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Dark Side of The Ring S07 E05 - 28 July 2026 (Full Show)
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00:03From the Department of Correction, the Big Boss Man!
00:09In wrestling's 1980s golden age, the Big Boss Man built his name as a defining villain of the era.
00:16The demon man! You see a man who likes to make people suffer!
00:19He was an evil prison guard that took advantage of the poor inmates.
00:24You know, this is totally uncalled for.
00:26And beat him down with a nightstick.
00:27Big Boss Man wants to do some torturing here.
00:30And forced him to serve hard time.
00:33Big Boss Man was an exceptional heel because he was believable.
00:37Some would say he's a cult classic.
00:40Feel the pain, the whole pain, and nothing but the pain!
00:44After reaching massive heights in the 80s, the Boss Man's character took a controversial turn during the fabled Attitude Era.
00:52The Big Boss Man was a great performer in the ring, but it pisses me off to this day that
00:58people remember him for feeding guys dogs and desecrating corpses at funerals.
01:04Who in the *** came up with this idea?
01:07The big man is hacking!
01:09I got to go to school the next day and explain this to my friends and peers.
01:14The Boss Man hanging from the cell!
01:18But Ray Traylor's hardest battles were with addiction in an industry fueled by painkillers.
01:25Look at the pain on the kisser of the Big Boss Man!
01:28I think that all men, they want to hide that they hurt.
01:34It gets tiring to physically be in pain every day. It's hard.
01:40I do wonder if those doctors really knew the can of worms they were opening up.
01:45I've always said that the wrestling business will find your weakness, it will prey upon it, and it will kill
01:53you.
01:54You think your parents are supposed to be perfect.
01:58When it comes to addiction, it was a problem for him.
02:02He said, look, I'm sorry, I'm just hurting.
02:12Ever since I was a little bitty boy, my mama, my daddy taught me one thing, and that's to respect,
02:18law, order, and justice.
02:20I'm the Big Boss Man, I am the law and order in the World Wrestling Federation.
02:24It's unbelievable that you kept all of this stuff.
02:28It makes me smile, because I haven't looked at it in a long time.
02:31Oh, no!
02:33I hope he did his half work.
02:37This is Dad in Arsenio Hall.
02:39Let me speak to the Big Boss Man for a minute.
02:41Say what you gotta say.
02:42You already got an attitude. Wait, okay, but it's cool. It's cool.
02:45This is the long arm of the law.
02:48Dad is very heavy. It's the real deal. It's the real deal.
02:54This should be an automatic disqualification right here.
02:57I don't even think I understood his place in wrestling history, just how popular he was.
03:04What an ovation here for the Big Boss Man. He's under there, not wasting any time.
03:09My name's Lacey Traylor, daughter of Ray Traylor, the Big Boss Man.
03:20Big Boss Man, the character, he had so many great feuds and matches.
03:25But the real guy, he was a big sweetheart. He was a great dad.
03:38Ray Traylor was a girl dad.
03:41My mom used to joke, I'm the boss man's boss.
03:45I was born bossy, I'll die bossy.
03:49I ran a tight ship with my old man.
03:51I can't tell you how many times we had him posted up putting makeup on him.
03:56I always felt loved, and we spent a lot of time laughing.
04:00I'm Clifford Dow. What's your name?
04:07I love that you saved all this stuff.
04:09You know, because I loved him so much, that was it. I just loved that man.
04:12And I was always so proud of him, so I just wanted to keep everything, you know?
04:16I am Angela Traylor, and I was married to Ray Traylor, the Big Boss Man.
04:21We went to high school together. He was a foot taller than everybody in school.
04:25You could see Ray from the other end of the hall over everybody.
04:28I had this little crush on him.
04:29So I had to cut out his picture, and I had it on my little board.
04:34He was the sweetest thing ever.
04:35He never drank, he never partied.
04:37He took me to my junior prom.
04:39We've been together since.
04:43He loved me with everything he had.
04:47But he said he would never marry me until he could take care of me.
04:52He got hired as a correctional officer for Cobb County.
04:55So Ray really was a correctional officer?
04:57He really was, he really was.
05:01He was such a big guy.
05:02The prisoners called him boss.
05:05His heart went into it.
05:06Honestly, I think he was just showing up for work because he was getting paid.
05:09But it wasn't a lot of money.
05:11Encouraged by friends and looking to generate extra income, Ray uses his size and strength to enter the wrestling business.
