This was a nice surprise.
The WWE Hall of Fame has announced that Ray Traylor, known in the WWE as the Big Boss Man will be inducted into this year’s class.
Traylor first got his start in Jim Crockett Promotions where he was used as enhancement talent, but his size and agility were wasted in that role. Recognizing this, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes pulled Traylor off of television and repackaged him as “Big Bubba Rogers”, and was placed as the bodyguard of Jim Cornette and The Midnight Express. He was also wrestling against Rhodes and was used in the “monster heel” role.
Rogers would foray to the UWF, defeating the One Man Gang to win their Heavyweight Title, but like the Gang, who was leaving the UWF to go to the WWF, Vince McMahon came calling.
Now known as the Big Boss Man, Traylor portrayed a prison guard, which he actually used to be. He feuded immediately with Hulk Hogan and would be part of the Twin Towers with Akeem, the former One Man Gang. After a feud with Dusty Rhodes, who joined the WWF as well, he turned face and had a memorable feud with “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and later the Heenan Family.
By 1993, he went to WCW, but languished mostly in the mid card as he was unable to use his Big Boss Man character. He did have great matches with Vader, but he was mostly used as a placeholder in both the Dungeon of Doom and the New World Order.
In 1998, Traylor returned back to the WWF, again as the Big Boss Man, but now he was a heel aligned with Vince McMahon. He would win the Tag Team Titles with Ken Shamrock and the Hardcore Title and he faced (and lost) to the Undertaker at Wrestlemania, where he was infamously hung from the top of the cage.
Traylor would be released in 2003 and would die a year later from a heart attack.
We would to congratulate the family of Ray Traylor who we are sure are delighted by this turn of events.
The Big Boss Man to the WWE HOF
- Written by Committee Chairman
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Published in Not in Hall of Fame News
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Read 10324 times
07 Mar
2016
2016
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