Bully Ray Blasts AEW Women’s No DQ Match for Poor Layout, Botched Finish, and Lack of Protection – On a recent episode of Busted Open After Dark, WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray delivered a sharp critique of the women’s No Disqualification tag team match on AEW Dynamite featuring Harley Cameron & Anna Jay vs. Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford, calling the bout overly ambitious, poorly executed, and a failure of backstage leadership.
While praising Harley Cameron’s effort, Bully Ray didn’t mince words in describing the match’s flaws. “After it was all over, you know, it fell short. Harley got busted open. The finish was missed completely,” he said. He went on to suggest that the match was simply overloaded: “E for effort. Great job. Putting so much thought into it. Cut it in half. Take 50% of all the stuff that you want to do and get rid of it, because it’s too fucking much. Nobody is going to remember it.”
One of Bully’s main concerns centered around the use of weapons. “None of you are experts at using furniture, none of you are experts at swinging chairs,” he stated bluntly. “I want to know when these four women ever were able to practice their use of using weapons… I don’t know what makes anybody think that they’re just going to show up on a Wednesday night or a Saturday night and be proficient in this stuff and make it look good.”
Bully emphasized that responsibility lies not just with the talent, but with AEW’s backstage agents and producers. “It’s on the producer and the agent to protect the talent from themselves,” he declared. He explained that, in his view, agents should actively evaluate a wrestler’s competency before greenlighting complex spots: “I would be asking Anna. Anna, let me see you swing a chair… Penelope, let me see you do this.”
The match’s finish drew particular criticism. During the attempted Doomsday Device, Harley Cameron, who had already suffered a cut earlier in the match, was visibly hesitant. “Harley became so gun shy from that [getting busted open] that when she was sitting on top of Megan’s shoulders, she was completely folded over because she didn’t want to get hit in the face again, thus creating absolutely no target for Penelope Ford to hit,” he said. “It looked really, really, really bad.”
Bully further criticized AEW’s production structure, or lack thereof. He lamented the pacing during commercial picture-in-picture breaks, noting “If you’re going to go to picture in picture back it off 50% fight around the ring, punch, kick, choke, spit a beer in somebody’s face. Don’t do shit that should be seen.”
In closing, Bully referenced long-standing industry rumors: “I hear these rumors. There were no production meetings in AEW, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand was doing… based on watching what I watched tonight, yep, I believe it.” Despite his harsh assessment, he ended with a note of concern, expressing hope that Harley Cameron is okay after being busted open during the match.
Bully Ray Blasts AEW Women’s No DQ Match