05:18In 1986, Ray joins Jim Crockett Promotions, a rapidly expanding competitor to the WWF.
05:26Tony Blanchard, Ray Traylor.
05:29We paid the money for him to go to training and everything.
05:31But, you know, he only had time to do like two trainings.
05:34And the rest of the training he got while he was on the road.
05:37Ray Traylor really had the weight advantage.
05:40I mean, he never wrestled in his life.
05:41And he's, you know, within two weeks he was on the road with, you know, wrestling Dusty all over the
05:45place.
05:46Dusty Rhodes was the top babyface star and also the booker.
05:50He knew talent when he saw it.
05:53I'm Jim Cornette, and at one time Ray Traylor was my bodyguard.
05:58I've got the indestructible Bubba Rogers, my personal bodyguard.
06:01I was a wimpy mama's boy from a rich family in Louisville, Kentucky.
06:06And the fans were beating the shit out of me.
06:08Get away from me, get up, Dennis, run away from me.
06:11The idea of having a bodyguard appealed to me legitimately.
06:14And anybody else that wants to lay a finger on me or do me any kind of harm, you're gonna
06:19have to go through Bubba Rogers.
06:20Ray said, I worked as a guard at Cobb County.
06:24They taught us to be able to contain people.
06:27I said, well, contain these sumbitches all you want.
06:30He pushed Cornette down.
06:32And Bubba's in a range.
06:34Here comes this guy.
06:35He comes down.
06:36He's in the crowd, right?
06:37He was trying to hit Cornette.
06:40Well, Ray just took his fist and slammed the guy, knocked his teeth out of his head.
06:47I didn't have anybody coming over the rail anymore because they were scared of Bubba.
06:51This was a goddamn badass.
06:54The baddest man in the world, Big Bubba Rogers!
07:01Dusty understood that Bubba had to have an aura.
07:05So when Bubba does something, it's like a movie monster.
07:10Leading up to the big confrontation between Dusty Rhodes and Big Bubba Rogers,
07:14Dusty comes in with a chair.
07:16And Dusty had told Klondike Bill, the ring guy,
07:19gimmick the chair so when I hit him it breaks.
07:22Dusty Paul bunions this chair right over his head.
07:29The seat blows out.
07:31It doesn't even knock his hat off.
07:33It's one of the most memorable pieces of video that we ever shot.
07:37We go back in the back.
07:39Bill, great job on the chair.
07:41He's like, I forgot.
07:44Dusty just hit him as hard as he could overhead with it.
07:46It broke.
07:47All of a sudden, Big Bubba Rogers is one of the most fearsome guys on the card.
07:52Oh, my goodness.
07:54And nobody can stop him.
07:56Anybody got a stretcher?
07:57We got a Big Bubba Rogers.
07:59He tried to work both jobs for a while.
08:02But a lot of the prisoners started recognizing him from TV.
08:05They would be rowdy when he'd come into work.
08:08And then he was asking for days off because he was trying to keep up from the road.
08:13One called in his office and he said, Ray, you've got to make a decision.
08:17Are you going to be a correctional officer or are you going to be a wrestler?
08:22He said, I guess I'm a wrestler.
08:24Never look back.
08:26Booked in a dangerous, high-profile match, Ray's career hits a crossroads.
08:32Here's the title.
08:33By the end of 1986, Bubba was in our corner when the Midnight Express faced the Road Warriors in a
08:39scaffold match.
08:40To win the match, you must blow both of your opponents off of the scaffold.
08:46But then Dusty wanted the Road Warriors to chase me up to the top of the scaffold and drop into
08:53Big Bubba's clutches.
08:54Look at Cardell!
08:58I'm glad he didn't play center field because he fumbled that catch.
09:02When I landed, it blew the ACL in my right knee.
09:07And then came Starrcade 87.
09:10But this time, they wanted Bubba to go up there.
09:13Here he goes!
09:15The big man!
09:16350 pounds!
09:18The people think, oh, he's going to throw him off!
09:20But as he's closing in on him, Ricky Morton had punched him in the balls and ran away.
09:31After the match was over, we all got $10,000 a piece.
09:35Bubba got five.
09:36He felt disrespected.
09:39Ray, he realized he wasn't making the same as these other guys, but he was working just as hard and
09:43taking just as much abuse.
09:44And at this point, we were living poor when we were talking about moving back to my parents' house.
09:48He said, I'm quitting.
