Best Of The Big Boss Man

[The Brain]

In this thread I will be discussing the WWF career of The Big Boss Man. If you want to discuss Big Bubba Rogers, The Guardian Angel, The Boss, etc. from NWA, UWF, or WCW feel free.

The Big Boss Man entered the WWF during the summer of 1988 under the management of Slick. He was nearly 400 pounds and a mean former prison guard that handcuffed his opponents and beat them with his nightstick after a match. In those days when a new super heavyweight heel entered the WWF you knew it was just a matter of time until he feuded with Hulk Hogan. That time for Boss Man came only a few months after his debut when he brutally attacked Hogan on the Brother Love Show. Boss Man was an immediate force in the WWF and would go on to feud on and off with Hogan for several months.

Throughout 1989 Boss Man would split his time between singles and tag team action regularly teaming with Akeem in the Twin Towers. Boss Man’s rivalry with Hogan expanded into the tag team feud between The Twin Towers and The Mega Powers. The Towers were the Mega Powers opponents on the big Main Event special when the Mega Powers finally split up. After beating The Rockers at WrestleMania V the Towers were a major threat to Demolition’s tag titles while Boss Man simultaneously feuded with Dusty Rhodes in a singles feud.

Early in 1990 Slick accepted a payoff from Ted Dibiase to get the Boss Man to retrieve Dibiase’s stolen Million Dollar Belt from Jake Roberts. For some reason Boss Man became upset when he found out Slick accepted money from Dibiase. Suddenly Boss Man had integrity and said he didn’t accept payoffs and was just doing the right thing by retrieving the stolen property. Illogically he returned the stolen property to the thief because he was upset about the payoff. Despite the major flaws in the storyline Boss Man was now enjoying new found popularity as a face. For the next three years he would be a fixture in the mid card and one of the more popular stars of the early 90s. Feuds with Akeem, Dibiase, the Heenan Family, Mountie, and Nailz among others always kept Boss Man relevant. He would even become a regular ally of former rival Hulk Hogan. Something that often goes unnoticed about Boss Man during this time is how much he changed physically. After turning face Boss Man slimmed down considerably and lost a lot of weight. As a heel he was fat and appeared to be out of shape but after turning face he looked great and actually incorporated some speed into his offense. Boss Man left the WWF in early 1993 with his last notable match being a loss to Bam Bam Bigelow at the Royal Rumble.

After several different gimmicks in WCW the Big Boss Man returned to the WWF in the fall of 1998 as Vince McMahon’s enforcer in his feud with Steve Austin. Boss Man wasn’t a major contender at that time but as McMahon’s henchman he was usually working with big stars like Austin, Mankind, and Undertaker. He did win the tag titles with fellow Corporate member Ken Shamrock.

In mid 1999 the Corporation would quietly fall apart and Boss Man would remain a heel in a singles run. He was one of the worst heels in the WWF. By that I don’t mean he didn’t do his job well, I mean his character was just an awful human being. He kidnapped Al Snow’s dog and fed it to him and mocked Big Show when his father was dying of cancer before crashing the funeral. After being destroyed by the Big Show at the end of 1999 Boss Man returned to tag team wrestling forming a partnership with Bull Buchanan. The team didn’t do anything too significant and Boss Man disappeared in mid 2000. Besides for a brief and forgettable comeback in early 2002 that was the end of the Big Boss Man’s time in the WWF.

I only mentioned his time in the WWF because that is what I’m familiar with. Besides, this thread is long enough as it is. My favorite time for Boss Man was the early 90s when he was a mid card singles face. He was popular, in great shape, and was a guy the fans got behind when a heel needed to be put in his place. What was your favorite time and gimmick for The Big Boss Man? What were your favorite feuds and storylines? Feel free to share any general thoughts.

 

[NxtBigThing]

For me my favorite memories of Big Boss Man was when I was a kid in the early 90s. I remember cheering for him to win the IC belt from Mr Perfect and was a little disappointed he didn't win the belt. However my favorite memory was shortly after when he feuded with The Mountie. I remember their match at Summer Slam with the loser being sent to prison for a day. Boss Man won and I remember some funny moments with The Mountie stay in prison. AS a kid those were some fun times.

