Why WWE HOFer Bully Ray Wouldn't Resurrect ECW For Any Amount Of Money

As Paul Heyman said in his WWE Hall of Fame speech, the spirit of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) lives on through today's generation of performers. Despite closing its doors in 2001, fans still have an affinity for the brand and its legacy. 

Bully Ray made his name in the Philadelphia-based promotion, and to this day, claims he still has people coming up to him asking if ECW will ever be brought back. Fans will remember the short-lived, WWE-produced ECW reboot in the mid 2000s. And those memories, save CM Punk's main roster debut, are not fond to say the least. 

Ray is a frequent co-host of "Busted Open Radio," where he discussed the topic of potentially reviving his former promotion. 

"If someone came to me, and offered me an ungodly amount of money, and said, hey let's revive ECW, the answer would be no. It's impossible to revive it, you can't do it again. Right guys, right time, right city, right environment, you can't recreate that, it's organic, it just happens. It's like an F5 tornado. And an F5 tornado needs very specific conditions in mother nature to happen."

The WWE Hall of Famer would go on to try to define the spirit of ECW. 

"It wasn't necessarily about what happened in the middle of the ring. It was about the fight against the Big 2 [WWE and WCW]. We literally changed pro wrestling, and when I say we, I mean all of us, the whole company, as a unit, as a team."

It's certainly not the first time Bully Ray has waxed poetic about ECW. He also recently called it "The Real Revolution," when fans began attributing that phrase to the rise of AEW. 

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