09:50At the same time, word had been getting out about Ray, who is that size and that agile, and he's
09:56already proven to be a draw.
09:58Vince heard about that.
09:59Hold, everybody!
10:00I'm just a grand award for justice!
10:02Accepting the invitation, Ray flies to New York to meet with WWF promoter Vince McMahon.
10:08You know, some vicious Vince!
10:09I didn't even sleep!
10:10For anybody unfamiliar with Vince McMahon and his outlook on wrestling, bigger is better.
10:16He liked Hulk Hogan, who looked like a superhero.
10:19And he wanted supervillains to fight him.
10:27When talent comes in, their first stop is at the office of Vince McMahon.
10:33Jerry Briscoe here.
10:34I'm here to talk to you about a very good friend of mine, the Big Boss Man.
10:40I had the pleasure of sitting there and listening to these interviews when new characters come in.
10:46And Vince, you know, what have you done? What's your background?
10:49You could see those wills in Vince McMahon's head just starting to churn.
10:55When Vince heard that Bubba had been a prison guard, that was the icing on the cake.
11:01Not only has he got a guy that's big enough to fight Hulk Hogan toe-to-toe, now there's the
11:07gimmick.
11:07Prison guard makes you serve hard time.
11:11It was tailor-made.
11:13Vince asked him what the prisoners called him.
11:16And he said, boss.
11:19And so Vince said, okay, you're the Big Boss Man.
11:22Inside these walls, I'm the only judge.
11:26I'm the only jury.
11:29And if need be, I'm the executioner.
11:32Wow, look at this guy!
11:34Yeah, he is a monster.
11:37The Big Boss Man!
11:40Oh, look at that!
11:42Oh, my!
11:43Could do it!
11:44I remember our first paycheck being like both, we were in shock.
11:47It was life-changing.
11:48What is going on here?
11:52After a successful debut, McMahon immediately thrusts Boss Man into the spotlight.
12:00Bubba got in the spot that most people only dream of.
12:04And you'll be singing the Hulkamania prison blues, brother!
12:09When he attacked Hogan on the Brother Love show,
12:12Look out! Right under the sun!
12:14There was no stopping him.
12:15You're gonna serve some hard time, Hogan, with a hard man, the Big Boss Man!
12:20The Boss Man's feud, Hulk Hogan builds to an epic steel cage match.
12:26The biggest moment of Ray Traylor's career.
12:29It's a cage match, the most difficult match in all the wrestling.
12:33Hogan's in for some punishment.
12:37I was so impressed with that cage match.
12:39And crushing blow by the Boss Man!
12:42They brought out the best in each other.
12:45Hogan's pulling the Boss Man back up!
12:48Hogan climbed to the top of the rope.
12:50And Ray was sitting on top.
12:52He's choking him with the steel!
12:54Here's two 300-pound guys, and you didn't see this a whole lot back in those days.
12:59Hogan trying to set up the Boss Man!
13:01Hulk suplexes, Big Boss Man, off the top of that cage.
13:05You realize that's 20 feet before you hit the ground?
13:10No!
13:11I can't believe it!
13:17Hulk Hogan's superplex off the cage to the Big Boss Man elevates their match to legendary stats.
13:24I can't believe it!
13:25I've never seen a suplex off the top of the cage before!
13:29Everybody remembers when Hulk Hogan gave the Big Boss Man a superplex off the top of the steel cage.
13:37And the people went, oh, because they didn't see it coming.
13:41But Ray, I think they're both knocked out!
13:43That was unheard of for Hogan to do something that daring, but also for a guy that size of Boss
13:50Man to take that bump was unheard of.
13:52When I saw that at Holy Cow, this guy, he's not only a good performer and a good man, he's
14:00not afraid to sacrifice his body for the good of a match.
14:04One of the most grueling matches in World Wrestling Federation history!
14:09The Boss Man's feud with Hogan cements Ray Traylor as a main event attraction.
14:17The Big Boss Man from the time of his arrival in the WWF was figured in among the top stars.
14:23With such force, but there's a man standing by!
14:26He called me one week, he said, Jimmy, guess how much money I made last week!
14:30I'm like, how much? He said, $12,000!
14:32The Boss Man will be happy to just keep knocking him back!
14:36He made the same amount in one paycheck as he did for a whole entire year as a correctional.
14:41Money does change your life, and it does make things easier, or it can make things harder.
14:45But it did not change Ray one bit.
