Why Bully Ray Calls AEW's Taz Tribute Video 'Pure Damage Control'

AEW has done plenty during their residency in Philadelphia's 2300 Arena so far, including honoring ECW legend and AEW color commentator Taz. The promotion surprised him following "AEW Dynamite" two weeks ago by announcing he would be inducted into the Hardcore Hall of Fame, an event initially scheduled for that Saturday at "AEW Collision," but changed to last week's "Dynamite" after Taz requested more time to get family members to the arena.

The induction did take place prior to "Dynamite," and despite a video before the show where Taz and AEW owner Tony Khan stated the reason was Taz not wanting to take away TV time, something Taz reinforced on X later, his former ECW and WWE co-worker, Bully Ray, isn't buying it. In fact, the next day on "Busted Open Radio," Bully came out strongly against doing the induction offscreen, and towards Khan and Taz's video.

"I think that video was nothing more than damage control," Bully said. "I think that was covering their ass. I think that was Tony covering his own ass...I'm sorry, but I just...I'm not on board. And if I'm all alone on an island on this one, and I am the only one of that opinion, so be it. 

"I will stand that on the island, and I will defend it forever, because the body language is off. The tone was off. And I don't know why you needed to repeat the same thing four or five times. I think they were trying to beat us over the head with Tony going 'I'm the good guy. I wanted to do this, because I love Taz. And I thought it would be great TV. But Taz said he didn't want it. So I want to respect his wishes, and not do it.' I'm just not on board...I'm just not on board."

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