 

[justtxyank]

An incredibly underrated wrestler. I was one of the few people who bought into him at the end of his WCW run when he feuded with the nWo. A victim of the stupid gimmicks of the WWF and that is the only thing that kept him from being a world champion in my mind. A wrestling prison guard/cop can never be washed out of your mind, and from the time his run as Bossman ended in the 90s, fans could never really see him as anything else.

He was a credible opponent for everyone he ever faced and gave good matches to Sting, Savage and Vader in WCW in the mid 90s. I wish he would have had a title run at some point to hang his hat on. He could have easily carried the US or IC title in either promotion.

 

[bear2wrestle]

I liked him probably best as a face during his original WWF run. There's something about his southern boy, earnest cop look that spoke to many fans. He also moved incredibly well for a big man and was very good at getting the crowd going. There was once I remember Mr Perfect threw his towel at the Bossman and without missing a beat, Bossman wiped his ass with the towel and threw it back at Perfect's face. The crowd went nuts, it was hilarious.

I also quite enjoyed his run as Ray Traylor in WCW before he left, but it was clear he was no longer the athlete he used to be. He had gained and lost weight and gone through too many moniker changes as well, which was confusing for the fans.

I never understood why WWF didn't give him a proper title run in the 1990s, when it appeared like he would get one. He was over and worked very hard. He was also very good at selling a beatdown. I still remember the brutal beatings and "electrocutions" the Mountie gave him, as well as the one Nailz delivered when he first debuted. Bossman made them look real! RIP, Ray.

 

[Aberle4Life]

I had the honor of meeting the Bossman before a Smackdown! taping in Milwaukee, I think it was 2002. I got his autograph and thanked him for all the great memories and matches he put on for us. I told him he was always one of my favorites, a true statement. He almost looked like he was going to cry, as he was very appreciative of my words, and said "Thanks, man." He came across as very humble, and I'm lucky I had the chance to see him shortly before his WWF/E career came to an end.

The Big Bossman was an entertaining character, and I have nothing but good things to say about him. Great as a heel or a face, I always looked forward to his segments. And the theme music? One of the best songs in wrestling ever!

 

[Pedigree1]

First of all R.I.P Ray Traylor! The early 90's were my favorite as well. Big Boss Man was in fantastic shape for someone of his size,and quite agile as i remember. I liked the fact his character then,was someone of integrity and honor. Quite the opposite of when he first made his debut. He was pretty over but even when he made his debut it was pretty clear he would never sniff a title run! I liked his feuds with Hogan,Akeem whoever Boss Man faced his worked his ass off so the fans never went home disappointed..

But an IC Run or even a short one he could have done just fine with it! Hell they gave one to Val Venis of all people i know different times but BossMan deserved at least that IMO

 

[jameyt2003]

I didn't get to catch Boss Man's work until late 90's. His angle with the Big Show came off as tasteless but it gave Ray Traylor a chance to let loose. His outfit and gimmick were really good too. I remember that noose he had to hang from at WM XV, sick. There was the Al Snow/dog angle. Another ridiculous stint but he pulled it off.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I never got to see the Big Boss Man in his early '90s WWF run, the first I saw of him was as the "head of security" for Vince McMahon's Corporation. I thought he looked pretty cool in the Swat team jacket he wore, and he had some bad ass theme music at that point, I still think that entrance theme is on my iPod to this day!

I didn't realise that boss Man had gone up against the likes of hulk Hogan, I only ever thought of him as a mid-carder. but he played his role very well and fitted in perfectly with the Hardcore Division in the late '90s. When you see the likes od Godfather, Val Venis and Albert got IC Title runs, I don't think Boss Man would have looked out of place as an IC Champion, but at that time with the likes of The Rock, Austin, HHH, Mankind, Undertaker etc he was never going to main event.