14:48We lived in nice neighborhoods and a nice home, but we had nothing in common with anybody in there.
14:53The one thing that Vince did that no other promoters were able to do is go out and make his
15:00guys mainstream names.
15:02Big Boss Man showed up on Arsenio Hall.
15:05How did you feel when Hulk Hogan was whipping his ass?
15:11That's where Big Boss Man started crossing over into being a celebrity.
15:16Though originally cast as a villain, the Big Boss Man becomes a new fan favorite.
15:24Vince waited till the time was right, and then slowly he started making Boss Man a babyface.
15:31And he stands for truth, justice, and the Hulk Hogan way, and that's none other than the Big Boss Man.
15:40What about that?
15:43When the thing is flipped, Big Boss Man is gonna lock the bad guys up for their transgressions.
15:48With me in your corner, I guarantee that Earthquake and Dino Rubble are gonna burn hard down!
15:57It was a natural transition.
16:00That's what everybody wants to see, right? An incorruptible man of the law.
16:05He covers it!
16:07That wasn't fair!
16:09And then the merchandising.
16:12There's a Big Boss Man nightstick.
16:14And now there's the real one right there.
16:15And the action figures.
16:17Boss Man!
16:19They even had like Big Boss Man pillow buddies where the kids could sleep curled up with the Big Boss
16:25Man.
16:26Aw, another guest with a Boss Man!
16:29And the song!
16:31If you ever take a trip down the car, down the Jordan!
16:36He carries a big stick upon a chain tube!
16:39It made him sound so amazing!
16:43And after you, you're so harsh!
16:46He's a main eventer. He's got all the merchandise. He must be the happiest man on Earth.
16:52But who's the real law enforcement officer?
16:55My authority is international.
16:58You're just a Georgia cop.
17:00You're not in my league, brother.
17:02That's bottom line.
17:04My name is Jacques Rougeau, but you may remember me as the Mountie because I always get my man.
17:10Vince called me up. He said, Jacques, he says, I have a character I want you to play.
17:16We have this American cop and we're going to have this Canadian cop, the Mountie.
17:21So were you a real mountain?
17:23No, but I was a real jerk.
17:30I think the big blow-off was a jailhouse match.
17:34It was decisive.
17:36There was only one law enforcement officer and it was the big boss man.
17:43In those days, we were on the road 25 days a month, bumping, hurting themselves, giving their mind to traveling.
17:49Cancelled flights.
17:50Your kids are waiting for you at home.
17:52You missed them so much.
17:54The state of mind of the person that's giving its body and told for 25 days a month he's suffering.
18:01People don't see what goes on for real sometimes.
18:04How hard it is to, you know, be a family when you're away 300 days a year.
18:09Dad, he was on the road so much in my very early childhood.
18:15Come here.
18:18You want to stay in there?
18:19Don't be mean.
18:20I remember thinking, who is this man?
18:24Like, why is he stealing my attention from my mom?
18:28But he explained early on that this lifestyle and his career that, you know, some things there's going to be
18:36a trade-off.
18:37I can't tell you how many times me spending time with Dad was going to visit sick kids at the
18:44hospital.
18:45To be in the position that he was, if his presence can light somebody's face up and make them happy,
18:54it was a duty to him.
18:57Ray receives an offer from rival World Championship Wrestling, which is luring away WWF talent with big money and a
19:05lighter schedule.
19:08With WCW, all of his buddies only worked 150 days a year for the same amount of money.
19:14I'm very thankful that he ended up going to WCW.
19:18Lacey, pose for me.
19:20We were able to spend a lot more time with him and do a lot more stuff together as a
19:24family.
19:25He loved taking us on trips.
19:27Deep sea fishing was always a fun one and we had a beautiful home with the lake that he was
19:32really proud of.
19:33So we spent a lot of time there also, just fishing and doing redneck stuff.
19:39Steiner is as tough as the great athlete.
19:42Like a big Bubba, like a Rick Steiner.
19:44We had such a great little community with the Steiners and their kids.
19:52Bubba enjoyed the WCW run because he got to spend more time with his family.
19:57But his professional profile was harmed.
20:00Ray couldn't be big boss man in WCW because Vince owned the character.
20:06So it ended up a revolving door of stupid names and ridiculous gimmicks.
20:14The boys!
20:17Steiner Bubba!
20:19And because it was in the news and it was a branch of law enforcement, loosely,
20:26one of them was the Guardian Angel.
