Bully Ray Recalls Instance Of Being 'Paralyzed' By Fear Of Vince McMahon In WWE

Nobody wants to get yelled at by their boss, especially when your boss is Vince McMahon. Bully Ray, performing under McMahon as Bubba Ray Dudley, shared a vivid memory of being genuinely afraid of the former WWE Chairman. Bully acknowledged he wasn't a fearful person by nature, but one occasion saw him face McMahon's wrath as he went over his segment's allotted time on live television.

"We went five minutes over," Bully recalled on "Busted Open Radio." "If you go one minute over on live TV, you're getting your ass chewed out. Five minutes over? You're fired."

Bully recalled working with Right to Censor that night in Madison Square Garden, where the Dudleys faked joining the faction before ultimately turning on them. The response from the crowd was thunderous, and Ray said everyone involved agreed to roll with it — but it came at a price. Bully said he barely got one foot through the curtain before coming nose-to-nose with McMahon.

"Vince looks at me, and he says, 'If you ever go five minutes over on my live television show again ... it better be as good as that,'" Bully remembered. "That was the first time I ever froze in the wrestling business. I don't think it ever happened again. I was paralyzed by fear. This was real."

He acknowledged it was a different time when an unspoken code allowed performers some leniency if what they were doing was exceptional. "If you messed up your match, the old man was gonna be staring at you with his glasses down at the tip of his nose, waving his finger, 'Come over here,'" Bully said.

Many tales depict the locker room vibe under the former chairman as notably fear-driven, which was said to improve once McMahon retired.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.