Bully Ray leaves TNA

Bully Ray reportedly held a meeting backstage at tonight's TNA live event in Hagerstown, MD and told the crew that he was leaving and didn't expect to be back.

Bully's deal is expiring and tonight's live event was the last date he was scheduled for.

Bully and partner Devon are scheduled to be inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame during Bound For Glory this year.

Not sure WWE will be that interested in him, he peaked as a singles star a couple of years ago where it did look like he could conceivably jump back to WWE.

Expect he'll go back to the indies/Japan, possibly a move to GFW. Think it's being shown that wrestlers who are well known are now happy to go back to the indies because they can make just as much money doing their own booking. Worrying.

If WWE hired him back id expect it would be as a trainer like Tensai/Sara Del Rey is now

WWE's roster is too stacked to find Bubba Ray a place on it now. He would certainly have his uses in the WWE, but not really in an in ring capacity. They could hire both him and D'von to work the performance centre as Tag Team specialists.

I think WWE could really use Ray at the moment, they are massively short on full time heels and Ray could do a good year or 2 to help the likes of Reigns and Ambrose

Listened to him on JR's podcast the other day and made clear if he'd return to WWE he'd want to be able to go to the limits of his character as a heel. I think he'd probably get the most heel heat out of any wrestler on the roster.

After doing good work in an awful story as a heel in TNA, I'm sure he could get over as a heel, but his ring work is so unimpressive and he needs to be able to be a little darker than WWE will allow. Plus, to give credit to TNA crowds (for once), they do boo the prescribed heels and cheers the faces. Bully/Bubba would come in cheered, then get booed when he made it clear he was a bad guy, then get cheered again for being a proper heel and probably quite "cool".

And as men who already train wrestlers in their own time, would Bully and D'Von want to do it for WWE? It would be a step up but it would also take away a lot of their control.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!   

Bully was one of the main reasons I watched TNA. It will definitely be poorer without him. Oddly, he's also been brilliant as a face just lately (probably because he still kept a heel-ish edge).

Just wondering, how far do WWE let their talent go when it comes to "edgy" behaviour (i.e. violence, language etc.)? Bully can get pretty intense and if they want to keep their product kid-friendly, he might find himself a bit constrained.

Moving to an independent promotion would probably be the best option, where he can swear, spill a bit of blood, if called for and generally be the really nasty piece of work he excels at being.

If this is true then it will sad for TNA as he has grown into one of their biggest assets. If he walks at the end of his contract then I think EC3 should step up and TNA give him the push into main event. There is a lot of potential with EC3. This might also allow guys like Gunner to get a push too as I think Gunner should be a future world champion. But I hope Bully stays to put over these guys when the time is right!

D-VON GET THE TABLES!

I'm gonna miss the big lug.

His wrestling may not have been great, but as a character he was one of the best. His promos and work on the mic were top notch. He really knew how to work the audience too, if he sensed they were up for it.