20:27I'd like to welcome you into the worldwide news known as the Guardian Angel.
20:33That idiot Curtis Sliwa and his ridiculous group of unarmed citizens that wanted to make a world a better place.
20:40I'm surprised they didn't make him a meter maid.
20:42The Guardian Angel!
20:47But it wasn't really as rotten as it would be when he went back to the WWF.
20:52Despite the fact that Ray Traylor was one of the most talented guys of the past 10 years in the
20:57business,
20:59he is now remembered for taking part in some of the worst wrestling television that has ever been perpetrated on
21:06the air.
21:14In 1998, the big boss man returns to a reshaped WWF.
21:19Logan, everybody, and welcome to WWF Raw!
21:23With new talent and edgier storylines.
21:37The feud between Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin was the single hottest money drawing rivalry in professional wrestling.
21:49When you have very strong characters and put them together, the shit writes itself.
22:01Obviously, the big boss man was well defined as a character for years and years and years.
22:10My name is Vince Russo and I was the head writer of the WWF during the Attitude Era.
22:16When we brought Ray in, Ray was not calling us.
22:21We were calling him because we needed him on the show.
22:24Wait a minute! Here comes the security guard!
22:28What the hell? McMahon's security guard!
22:31It's a big boss man!
22:33He became the bodyguard for Vince McMahon.
22:37Instead of the blue shirt and the old cop stereotype from Cobb County, Georgia, now he's in the tactical gear
22:45and the all black, heavy vest.
22:47It looked like a SWAT team member.
22:49And now he's serving the man.
22:52I'm enforcing the man's law! You're gonna fight back!
22:56It's not law, order, and justice. It's whatever Vince wants.
22:59Boss man, if you will.
23:02That was a great spot.
23:04Get him! Teach him a lesson!
23:06It was always cool to get to watch him on TV.
23:09I remember Mom having people over and ordering a pay-per-view and I'm gonna go to school the next
23:15day and a bunch of kids are gonna be like, I watched your dad on TV last night.
23:20Man, what a cool life I've gotten to live.
23:25Are you around Stone Cold and The Rock and all these guys?
23:27I love The Rock.
23:29You smell what The Rock is cooking!
23:32Rocky's birthday is on Dad's birthday.
23:34And so, every year we made him cars.
23:37Wait a minute! Yes! Yes!
23:39He was the best.
23:40He was the best.
23:44And I was a huge Stone Cold fan.
23:47He's big and scary like when you're a little kid, but yeah, I loved it.
23:52That would have been amazing to see a Steve Austin and a Big Boss Man feud.
23:57Come on, boss man! Get him in, get him gone!
23:59You would think there would be the Big Boss Man and Steve Austin.
24:04We didn't get that.
24:08I'm gonna paint the picture for you.
24:10We're gonna do this spot, Vince, myself, we're gonna interfere in the match.
24:14It's a bad man to be hurt with.
24:16The boss man's supposed to hit Stone Cold with a chair and knock him out.
24:21I see boss man backstage.
24:23Ray had been going over his match with Undertaker for the last hour.
24:28And I told Ray, you better be there.
24:32Here comes the spot.
24:34And we start walking out.
24:36Vince elbowed me.
24:38Where's boss man?
24:39I look in the whole ship.
24:43I'm watching on the monitor.
24:46I know this is boss man's spot.
24:50He's standing right next to me in the back.
24:53And I said, bro, you're supposed to be out there.
24:58The holy shit look on his face.
25:03Stone Cold's down.
25:04There's a chair introduced in the ring.
25:08There's no boss man.
25:10And I look at Vince, Vince, do it.
25:13Mind you, Stone Cold just come off this edge from having a broken neck.
25:17So I'm thinking, Briscoe, if you hurt this guy, you're going to get fired.
25:24Briscoe, the chair shot.
25:27Oh, shit.
25:29That was awful.
25:31When Stone Cold comes to the back, man, he'd shoot boss man out.
25:35He missed his cue.
25:38He was in the dressing room talking to the Undertaker.
25:41And I love Ray Traylor to death.
25:43I cussed that up and down.
25:46I remember Dad being really upset with himself about that one.
25:51Because he really dropped the ball there.
25:53After that spot, his push kind of started just slowly, slowly dying out.
25:58And where he would be just another guy after that.
26:01After a mistake cost Ray a high-profile feud with Steve Austin, the boss man's next storyline shocks audiences and
26:10his family.
