RIP: Ray Traylor.
Bossman Traylor passes away
Former WWF and WCW star "Big Bossman" Ray Traylor passed away suddenly
yesterday in his home. According to a report by Georgiann Makropoulis,
Traylor's wife found him unconscious and paramedics were unable to revive
him. He had not been complaining of feeling ill beyond a bad knee. Traylor
is believed to have been 41.
A legitimate former prison guard out of Marietta, Georgia, Traylor first
broke into the business as Big Bubba Rogers, working some smaller
territories including Memphis (where he and Jerry Lawler held the Southern
Tag Team titles, but as was par for the course in Memphis, he soon turned on
Lawler). He ended up as the penultimate UWF champion, dropping the belt to
Steve Williams right before the company was completely absorbed into Jim
Crockett Promotions. He is best known during that time period for his role
as the bodyguard of Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express, where he also had
a series of taped fist matches with Ronnie Garvin.
Traylor was signed by the WWF in 1988 where he became the Big Bossman, an
evil heel known for brutalizing enhancement talent with a nightstick after
handcuffing them to the ropes, managed by Slick. During this time, Bossman
had a huge run with Hulk Hogan including a Steel Cage series featuring a
superplex off the top of the cage, which was a huge deal for two guys that
big during that time period. He also formed a tag team with Akeem as The
Twin Towers after his main event singles run was done, defeating The Rockers
in Shawn Michaels' Wrestlemania debut at Mania 5.
Bossman was turned babyface during an angle where he was hired to retrieve
Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Belt from Jake Roberts as it was in Robert's
snake bag. After tiring of the browbeating from DiBiase, Bossman put the
belt back in the bag and told DiBiase to get it himself. This led to a feud
with DiBiase and Bossman dishing out "hard time" to the heels of the
company, including a memorable feud with Rick Rude that stemmed from Rude
and manager Bobby Heenan making fun of Bossman's mother. Perhaps the most
memorable feud featured a storyline where a convict from Bossman's past,
Nailz came to WWF for revenge.
Bossman left the company in the early 90s, working the independent scene
including a revisiting of his feud with Nailz, who was working as "The
Convict" for a number of companies. At the same time, he was working
regularly for All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Bossman debuted for WCW in December 1993 as a last minute surprise to face
Rick Rude at Starrcade '93 as "The Boss" due to copyright issues with his
WWF name. That soon led to a series of gimmicks as he became "The Man," then
"The Guardian Angel" (including vignettes filmed with the Angels in New York
City) and finally a return to Big Bubba Rogers. He was a member of the New
World Order for a brief time as well.
Bossman jumped back to WWF in 1998, appearing as a member of Vince McMahon's
Corporation in a feud with Steve Austin. He remained with WWF in some
capacity until last year when his deal expired. He was extremely well liked
by management, especially McMahon himself, to the point that I recall a
worker who debuted in 2000 once telling me he had to be careful with Bossman
as hurting him was a surefire way to get on McMahon's bad side right out of
the gate.
During his final WWF run, he racked up several championship reigns,
defeating Mick Foley for the first of several Hardcore championships and a
WWF Tag Team championship with Ken Shamrock.
Bossman had several more feuds during this run including The Big Show (which
as irony has it given the Rick Rude feud, was based on Bossman badmouthing
Show's father, who "died" during the storyline) and Al Snow, which saw the
kidnapping and cooking of Snow's Chihuahua Pepper and one of the all-time
greatest "bad" matches, the Kennel from Hell, which is one of Mick Foley's
favorites.
Traylor underwent knee surgery in the Fall of 2000. He worked briefly was a
trainer for Ohio Valley Wrestling in 2002. Earlier this year, Traylor had
run Paulding County, Georgia's Commission Chairman but was defeated in a
three person race.
Traylor had been scheduled to appear alongside the Midnight Express on 10/30
at a big charity event in Waynesboro, Virginia and also this November for
Frank Goodman's USA Pro Wrestling in Jamaica, New York. Greg Price had also
hoped to include him in some of the upcoming conventions that were
scheduled. He had also expected to return to WWE at some point, turning down
a shoot interview offer a few months back, saying, "Call me in six months if
I'm not back in WWE."