Why Bully Ray Criticizes Jon Moxley's Presentation In AEW's Death Riders Storyline

The main event scene in AEW has been dominated by the presence of Jon Moxley and his Death Riders since October, with Moxley's goal being that he wants to tear down AEW and build a new one that he thinks will be better for himself, and professional wrestling as a whole. However, the storyline hasn't connected with as many fans as originally intended, and on a recent edition of "Busted Open Radio," ECW legend Bully Ray claims he knows where things have gone wrong.

"Jon Moxley is not a heel. I've said this over, and over, and over again, if anything Jon Moxley is a babyface and should be a saviour for AEW. Should he be the saviour? Absolutely not. The saviour of AEW should be a homegrown AEW guy, just like at the end of the day, who would have been the saviour of ECW? Tommy Dreamer. He would have had the help of Terry Funk, but at the end of the day, Tommy Dreamer would have been the saviour. What I saw the other night was a former WWE guy trying to take over AEW with his faction called The Death Riders...and then who came to the aid? Well it was another former WWE guy, with some other WWE guys to save the day."

Those former WWE guys Ray was talking about were Adam Copeland and FTR, who arrived after Moxley had retained the AEW World Championship in the main event of Worlds End against Orange Cassidy, Hangman Page, and Jay White, three men who have had no affiliation with WWE. Rated FTR prevented the Death Riders from beating down Cassidy, Page, and White, and vowed to put an end to Moxley's reign of terror, with Copeland stating after the show that he wants all of their gold.

Ray continued his point by saying that if Moxley is trying to paint a picture, he needs to get better at his art. 

"They're getting this so wrong it's not funny, and I don't care if Adam Copeland comes on this show, or Jon Moxley comes on this show to try and tell me I'm wrong because I'm not," Bully said. "If at the end of the day, Jon Moxley wants to destroy AEW because it's turned into something that he doesn't like, he needs to paint a better picture."

WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry stepped in agreeing with what Ray had to say, feeling Moxley needs to come out and say his intentions. 

"If I'm Moxley, I'm going to tell you why I'm mad," Henry explained. "I'm going to tell you why this place needs a cleansing, it needs a blood-letting, it's because of people like Orange Cassidy. His trivial kicks, his sunglasses, I don't give a sh*t attitude, p**ses me off, I don't think it's good for pro wrestling, I don't think it's good for AEW, he's got to go. Then I would go to somebody else, look at Darby Allin...lie, steal and cheat. Be wrong, because the more wrong and more lies that you tell, the more the heel you are."

Henry rounded off by saying that a lot of wrestlers think they want to be heels, but still have the fans cheer for them, and that Moxley needs to be more detestable on-screen to make his, and the Death Riders, more antagonistic.

Please credit "Busted Open Radio" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.