Bully Ray isn't feeling WWE's current vibe, and he made that crystal clear during the May 27 episode of the Busted Open Podcast. The Hall of Famer tore into WWE's overly clean production style, saying the show has lost its edge and unpredictability.
He kicked things off by laying into the product's overproduced feel, saying it's just too perfect for its own good.
"This product feels too pretty to me. This product is too slick. This product is too produced. This product is almost too perfect. Everything is exactly where it should be. There's no loosey-goosey to it. There's no Wild West feel, you know?"
He followed that up by explaining his preference for some grit and rawness mixed in.
"I love classy with a little bit of trashy. What I have right now is a very classy WWE product. Everything is perfect -- I don't mean perfect in terms of storylines, but you get it. The way it's shot, the transitions... you know?"
Dave LaGreca jumped in and questioned whether WWE is now too corporate, especially after merging under the TKO banner.
"Well, you bring up something, Bully, that could be concerning with some fans. You know, is WWE becoming a little bit too corporate? You know, when you're part of a major corporation, there's things that you have to look out for -- there's warning signs, there's places you won't go."
He pushed the discussion further by asking if that corporate feel was hurting the product.
"Can you make the case that the WWE is becoming a little bit too corporate right now?"
Bully then pointed to WWE's increased focus on celebrity appearances instead of celebrating actual wrestling legends.
"One of the things they're doing throughout the course of the show is incorporating all of these other stars. 'Oh, this person has a Netflix special, and look who showed up at the show today.' And then they had those two guys backstage."
He said he'd rather see names like Tony Atlas featured in the crowd.
"You know what? That's fine. But show me Tony Atlas in the crowd. Tony Atlas just came to mind. A former wrestler in the crowd."
Dave reminded him that WWE did spotlight some legends during Saturday Night's Main Event. Bully asked for names, and Dave responded.
"They showed Wyndham and Rotunda. They showed Leilani Kai..."
Bully admitted he missed that detail.
"I forgot about Leilani. My bad, my bad. They did show Leilani Kai. Forgot about that."
The conversation then shifted to the quality of promos. Dave felt some were slipping back into scripted, safe territory.
"But I could see where you're saying that it's a little bit polished and you need a little bit more grit -- especially on the microphone too, with some of the promos. They're starting to go back to some of those cookie-cutter promos a little bit where you're just hitting your tagline."
He tied that into why the Jey Uso promo didn't fully land.
"Maybe that's one of the reasons why the Jey Uso segment didn't really connect with you."
Bully wrapped it up by saying that WWE is still riding the momentum from WrestleMania season -- but that may not last forever.
"Last week, maybe I should have prefaced this week again -- if I'm going to be the broken record, I got to be the broken record. And preface also, I did preface last week: it looks like from the way the amount of people that are in the building, everything is still okay."
"But I'm thinking that's all of the good equity that they have in the bank already leading up to WrestleMania."
WWE may still be drawing crowds, but Bully Ray's warning is clear -- if things stay too polished and too corporate, the company might lose what made it feel electric in the first place.