26:11It's the hell in a cell match.
26:16At WrestleMania 99, boss man got the opportunity to face the Undertaker in a cage match.
26:23And that would have been great on its own.
26:26But then, unfortunately, other forces took over.
26:33As a writer, I've got to think of something that you've never seen before.
26:41And I don't mind when you say, holy shit, I can't believe they're doing that.
26:48He called me, he's like, hey, you're going to have to go to WrestleMania.
26:50I said, why? He said, because they're going to do something crazy and they just want to make sure you're
26:54there.
26:55He said, they're probably going to hang me.
27:06What the hell is the Undertaker doing? What's he doing?
27:09As the shocking scene unfolds, boss man's family watches from ringside.
27:15He's choking him with that nose. Referee, do something!
27:20We need help!
27:22The boss man's being hung from the cell!
27:25The boss man's being hung from the cell!
27:28It was controversial.
27:29You're not supposed to hang people on television by the neck.
27:33They basically had a public lynching.
27:35Oh my God! Cut it down!
27:39Apparently, that was one of the first times his family came to see him wrestle.
27:43Oh my God! Now that, that I did not know. That's horrific.
27:49I'll never forget watching my dad hanging there and I thought, honestly, was this necessary?
28:00Once again, WWE pushing the envelope until it's just teetered on their heads there.
28:06He wasn't happy about the storyline, but what's he going to do? He has to do it anyway.
28:10Of course, there was a harness and et cetera, but how do you come back from a hanging?
28:15The mastery of darkness is out of control!
28:19After the controversial storyline,
28:24Ray realizes he needs to be honest with his children about the business.
28:30There did come a point in time where dad had to sit me down and explain the industry because the
28:38storylines that he was wrapped up in is a nightmare for a school-aged child.
28:44That's the beauty of professional wrestling. You can get away with anything.
28:48Oh my! He just ripped a nose ring out of drawers!
28:52But what you can get away with then, some would consider, I'm sure, bad taste nowadays.
28:59My name is Al Snow, former WWE superstar, and I used to wrestle the big boss man.
29:06As Al Snow, my whole character persona was that I suffered from schizophrenia, so I was free to do absolutely
29:16anything to be entertaining.
29:20Boss man and I are feuding. At one point, boss man kidnaps my dog, Pepper. Not only is it my
29:27dog, this is my friend.
29:29The right thing would be, give me back my friend!
29:32I am Al.
29:34Boss man says he'll give me the dog back, but we have to sit down and eat first.
29:38Will you do me a favor? Try not to get one of them paws stuck in your teeth.
29:43And then that's where I find out.
29:45That's right, Al.
29:47100% grade A pepper!
29:50No, no, no!
29:50He chopped it up, cooked it, and then fed it to me.
29:55What the f**k?!
29:57Pepper's a little f**k!
29:57How do you explain to your friends that your dad didn't chop some guy's dog up and feed it to
30:04him?
30:06Yeah, tastes like chicken!
30:09When fans today talk about the worst moments of wrestling.
30:13But if I could have a son as stupid as you, I'd have wished for cancer so I would die
30:18too!
30:19Fans talk about Big Show's father's funeral.
30:24All of a sudden, big boss man's taking a rope and chain.
30:27Daddy always wanted to be a drag queen, Big Show!
30:30I'm gonna make him a drag queen right now!
30:32I'm gonna start dragging a casket.
30:34He's fine! He's sadistic!
30:37It was sick, but it was great.
30:40Boss man is sick!
30:42I remember getting mean mugged as a child by teenagers just because of who he was.
30:48They know what to do with that nice thing.
30:50It was embarrassing for me.
30:54But at the end of the day, he was trying to get that check to feed his family.
31:00I remember being horrified seeing him have a glass busted over his head.
31:08And the glass doesn't shatter how it's supposed to.
31:12He can't play with us because he's so beat up from the road that we're bringing in ice packs for
31:19him around the clock and he's just in immense amount of pain.
31:23He started self-medicating and then he figured out, well, I can work as long as I have medicine.
31:30The big thing was these things called somas.
31:32They don't make you quit hurting, they just make you not care.
31:36Somas is a muscle relaxer and they would mix it up with the pain pills.
31:41And if you didn't eat, he would fall over your plate.
31:44To someone who doesn't know what's going on, you would think they're dying.
31:52It was really heartbreaking because I've never seen anything like this.
31:56Now I have control.
