Tom Hannifan: Bully Ray Brings Eyeballs To IMPACT Wrestling

When Bully Ray won the 2022 Call Your Shot Gauntlet at IMPACT Bound For Glory, some sections of the wrestling world scratched their heads, due to the 51-year-old veteran being given a main event push despite not being part of IMPACT since 2015.

IMPACT lead announcer Tom Hannifan has defended the booking of the ECW and WWE legend, saying the following about the former TNA World Heavyweight Champion on the Sports Guys Talking Wrestling podcast:

“Yeah. What’s the line from the Joker, some people just want to watch the world burn. I think Bully Ray cares about Bully Ray and the success of Bully Ray, period. But it’s a double edged sword because Bully Ray is a legend, he’s a two time hall of famer in two different companies. He’s a two time IMPACT World Champion. There is so much that he’s done positively and negatively throughout the history of IMPACT Wrestling. Having him gets eyeballs, whether you’re tuning in to hate him or love him. There are positives, but there are certainly negatives when it comes to Bully. I got to use a lot of expletives to explain him at the beginning of Hard To Kill, thank you to Scott D’Amore for allowing me to do that and the beauty of pay-per-view. I think Bully Ray has earned every last one of them at this point, and to your point, he’s just like a bad penny. He keeps turning up,” said Hannifan.

Bully unsuccessfully challenged IMPACT World Champion Josh Alexander at Hard to Kill on January 13.

H/T: Fightful