The angle with Big Show was tasteless though, I was pretty offended by it to be honest, there is no need to go down that route in wrestling. However, I thought the ending of the HIAC match with Undertaker, which resulted in Boss Man "hanging" above the ring was pretty cool, although shocking. No wonder WWF was getting criticised for some of it's content around this time, compared to the tame stuff off the mid 90's this was some shocking stuff!

 

[dd23beatlesfan1]

I think one The Big Boss Man is one of the most underrated "superstars" in WWE history. During his peak in the early 90's, he was easily one of the top mid-card babyfaces in the company. Jake was probably No. 1, and then I'd put the Big Boss Man at No. 2, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan at a close No. 3. The Boss Man was majorly over with the crowd. And he's still remembered to this day by people that watched wrestling back then. In conversations I've had with people that haven't watched wrestling in 20 years, they of course talk about Hogan, Warrior, and Savage, but the Big Boss Man, perhaps surprisingly, gets brought up almost as much. That tells you right there that he left a large impression on people, way more than he's given credit for.

And yeah, there was a lot of wrestlers in the late 80's/early 90's that didn't win any titles in that period (tag team, I-C, or of course the heavyweight title), that more than deserved one. Jake Roberts was obviously No. 1 on that list. But after him, I think a strong argument could be made that the Boss Man would be second on that list (although Martel was another good option for some kind of title run).

The thing with the Big Boss Man is that like Jake Roberts and Randy Savage, he was really good at having memorable feuds. Of course the rivalry with Hogan/Savage when he was teaming with Akeem was of course very memorable. But how can you not have a memorable feud with Hogan and Savage? But the fact that his feuds with short-term mid card heels like the Mountie and Nailz are so memorable, shows how talented he was. And like someone else previously mentioned, he was phenomenal at selling. The beatdown he took from Nailz is still one of the most brutal looking segments I've ever seen in WWE. It looked downright real. That's a testament to the Boss Man's talent.

No, he didn't really have any five star quality matches, but he was still a very talented wrestler that was great at the old way of doing things, not necessarily leaving memorable, classic matches, but instead leaving many classic and memorable moments, and having a great gimmick.

Someone previously said that he was stuck with a bad gimmick. And I don't believe that's the case one bit. He had a great gimmick in an era when everyone had a gimmick, and it stood out more than most. Considering he's still fondly remembered by people that haven't watched wrestling in a long time shows his gimmick was memorable and left an impression. How can that be bad?

The best match he had in WWE, IMO, was the steel cage match he had with Hulk Hogan on Saturday Night's Main Event. Other than Kane/Taker, that's possibly the best big man match that WWE has ever had. It was a great match, better than many would expect, especially for that time.

I think the Big Boss Man is more than deserving of being in the WWE Hall of Fame. He's one of the most memorable mid-card babyfaces in WWE history.

He was a great talent that is sorely missed to this day.


R.I.P. Ray Traylor

 

[justtxyank]

Someone previously said that he was stuck with a bad gimmick. And I don't believe that's the case one bit. He had a great gimmick in an era when everyone had a gimmick, and it stood out more than most. Considering he's still fondly remembered by people that haven't watched wrestling in a long time shows his gimmick was memorable and left an impression. How can that be bad?

Don't misunderstand me.

Ray Traylor as the wrestling cop was a good gimmick for the early 90s WWF where everyone had stupid gimmicks. Wrestling cops, tax collectors, repo men...I mean seriously, the gimmicks were beyond dumb and only worked because Vince decided to turn wrestling into a comedy show in the early 90s. In its time, The Big Bossman gimmick was great.

The problem with it was that it was a gimmick that was very difficult to shake. It's similar to Mike Rotundo as IRS. Once you are a wrestling tax collector, it's hard for the fans to really care about you as a different gimmick.

A wrestling cop was never going to be world champion. Gimmicks like that set the ceiling on guys and I think Ray Traylor was a guy who had no natural ceiling in the business.

