Why MJF Vs. Samoa Joe On AEW Dynamite Grand Slam Made No Sense To Bully Ray

The MJF vs. Samoa Joe bout on this week's "AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam" was largely praised by fans online, but WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray did not enjoy the match whatsoever. On Thursday's episode of "Busted Open," Ray criticized the fact that Joe drove MJF through a table in the early goings of the match without facing any resistance from the referee, stressing that the rules should still apply in a traditional pro wrestling match. 

"The last time I checked, a table is a foreign object and should not be allowed to [be] used in a World Heavyweight Championship match," Ray said, arguing that it would have made sense for Joe to set up the table and then accidentally send MJF through it at a later point in the match. "To me, it takes away any aspect of credibility ... throws it straight off the door. If you want to use a table in the match, then just make it a No DQ match, or you think out of the box and use some creativity [to execute a table spot]."

Ray was equally puzzled at the referee stopping MJF from using the Dynamite Diamond Ring later in the match, but not preventing Joe from using the table in the early goings. Fellow WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry agreed with the assessment but was hopeful that AEW, a relatively young company, would learn from its mistakes. 

"I don't expect everybody to do everything to the letter, but I expect people to listen to Busted Open or whoever critiques the match — you listen to that person and learn the next time," Henry said. "Because there's always going to be a next time, and as an elite pro wrestler and a guy that's putting asses in seats, MJF has the right to call some shots. But in the fact that he can call his shots, you can't have a hole in your game like that."