Darkseve: In memory of "Big Bossman" Ray Traylor

****************************************************

*Ray Traylor*

(2nd May 1962 - 22nd September 2004)

Early Career

Ray Traylor was a former prison guard in Cobb County, Georgia. He made his wrestling debut in 1985, initially working as a jobber. He was brought into Jim Crockett's World Championship Wrestling promotion as a bodyguard for Jim Cornette, who along with the Midnight Express, was feuding with the James Boys (Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A.).

In 1987, Traylor wrestled under the ring name of Big Bubba Rogers and won the Universal Wrestling Federation title from One Man Gang, who was dropping the title after signing with WWF.

WWF (1st run)

In 1988, Traylor himself joined the WWF and was given the ring name of Big Bossman. Bossman enjoyed a good deal of success in the company and made his pay-per-view debut at SummerSlam defeating Koko B. Ware. In October 1988, Bossman made a huge impact when he attacked Hulk Hogan on Brother Love's interview segment ("The Brother Love Show"), giving Hogan quite a beating with his nightstick.

On the May 27, 1989 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, he and Hogan faced each other in a memorable steel cage match for the WWF Title in which Hogan superplexed the 350 pound Traylor off the top of the cage.

As a heel, Bossman also teamed with Akeem, the former One Man Gang to form the Twin Towers with Slick as their manager. The Twin Towers beat The Rockers at WrestleMania V and feuded with Demolition for the WWF Tag Team Championship.

Bossman then turned face in early 1990 on The Brother Love Show after refusing to give Ted DiBiase his Million Dollar Championship Belt back after DiBiase had paid Slick off for Bossman to retrieve the belt from Jake "The Snake" Roberts' bag that contains a python. Bossman refused to take a payoff and returned the bag with the belt and snake to Jake Roberts and proceeded to shove his manager Slick down, telling DiBiase that he couldn't be bought.

At Survivor Series 1990, Bossman teamed with Hulk Hogan along with Jim Duggan and Tugboat defeated the team of Earthquake, Dino Bravo, Babarian and Haku. Bossman would then feud with the Heenan Family after Heenan made remarks about Bossman's mother. Bossman defeated Heenan's wrestlers such as The Barbarian at the 1991 Royal Rumble. This included a memorable encounter with Mr. Perfect at WrestleMania VII for the Intercontinental Title which Bossman won by disqualification. Bossman also feuded with his former tag team partner Akeem, defeating him in less than 2 minutes at WrestleMania VI.

In 1991, Bossman defeated The Mountie in an infamous Jailhouse match at SummerSlam with The Mountie having to spend a night in jail. Another memorable Bossman feud was with Nailz in 1992 with Nailz attacking him with a nightstick which kept him out of action for several months. WWF use Traylor's real life background as a prison guard by bringing in Nailz, a former convict who believed Traylor had wronged him (scripted). When Bossman returned, he went after his enemy and defeated Nailz in a Nightstick on a Pole Match at Survivor Series. Bossman lost his final pay-per-view match against Bam Bam Bigelow at Royal Rumble 1993.

WCW (2nd run)

After leaving the WWF in 1993, Traylor had a brief stint in AJPW before returning to the United States to work for WCW. Traylor was originally known as The Boss, but the WWF legal department determined the character to be too similar to the one that Traylor had portrayed in WWF and forced WCW to change it. As a result, Traylor was renamed the Guardian Angel. He feuded with Big Van Vader for most of 1994. Soon, Traylor returned to his original Big Bubba character in during the pre-WWF days and managed a victory against Sting at Uncensored in March 1995.

Big Bubba joined the Dungeon of Doom faction before defecting to the nWo. Eventually, a loophole in Bubba's contract forced him out of the nWo. As a result of this, Bubba turned face once again and began competing under his real name - Ray Traylor. He began feuding with the nWo, defeating several nWo members such as Scott Hall, Curt Hennig, and Vincent.