31:59Excuse me.
32:04All the guys are taking something at some point, but with Bubba, he wasn't a party guy.
32:11I wouldn't have ever dreamed he had any life-threatening problem.
32:16I remember just being so mad at him when it got like that.
32:21And I remember him talking to me about it and apologizing.
32:26Look, I'm sorry.
32:28I'm in pain.
32:37Despite his injuries, Ray continues to work a full-time schedule, increasing his dependency on prescription painkillers.
32:46Ray probably couldn't walk without pain meds at this point.
32:49His back was out.
32:50His knees hurt him.
32:51I mean, he was just in such bad shape.
32:53And when he goes back on the road, he starts hitting the medicine really heavy.
32:58Ray's addiction is fueled by prescriptions from doctors across the country.
33:04Back before there was a database, we had doctors everywhere.
33:07So one guy says, hey, I got a guy in Atlanta, blah, blah, blah.
33:11I knew Dr. Aston when I was in my early 20s.
33:14He was a diet pill doctor.
33:17And I guess Ray must have asked him to write pain pills.
33:20I think he was kind of a wrestling fan because he would write whatever they told him.
33:25A pill pusher.
33:26A drug dealer.
33:28You're giving this man 150 somas, 150 pain pills, a testosterone too.
33:32You know, I mean, whatever you want.
33:35It's like, you have the money, people let you do what you want.
33:39And I think that's disgusting.
33:42You can talk to all the Atlanta guys from WCW or WWE.
33:47There's a ton of them that came through there.
33:50So many of them are in the graveyard right now.
33:54I knew Chris was going there.
33:56Chris, you?
33:57Benoit.
34:00New charges for the Georgia doctor who treated a pro wrestler who killed himself and his family.
34:06Dr. Phil Aston was charged Thursday in a new 175 count federal indictment with conspiracy and improperly dispensing drugs.
34:14If I could say something to Dr. Aston, I think I would ask him if he knew.
34:20Did you know that this medication was as addictive as it is?
34:27Did they ever tell them, hey, you're going to get physiologically dependent upon this chemical and it's going to be
34:34hell on you to come off of?
34:38Did you know that people were going to get hurt?
34:47In 2003, Ray's contract expires, leaving him searching for a new line of work.
34:53A lot of people don't know this, but he ran for commissioner for Pawland County.
35:00The night of the election, Ray was messed up on pills.
35:04He couldn't even hardly walk, but everybody protected him.
35:08And that was just a breaking point for me.
35:11We separated.
35:13As Ray continues battling addiction, a long-time friend succumbs to theirs.
35:23Your heart can only take so much to certain things, you know.
35:26And, you know, we lost Kurt.
35:30Kurt died that really bothered him a lot.
35:33There was definitely someone involved in it.
35:36When somebody like Kurt Henning passes away, you would think that that would be a wake-up call.
35:42But, look at how many passed away since then.
35:48That's how strong that stuff is.
35:49Look at this!
35:51Terry did her damage, distracted Mark Merrill, and right here, boom!
35:55Unless you were in our world back in the day, in the late 80s, the 90s, Attitude Era, you just
36:03have no clue.
36:04Hi, everyone. I am Terry Reynolds, and Big Boss Man Ray Traylor is one of my dearest friends.
36:13The reason we have so many deaths in our industry, I believe, is because we don't have an off-season.
36:20If you are injured, then you lose your spot.
36:26And then somebody else comes in, and takes your spot, and takes your money, basically.
36:33With these guys in that era, and the amount of pain that they were in, it was just a byproduct
36:39of the industry.
36:41And sacrificing your body to the sport like that.
36:45You have to make that decision. Am I going to live, or am I going to die?
36:54After Kurt passed away, he had a change of perspective.
36:58He wasn't a lost cause.
37:01He loved his family enough that he was willing to do what he had to do.
37:04He said, can I come back home?
37:07He wanted us to renew our vows and start all over.
37:10And that was just perfect.
37:11And then I never saw him get messed up again.
37:16Returning to his family, Ray maintains his sobriety, despite struggling with chronic pain.
37:24He was sitting in front of the TV. His knees was hurt. He could not stop his knees from hurting.
37:30He told the girls, you know, daddy's hurt, and I'll be up there in about 30 minutes to tuck y
37:34'all.
37:35So I went on up there, and I read to the girls. One of them wanted something to drink.
37:43So when I go down the stairs, he was just laid back like this in his seat.
