More Wrestlers On The Card
Bully Ray says he went to the ROH front office and offered to give up his entire segment to make the match a stipulation that could involve the rest of the wrestlers.
"I said to myself,' I don't know if these guys will ever have a chance to wrestle in Madison Square Garden again,'" Bully recounted, "and if this is their one and only time, I don't want to be the one standing in their way."
Bully says ROH management wouldn't let him outright scrap his match with Robinson, as it had been heavily advertised, so the former Impact World Champion did his best to incorporate as many disparate people as possible into the New York City Street Fight, which saw Bully, Shane Taylor, and Silas Young battle Gordon, Robinson, and Mark Haskins.
"We got about six different guys involved," Bully beamed, "that way they can say, 'I wrestled in Madison Square Garden.'"
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open" with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.