 

[Goldie]

His fued with the Mountie in 1991 stood out for me.... the 'Good' law enforcer vs the 'Evil' law enforcer. The highlight of which was their match at Summerslam, where Mountie lost the stipulation and had to spend the night in jail. The skits that took Mountie to jail, and then in the slammer itself were hilarious, Rougeau was so hammy and OTT it still amuses me to this day.... (we also saw the first one finger digit salute I think, in WWE history.... when Mountie had his prints taken by the cops.

Boss Man also had a good match with Curt Hening when challenging for the IC title at WM7... though I don't think the bookers would have seriously considered Curt jobbing the title out to him.
Hi sfued with Nailz was memorbale.... even though Nailz was a horrible worker. There was a brutal attack by Nailz on his former prison guard just before Summerslam 92.... where Bossman got his revenge by beating Nailz at Survivor Series.

I thought the Twin Towers were a pretty good team.... alot of bulk, though Bossman could movge for a big guy. Their match with the Rockers at WM5 was decent!

Come to think of it, BossMan worked his way up the card very quickly... as he was fueding with Hogan just months into starting!

 

[bear2wrestle]

Speaking of gimmicks I've just noticed how Bossman has always sort of been that law/security enforcer kinda character throughout his wrestling career, even as Guardian Angel in WCW. Not sure if it was because he couldn't break out of the mound, but it must've been pretty cumbersome having to wear a full costume (always some sort of uniform) to wrestle all the time.

If you want any evidence of Bossman's workrate you need only look at his weight loss. During that period it was quite okay to be just "big" without being terribly athletic, but he went through the effort of losing all that weight. Although there seems to be a wormhole in my memory - I just remember him being fat and then suddenly there's the fit Bossman - not quite sure when the in-between part happened!

Does anyone know why WWF let him go? Good workrate, good rapport with crowd... seems odd.

 

[Slash-LN]

I'm probably guilty of overlooking him when I think about wrestlers from the late '80s and early '90s.

Like a few other people said I really liked him vs Mr. Perfect and The Mountie. Although that was in hindsight for me.

I remember Nailz beating him up and being sad about it. It was before I knew wrestling was scripted so I bought into the whole storyline. I was never particularly a big fan of him until that feud where I wanted nothing more than for him to get his revenge on Nailz. I was never invested in him again like I was during that time. That's not a shot at him though. That was just a really big moment for me.

For his WCW run he had a pretty good feud with Vader. I think that's what I remember about him the most from there.

I think he worked equally well as a face and a heel. Even though he had that face run in the early to mid 90s he was still able to get people to hate him when he came back to WWE. Given that things had changed by that time and people were cheering heels all of a sudden that showed he was an effective heel in the things he was doing. He could still draw heat.

 

[Matty~!]

Even though I generally liked a lot of the Big Bossman (and the boss in WCW) gimmick. I always struggled to get into his matches stateside, he had an incredibly fun little run in All Japan between leaving the WWF in the early 90's and turning up in WCW in 1993.

[YOUTUBE]o57rfqqWUIE[/YOUTUBE]

I first saw this the week that Bossman died which scarily is almost a decade ago now. It really impressed me with Bossman naturally acclimatising to the All Japan main event style. You can make a case for Kobashi being the best wrestler in the world in 1993 and Bossman despite his limitation hangs with him big style.

[YOUTUBE]Gdg-EFXH00g[/YOUTUBE]

Not quite as fun as the the Kobashi match but a good big man contest with some gnarly striking.

[YOUTUBE]LFikGtOAEDs[/YOUTUBE]

Three of All Japan's top stars and Bossman in there too, totally blending in and not missing a beat. Gets pretty nasty too which is always fun to watch!

 

[The 1 in 21]

Have to agree that the early 90s was his best run. Think it would have been deserving for him to win the IC title at wm7 in what I must admit was one of favourite wrestlemania match.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

First of all R.I.P Ray Traylor! The early 90's were my favorite as well. Big Boss Man was in fantastic shape for someone of his size,and quite agile as i remember. I liked the fact his character then,was someone of integrity and honor. Quite the opposite of when he first made his debut. He was pretty over but even when he made his debut it was pretty clear he would never sniff a title run! I liked his feuds with Hogan,Akeem whoever Boss Man faced his worked his ass off so the fans never went home disappointed..

