Bully Ray Critiques Adam Cole & MJF's AEW Dynamite Tag Team Tournament Match

Last night's "AEW Dynamite" continued many of the company's ongoing storylines, including the burgeoning partnership between Adam Cole and AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman. While it seems as though many viewers enjoyed the segments featuring Cole and Friedman, "Busted Open Radio" co-host Bully Ray had some criticism to get off his chest today regarding the duo's tag match.

"Overall, I thought last night's show was good," Bully said. "There were a lot of fun things on the show, but there were a couple of things that, to me, did not make sense. It's not even the refereeing stuff, it's [the] psychology of a match. It's actually the MJF-Adam Cole match." A little later on in the show, Bully elaborated on what he didn't enjoy.

"So it is supposed to be a serious match, right?" Bully asked. "Because it is part of a tournament that obviously MJF wants to win real bad, because MJF and Cole winning helps lure Cole in a lot more with MJF. ... I felt that there should have been a bit more ... seriousness on the front end. Right off the bat, we get MJF going in for the body slam, and then really doing that hokey sell of his back. I believed that the first half of the match felt like a house show match to me." Bully pointed out that he enjoys comedy in wrestling, but it has to be in the right place, and the ECW veteran didn't feel this match was it.

In addition to feeling the match was a little too light-hearted in general, Bully felt that Cole and MJF's opponents should have been presented as stronger. Big Bill and Brian Cage are both two of the bigger performers on the company's roster, and the "Busted Open" host doesn't believe they were utilized correctly last night.

"In a situation like this, where you're going to put your opponents over so clean, there should be a little bit of protection for a guy who looks like the next coming of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a guy who's seven feet tall and you can't teach that," Bully continued. "There's a spot in the middle of the match, towards the beginning of the comeback, where MJF and Big Bill are face-to-face, and Big Bill starts taking steps backwards as if MJF is backing him down," Bully said. The former WWE star stated that moment just wasn't believable for him, and it got worse from there.

"Then Big Bill hauls off and punches MJF right in the face," Bully continued. "If Big Bill punched MJF right in the face, on a street or in a bar, what do you think would happen? ... Did MJF get knocked out? Did he even go down? Then Big Bill rears back and he punches him in the face again." The exchange didn't go down the way Bully expected, and from his point of view, it made Big Bill look weak.

Bully Ray wasn't finished yet. Despite being an admitted fan of MJF, the former world tag team champion criticized the AEW World Champion for his lack of selling against Big Bill.

"I put MJF over on this show 99% of the time we talk [about] him, and across the board, I probably blow more smoke up MJF's a** than anybody else on this show that we talk about. But come on — you gotta bump for the big man. There's no reason why you can't take that bump, register it, sell it, and then get up in that fighting spirit way." Following that, Bully feels that the match continued progressing off the rails.

"And then we get a biting of the finger, and a body slam, because they're trying to pay off the body slam. A little hokey, but I'm sure they could've done it in a way that would've gotten a response where they're like, 'Holy s**t, MJF did it!' as opposed to, 'Ha ha ha, MJF did it.'"

"And then we get to the actual finish with Brian Cage," Bully said. "And Brian Cage just takes a move from one guy, a move from another guy, and then gets pinned. Brian Cage is a monster. There's a way to protect him. This was a perfect opportunity for the proverbial misdirection spot." Bully then described an exchange that he would've suggested in place of the match's actual finish, protecting Cage and Bill while still giving Cole and MJF the victory.

Though it's clear Bully had a wide range of issues with last night's tag match, his main problem boils down to Tony Khan's booking of the company's big men. From Bully's perspective, Cage and Big Bill are valuable performers, but that's not reflected in their storylines and matches.

"AEW is not a big man company," Bully stated. "Tony Khan does not invest in big men, period. End of sentence. His company, his choice to do so. Every once in a while, yes, a ... big man gets a little taste of something, but they don't really focus on anybody. If it's up to me, I'm focusing on Powerhouse Hobbs. I'm putting as much shine and spotlight on Powerhouse Hobbs as I am Moxley or CM Punk. Because he is an up-and-coming talent, [he] looks the part, is doing a better job speaking the part."

Bully's co-host, Dave LaGreca, then pointed out that the company does seem to be starting to push Hobbs on "AEW Collision." One big man that wasn't mentioned, however, was Wardlow. The AEW star has had a rocky 2023 so far, with Wardlow regaining the TNT Championship in March only to lose it to Hobbs a few days later. Wardlow regained the title again the following month only to lose it on the first episode of "Collision." Wardlow hasn't been seen on AEW programming since, possibly serving as further proof of Bully's point.