Bully Ray Says Former WWE Star Acted Like A 'Pest' To Get ECW One Night Stand Greenlit

On June 12, 2005, 2500 wrestling fans crammed into New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom to watch some of the biggest stars in the world. The Dudley Boyz, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin were all there, but it wasn't for a WWE pay-per-view: it was for an ECW event. Four years after the company went under, ECW was revived for One Night Stand, a show that has long been heralded as one of the greatest events in wrestling history for how authentic and true to the original product it was. However, while speaking on "Wise Choices," Bully Ray said the show might not have happened had one WWE star not continued to pest management about ECW.

"One Night Stand does not happen without Rob Van Dam being a pest," Ray said. "Van Dam kept going to Vince [McMahon] and saying, 'There's still money in ECW, there's still legs to ECW, there's something here...' and he did it for a long time." Ray explained that McMahon called himself and D-Von Dudley into his office before an episode of "WWE Raw" to ask whether they thought ECW still had legs, to which both men explained that it would work for one night at the very least.

Ray went on to say that if anyone needs any reminding of how special One Night Stand was, all they need to do is go back and listen to the crowd, and that will tell you everything. "The energy from the minute we went live on pay-per-view until Steve Austin drinks the last beer, you cannot replicate the energy in the Hammerstein Ballroom of One Night Stand in any other show. Whether it's a WWE, WCW, New Japan, AEW [show], end of story."

Please credit "Wise Choices" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.