But an IC Run or even a short one he could have done just fine with it! Hell they gave one to Val Venis of all people i know different times but BossMan deserved at least that IMO

He could never have had a title... as many guys in his era couldn't because they had a gimmick. He had the nightstick (the cuffs as a heel) and needed to be able to use those freely, plus his image as a "cop" didn't work as well with a belt... cops don't do it for "titles" they do it for justice... Jake was another one like this, if he had to parade/show off a title then there was less/no time for Damien and it would be cumbersome... someone like Rude could get away with it as the pose/put down/disrobing showed the belt off or he had Heenan to actually carry it.

As to Bossman himself... awesome worker even when he was seemingly "greener" than a lot of the others of his era... he was visibly 5-10 years younger than most of his peers and in the main you wouldn't have realised. He wasn't "limited" like most big men but kept it to what he did well with the odd "flashy" move... he didn't do a moonsault like Bam Bam or Vader but did the 2nd best Enzuigiri I've seen behind Owen's.

My favourite story about him is one as Bubba, told by Cornette where he slammed his hand in a car door outside in front of the fans and practically broke his hand and completely no sold till he got into the arena and was near tears... but was stoic to protect the business and the fans perception... that's not cos he didn't want to look bad cos they had all seen it, they knew.. but he didn't want their enjoyment of the show damaged... and that rings true with the other posters tale of meeting him... I can imagine him being humbled when someone told him that.

Did he do all he could in the WWF? No, he was capable of more but as mentioned the gimmick was a factor... add to that Hogan and Warrior were never going to put him over as a heel and a match against a Flair etc wouldn't have worked... some saw him as lower level... indeed Rude didn't want to face him and left... was it cos he felt Bossman was a step down? Quite possibly.

He was someone I was genunely pleased to see come back during Attitude and despite being given some real shit to work with, was always a pro and put others over like a million bucks... The Kennel From Hell or the Big Show coffin angle were not his fault but he did them the best he could...

Sadly, the hanging spot from the Cell is what most remember him for in that run... again not his fault but he was not the sort to complain... I am sure a lot of people including Taker will be disappointed in themselves looking back that Bossman's Mania moment was THAT... he deserved much better than that...

He's a lock for the HOF but the "dead guy quota" comes into play... They're more likely to go with a Davey Boy first, where they can bring his son in to induct him rather than Bossman... If he ever does go in I'd hope they bring Cornette in to induct him or at the outside that Taker would do it... as a 3rd choice Jacques Rougeau cos the Bossman/Mountie feud was one of my favourite ones ever.

Definitely still the Boss, and a Guardian Angel to many.
RIP Ray Traylor

 

[FlairFan2003]

Very talented wrestler for his size, much more speed than you would expect. I never really liked the whole "Big Boss Man" southern cop gimmick, but those ridiculous gimmicks in general never worked for me, and WWE was full of them in the early-mid 90s, taking their cartoon style, Disney-Lite booking style of the 80s to new heights in childishness.

That said, despite never being a World Heavyweight Champion, Traylor was one of the most consistent workers in the industry for over a decade, and a good soldier, taking on multiple gimmcks in his later years that weren't necessarily flattering, but he also worked hard to get over with the audience.

My best memories however were in his early days as Big Bubba Rogers, the giant body clad/assassin protecting Jim Cornette in the NWA. Considering how weak Cornette's character was and how evil (remember he once beat a woman on screen with a tennis racket, leaving worries she could never have children afterwards!) t wasn't surprising he would need a body guard. His matches vs Ole Anderson were entertaining, if short, nd he worked his A#$ off in War Games II during the 1987 Great American Bash tour. I think thy missed an opportunity with him allowing him to leave.