Jim Cornette has weighed in on the recent comments made by Bully Ray about he can “beat the shit” out of Jon Moxley.
Perhaps not surprising for those familiar with Cornette’s feelings for Mox, the controversial former manager turned podcaster would side with Bully in a hypothetical fisticuffs.
Bully Ray’s comments in question came last week on the Busted Open podcast when he was harshly criticizing AEW’s Death Riders faction before zeroing in on the group’s leader, Moxley.
“The Death Riders have not helped AEW in any way, shape, or form. The Death Riders are Jon Moxley playing out his pro wrestling fantasies because he’s got Tony [Khan’s] ear,” Bully said at the time. “Because he wants to be Terry Funk? I would kick the shit outta Jon Moxley… I’d beat the living shit out of him. Fraud.”
Those comments spread throughout wrestling news outlets and on social media, and it caught the attention of wrestler and mixed martial arts professional Josh Barnett. Taking to X (Twitter), Barnett then issued his own challenge to the man formerly known as Bubba Ray Dudley.
He wrote: “Mox can handle himself just fine, so he doesn’t need me to fight any battles for him, but if you ever have the itch to feel what it would be like to have your ass kicked so thoroughly to the point of epic humiliation, I can help you with that.”
Barnett added: “I can not only ‘beat the shit out of you’, but do so in a way as to make your ass kicking legendary.”
Bully soon responded with his own X post, writing to Barnett: “I too can handle myself fine, fight my battles. If ya ever had the itch to feel what it’s like to be over so thoroughly that you can draw money, I can help you with that. Not only can I put you over but get you over in a way that would make ya ass legendary. For you anytime.”
While the two exchanged words on X, independent wrestling star Joey Janela joined in by making some serious allegations against Bully. First, he claimed the WWE Hall of Famer hangs out at a popular bar on the Jersey Shore to buy “groups of 22 year old girls shots, waiting for someone to recognize him and when they do and ask for a picture he tells him them to f*** off.”
Janela later claimed he was once seriously burnt due to a flaming table spot gone wrong in a match involving the former Dudley. Bully, of course, replied with some angry words, and the two continued with a series of online volleys.
The original Busted Open remarks caught the attention of Cornette, who shared his thoughts on the most recent episode of his Drive-Thru podcast released on Saturday (June 27).
After Cornette’s podcast co-host, Brian Last, read out Bully’s original quote, the wrestling legend offered: “Well, I mean, we can break that down, but no lies detected. Is that what the kids say?”
Cornette continued: “It’s hard to argue with that flat-out declarative statement, not only his evaluation of Moxley’s work, which is about what we’ve been saying for the past five years.”
As he noted, Cornette has been a frequent critic of Moxley as an in-ring worker as well as a wrestling personality. As for Bully, he noted that he hadn’t seen the ECW icon in years, but “the Bubba Ray that I have worked alongside of 15 years ago in TNA in sometimes a contentious relationship could kick the living shit out of Jon Moxley.”
Last disagreed, saying he’d favor Moxley in a fight, but he did agree with Bully’s assessment of The Death Riders in AEW. Cornette countered by bringing up a video that’s spread on social media of Moxley tapping out to a “Home Depot clerk” during a jiu-jitsu tournament.
“In his fighting days, I would have put my money on Bubba against Moxley,” Cornette said.
Last then repeated the comments made by Barnett, and Jim said: “Well, again, now we were being honest before, so I’ll say that Josh Barnett currently now, 15 years ago, or probably any other time in the history of mankind could beat the shit out of Bubba Ray Dudley.”
The segment ended by Cornette jokingly musing that if Barnett and Bully ever actually faced off, it’d be more like a Power Slap fight, where he said one person is hit in the face, and the other hits the floor.
What do you think about Cornette’s take on all this, Cagesiders? Let us know in the comments.