WWF (2nd run)

Traylor would return to the WWF in October 1998. He was once again under his Big Bossman persona, but wearing a SWAT-style uniform instead of his old police outfit. His gimmick was changed from a "cop" into a bully-type personal security officer or bodyguard-type character, willing to do anything for a price. He was immediately established as a top mid-card performer. He was introduced as a member of The Corporation, a group of wrestlers controlled by WWF owner Vince McMahon to feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin as well as D-Generation X. As The Corporation's "personal security", Bossman would have several matches with Austin.

On December 14, Bossman and fellow Corporation member Ken Shamrock defeated the New Age Outlaws for the WWF Tag Team Championship. The duo held the titles until January 25, 1999, when they lost to Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart. When The Corporation feud with the Undertaker and his newly formed "Ministry of Darkness", Bossman took on The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match at Wrestlemania XV. Taker eventually defeated Bossman and left Bossman "hanging" about 15 feet in the air, motionless.

Bossman returned to win the WWF Hardcore Championship from Al Snow. While he was still the hardcore champion, Bossman would still go on to feud with The Big Show over the WWF Championship. This feud is infamous for a promo where Bossman showed up at Big Show's father's funeral (scripted) and proceeded to steal the funeral casket by rigging it to the back of his car and drove off. The Big Show jumped onto the coffin as it was being towed away, riding atop the coffin for a few yards until he lost his grip and tumbled off. This feud ended with Bossman being crushed by Big Show at the Armageddon pay-per-view.

Bossman would participate in Royal Rumble 2000 and helped 6 other superstars to eliminate Rikishi. He would go on to eliminate Chyna and Farooq before Bossman himself was eliminated by the The Rock, who went on to win the Rumble. Bossman had the third longest overall time in the Rumble. On the March 19 edition of Sunday Night Heat, Bossman introduced protégé Bull Buchanan, a wrestler who dressed similar to Bossman. They formed a tag team and defeated defeated The Godfather and D'Lo Brown at WrestleMania 2000 and beat the APA the following month at Backlash. However on 5 June edition of Raw, after a loss to the Hardy Boys, Buchanan and Bossman began to argue which led to shoving and eventually Bossman knocked out Buchanan with his nightstick when Buchanan's back was turned. The team then split up.

In the summer of 2000, Bossman disappeared from mainstream WWE TV and wrestled mainly on Jakked and WWE Heat, primarily feuding with Crash Holly. When Traylor returned from an injury in late 2001, he was given a role as the tag team partner of Booker T. Bossman served as an enforcer again, only this time for Booker T under the order of Vince McMahon. The team quietly split in late January 2002. From there on Bossman wrestled mostly on Jakked. In April, he formed a short lived tag team with Mr. Perfect after both were drafted to the Raw brand. In June 2002, Traylor was then assigned to train new wrestlers in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) before ultimately being released from WWE in 2003.

During his final run in the WWF, Bossman was a 4 times hardcore champion and a 1 time tag team champion. Bossman also holds the record of the longest reign WWF Hardcore Champion as he helded the title for slightly more than 3 months.

Death

On September 22, 2004, Traylor's spouse Debbie found him laying motionless on the sofa in his home in Paulding County, Georgia. Traylor died from a massive heart attack.

Links:

1) Big Bubba Rogers vs. Ole Anderson (NWA)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8LX7qpAht0 (Thanks to soliewrestling)

2) Big Bossman WWF face turn on The Brother Love Show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsK_EJuE_a4&feature=related (Thanks to inspecttor)

3) Big Bossman vs. The Mountie @ Summerslam 1991 part 1 (Jailhouse match)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCqeuL_mLec (Thanks to fungusmcphee)

4) Big Bossman vs. The Mountie @ Summerslam 1991 part 2 (Jailhouse match)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4tHcYWS7TE&feature=related (Thanks to fungusmcphee)

5) Ray Traylor vs. Scott Steiner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V57yHcmK4UY (Thanks to wcwretro)

6) Big Bossman vs. Big Show @ Armageddon 1999