37:47You know, I didn't think anything about it, except for the color. His color just didn't look right.
37:55I'll never forget it, when we heard Mom scream.
38:02I got the phone, I'm calling 911.
38:04She told me I've got to get him out of the chair and put him flat on the ground.
38:07I'm like, you don't know what you're asking.
38:10And she said, I don't care what you have to do, you've got to get him flat on the ground.
38:15I had just learned CPR in health class that week, and so I started chest compressions.
38:25I just remember hoping that I'm compressing hard enough.
38:32And just, you know, saying to God in your head,
38:37please let him live.
38:42Like, it's like I could, like, taste his last breath on my mouth.
38:52And I knew, in that moment, that my life changed forever.
39:06On September 22, 2004, at 41 years of age, Ray Traylor dies of a heart attack.
39:15Of course, his whole family have all died of heart issues really young.
39:21You have survivor's guilt, right?
39:24Did I, is it my fault?
39:25Did I do it right?
39:28People would say to me, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.
39:30Or, I know how you feel.
39:32No, you don't.
39:34You don't.
39:36And it's Bubba Rogers.
39:37Bubba's an old friend of the Cornette family from Louisville, Kentucky,
39:40and he's been a friend for a long time.
39:42Me and the Midnight Express were like a week away from our first reunion.
39:48And he died like the week before the first one we did.
39:56Give me a second.
39:59The hardest man in the world, Big Bubba Rogers!
40:071986 was my favorite year in wrestling because I was with my friends, Midnight Express,
40:12and Bubba became the fourth member.
40:14Watch out, Bubba!
40:15We were both early 20s, making a fortune.
40:20He's gonna win that cage match, baby!
40:22Living our dream.
40:24And I think that was just my favorite time because I don't know that it was that fun anymore after
40:29that.
40:29I liked that guy.
40:36I was so traumatized by his death.
40:39It took me over a decade to even be able to like think about his wrestling career.
40:47I felt robbed a little bit because I was so young when he passed away.
40:54For a long time, I felt angry.
40:57I really, really got cynical there for a little bit.
41:03I'm amazed that I've made it like to the age I am now.
41:07I've struggled, I've overcome stuff, I've messed up and had to fix it.
41:13I'm grateful that in spite of my trauma, it doesn't define me.
41:18I work in the behavioral health space.
41:21We like to say addiction is the opposite of connection.
41:25I used to worry that speaking about this struggle that he had, that people would hate me for it.
41:34But now I've really realized that it's important to talk about.
41:38It's a part of his story and it's a part of my story because it was hard.
41:42The teachable story here is that there's always a comeback if you want it, you know.
41:47And it lets people know they can change.
41:50I never thought I would have liked wrestling.
41:53But really, I would say into my 20s, it clicked for me.
42:05In 2016 for the Hall of Fame, my coworkers was like,
42:08Big Boss Man's your dad? And I was like, yeah.
42:12And they were like, that is so cool.
42:13And I was like, wait, y'all, you guys think this is cool?
42:17I want to start off by just saying thank you to all the fans for keeping Dad's memory alive all
42:23these years.
42:24As you grow older and you have hindsight, how blessed am I to have gotten to share him with so
42:31many people.
42:36When Ray went into the ring, he had the stick. But when he came home, he had his heart.
42:41And he loved his family. And everyone that knew Ray knows how he loved his family.
42:47So you mama didn't love you?
42:50The thing I miss most with Ray is the fact that he smiles, everyone smiles.
42:56And each time goes by that you don't have a Ray conversation, that you don't remember something funny.
43:00Now that is a butt.
43:05Yeah. God, I love his laugh.
43:14I think Ray's legacy in the wrestling business is that he'll be one of those all-time villains and a
43:21wonderful human being.
43:23Even though Ray fed me my dog, I still think he was a great guy.
43:28The big boss man should be remembered by all the fans and the kids who liked him and looked up
43:33to him.
43:34Law, order, and justice.
43:37I remember Bubba.
43:41To me, he was just a great guy.
43:46Ray Traylor, if I could speak to you today, I would tell you how much I love you, and we
43:50still love you, and you still make us laugh, and you always will.
43:53I love you.
43:55I love you.
43:55And thank you.
43:57Thank you for being such a wonderful person.
43:59Thank you for being such a wonderful person.
44:04The end of these days are so crazy and how the man will die with her favorite children and a
44:04guy is a random person?
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