Bully Ray is a wrestling veteran who has been involved in the business for over thirty years. He has experienced incredible tag team success as one half of the Dudley Boyz and had some singles success in TNA and elsewhere.
Because of his longevity and his firsthand experience in some of the highest-rated and most popular segments in modern wrestling history, Bully has provided an industry expert’s opinion on what some fans perceive to be an issue with one of AEW’s titles.
Bully Ray believes AEW “flip-flopping” title changes makes the show must-see TV
AEW crowned its first TNT Champion on May 23rd, 2020. Since then, there have been fifteen different reigns between eight different wrestlers, and only three of which have surpassed 100 days in length.
And aside from Wardlow’s reign in mid-2022, the most recent ten TNT title reigns have all been under 100 days in length.
Most would see such short reigns as bad signs. The idea that a title switches hands so often might make some fans think a title has little value and no prestige because the defending champions have weak reigns.
Bully is no stranger to this sort of happening. All eight of his reigns as World Tag Team Champion in WWE occurred between 2000 and 2003. That period saw even more ‘flip-flopping’ than what AEW’s going through now, as some of those WWE World Tag title reigns were only single-digit in length.
Coincidentally, that was also one of the hottest periods in WWE history.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray explained that it makes sense for the AEW TNT Championship to flip-flop because it “creates must-see TV”.
“I like when one championship constantly gets flip-flopped and if you’re going to flip-flop a championship, the Television Title is the one to do it with. You always have that aspect of, ‘anything can happen in any show, any city.’
People love when they get a title change… So, yeah, flip-flopping that belt, I’d like to see it often. I don’t think it hurts anybody, especially if you have to defend that championship every week.”
“If Wardlow is able to take one of those championships off of Joe, and then here comes another guy to challenge Wardlow, like Hobbs.
And that TV Championship is just being Hot-Potatoed every single week. S*** I gotta tune in just see what happens with the AEW TV Championship or the Ring of Honor TV Championship.”
h/t EWrestlingNews for the transcription