Bully Ray spoke with Brian Fritz of Sporting News and spoke about why he opted to sign with Ring of Honor rather than return to Impact Wrestling. “Impact came after me very hard, very heavy with a significant amount of money and I was considering both deals for different reasons,” Ray said. “I do think that if Impact had would have communicated a little better, they might have given themselves a better opportunity of having me back there. My heart was in Ring of Honor and at the last moment, I made my decision.”
Bully also acknowledged that being slotted into a role that was written for Drew Galloway did not appeal to him. “I did not think it was in my best interest to go into a role that was created for somebody else,” he said. “Bully Ray is one of the most successful performers in the history of Impact. That’s not just because I’m saying it; it’s because the numbers back it up. My ratings on Spike TV along with the Aces and Eights were some of the highest that TNA ever had. Me and Jeff Hardy was the highest grossing TNA pay-per-view and the most people who ever paid to see a TNA pay-per-view.
“The Bully Ray character has the numbers to back up everything that he did and I just didn’t feel it was right for me to go back into a storyline that was created for somebody else. Then the communication broke down with them and when the communication broke down, I knew that was a sign that I should follow my heart to Ring of Honor.” Read the full interview at SportingNews.com.
Powell’s POV: Galloway declined to re-sign with Impact Wrestling in part because they approached him too late. At that point, apparently they wanted to slide either Bully Ray or Alberto El Patron into the role they had planned for Galloway. Ray spoke more about why ROH appealed to him, why the Bully Ray character didn’t end up on WWE television, and why he never cashed a check for a notable show that he worked.
He has an ego like everyone else in the world. They had a plan for a younger wrestler not for an old vet . He didn’t want to be a stop gap until they found a younger wrestler to use.