Bully Ray Explains Why ECW Was The 'Real Revolution' With No Disrespect To AEW

ECW Wrestling was known by many nicknames — "The Land of the Extreme," "The Little Engine That Could," and "The Land of the Misfit Toys," but Bully Ray, who was known as Buh Buh Ray Dudley during his time with the company, calls ECW "revolutionary."

During a special live edition of Chris Jericho's podcast "Talk is Jericho," Ray was asked by Jericho what he thinks ECW's legacy is over 20 years after it went out of business.

"No disrespect to the company that you're working in now [AEW], but ECW was the real revolution," Ray said. "It was the true alternative to the entire wrestling business." 

Ray stated that regardless of what people say about ECW, the company was massively influential in how the pro wrestling business looks now.

"Without ECW, there is no Attitude Era," Ray said. "It's just the way it is. It was never meant to go on forever, it was meant to crash and burn. We were the Sex Pistols, we were punk rock, we were all those bands." 

The Hall of Famer explained that before Vince McMahon changed the direction of WWE, he was most likely confused about the fact that his fans were chanting for ECW at WWE shows, which prompted a change. Ray also credited Vince Russo as a big reason why WWE changed the way the product looked as he was an ECW fan during the '90s, and as the company's lead writer at the time, took influence from what was going on in ECW. WWE became so successful once they embraced their "attitude" that they outperformed their main rivals in WCW and bought them out in March 2001, one month before ECW officially filed for bankruptcy.

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