WWE News: Former Tag Team Champion Blasts Bray Wyatt’s Latest ‘Firefly Fun House’ Segment
Ever since leaving the company in 2016, multiple-time WWE tag team champion Bully Ray (aka Bubba Ray Dudley) has oftentimes been critical of its creative direction. That apparently covers the popular “Firefly Fun House” vignettes starring Bray Wyatt, which Ray blasted in a recent tweet for being hypocritical in the light of past creative decisions regarding his preferred ring name.
As recapped by Newsweek, this week’s installment of “Firefly Fun House” on Monday Night Raw saw Wyatt, who plays a vaguely dark and sinister children’s television host, break up a fight between two of the segment’s talking puppets — Ramblin Rabbit and Mercy the Buzzard. After playfully threatening both characters, he declared that it was Ramblin Rabbit’s “lucky day,” which led to a scene where he grabbed a large toy hammer and repeatedly smashed the puppet. He then licked Ramblin Rabbit’s blood and promoted it as a “breakfast jelly” as the segment drew to a close.
While the segment’s official video on YouTube has been overwhelmingly popular — with over 22,000 likes and only 773 dislikes in one day, as of this writing — not everyone was happy with its presentation. On Monday evening, Bully Ray took to Twitter, where he offered the following comments on the latest edition of “Firefly Fun House.”
“[P]s…We cant use the name ‘Bully’ but smashing a rabbits brains out with a Sledge-O-Matic is totally cool.”
According to WrestlingNews.co, Ray’s remarks were a reference to a creative pitch he made to WWE officials shortly before his departure from the promotion close to three years ago. While the wrestler — known in real life as Mark LoMonaco — got a big singles push on TNA (now Impact Wrestling) under the Bully Ray gimmick, WWE rejected his idea of debuting the new character on television, apparently because of the inclusion of the word “bully” in his ring name, as separately noted by Sportskeeda.
6 things we learned on WWE #RAW with a title change and dark turn for Bray Wyatt's Firefly Fun Househttps://t.co/A1MHFBFo0b pic.twitter.com/jZQzT6vHGu
— Digital Spy (@digitalspy) June 11, 2019
WWE has long been taking a stand against bullying through the “Be a STAR” initiative, which it launched in partnership with the National Education Association Health Information Network.
This isn’t the first time in recent months that Bully Ray has made critical remarks about WWE’s creative process. Last month, Ray said on his Busted Open podcast on SiriusXM (via Cageside Seats) that WWE should appoint Paul Heyman as SmackDown Live‘s head creative writer, given how he is the “only proven” person who was able to make the blue brand special. Furthermore, he said in a December 2018 interview with WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross that the company no longer gives its performers the leeway to reach the “top of the mountain” as a superstar with the same level of mainstream recognition as John Cena, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, as reported by Wrestling Inc.
