Ray Traylor

Ray Traylor
Data
Ring name	Big Bubba Rogers (The) Big Bossman The Boss The Guardian Angel Ray Traylor (The) Boss Man
height	193 cm
Fighting weight	139-162 kg
birth	May 2, 1962 Marietta , Georgia
death	September 22, 2004 Paulding County , Georgia
Announced from	The Department of Corrections in Cobb County , Georgia
Trained by	Mickey Henry
debut	1985

Raymond "Ray" Traylor (born May 2, 1962 in Marietta , Georgia , United States , † September 22, 2004 in Paulding County , Georgia, United States) was an American wrestler who worked in the World Wrestling Federation under the name Big Bossman became known.

Beginnings

Before his wrestling career, Ray Traylor worked as a prison guard. In 1985 he finally began with the Wrestling and debuted in 1986 in the AWA and the National Wrestling Alliance belonging Jim Crockett Promotion . He initially appeared as a jobber under his real name. Booker and wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes saw potential in Traylor, gave him the gimmick of the Big Bubba Rogers , leaving him as a bodyguard of Jim Cornette occur. After a program with Rhodes, Traylor moved to the Universal Wrestling Federation . There he took the title from his later tag team partner One Man Gang , as he moved to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) .

World Wrestling Federation (1988-1993)

In 1988 Traylor also joined the WWF and, in keeping with his original job, got the gimmick of a prison guard called The Big Boss Man . He initially acted as a villain and was allowed to work with reigning champion Hulk Hogan several times.

In September of the same year they formed the tag team The Twin Towers with Akeem (the former One Man Gang ) . A feud began with the new tag team The Mega Powers , consisting of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage . While the team never got the title, it was an integral part of the main storyline surrounding the beginning feud between Hogan and Savage. After the team at Wrestlemania 5 was allowed to defeat Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty , who were competing as The Rockers , the WWF prepared a separation, with Traylor becoming the crowd favorite (Face) . The former team met at Wrestlemania 6 and Traylor remained victorious.

Performing as Face, he now mainly worked in the middle position of the shows, but sometimes also competed in team matches with Hulk Hogan in the main event . After a loss at the Royal Rumble in 1993 against Bam Bam Bigelow , Traylor moved to WCW after a short time in Japan .

World Championship Wrestling (1993-1998)

After he started here under the name The Boss and a similar gimmick as before in the WWF, this had to be converted due to legal disputes; the WCW called him henceforth The Guardian Angel . He feuded with Big Van Vader in 1994 before changing his gimmick again in 1995.

He is now returning to the original Big Bubba Rogers character he started his career with, working in a feud program with WCW legend Sting and Hacksaw Jim Duggan . After he was a member of the groups Dungeon of Doom and also the nWo , he returned in 1998 to the WWF .

World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment (1998-2003)

On October 12, 1998, he came back to the then WWF main show Raw is War as, outwardly slightly changed, Big Boss Man . He was, on the side of Vince McMahon , involved in his ongoing feuds with Steve Austin and the D-Generation X and thus his status increased enormously over that in the WCW .

He was allowed to hold the WWF World Tag Team Championship with Ken Shamrock , as well as four times the WWF Hardcore Championship . In addition, he and the Undertaker played a well-known Hell in a Cell Match , in which he was hanged by the latter - using trickery - because he had to pause.

After his break he started a feud against The Big Show for the WWF Champion title , in the course of which he was allowed to defeat the then superstar The Rock , but was ultimately defeated by The Big Show .

After briefly forming a team with Bull Buchanan and finally having to heal an injury, he formed a tag team with Booker T for a short time in late 2001 . After another short-lived team with Mr. Perfect , he was hired as a coach in the WWE Development League Ohio Valley Wrestling before leaving the organization for good in 2003.

He then performed a few more appearances in Japan before he died of a heart attack on September 22, 2004 at the age of 42. His wife found him lifeless in her apartment. Resuscitation attempts by the emergency doctors who were called were unsuccessful. Ray Traylor was married and had two daughters.

successes

Universal Wrestling Federation

• 1 × UWF Heavyweight Championship

World Wrestling Federation

• 4 × WWF Hardcore Championship
• 1 × WWF World Tag Team Championship (with Ken Shamrock)
• WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2016)

Web links

Commons : Ray Traylor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Pictures of Traylor at Online World of Wrestling