Real Name: Ray Traylor
Height: 6' 6"
Weight: 320
Also Known As: Big Bubba Rogers..
Titles Held: Hardcore title (4); Tag Team title (1).
Contract Details:December 2000
Major Injuries: Sustained very bad eye damage in late 1999 due to been hit with a glass pitcher.
The "Big Bossman" entered the WWF at Summerslam in 1988 with the gimmick that he was once a Prison Warden in Cobb Country, Georgia where he enjoyed a reputation as a mean heartless son of a bitch. As planned, the Big Bossman was immediately a hated rule breaker who often hand cuffed his opponents to ring posts and beat the crap out of them with a nightstick. He became really hated when he attacked the Prince of the WWF, Hulk Hogan. At the time Big Bossman was a part of a fairly good tag team called the "Twin Towers". His partner, a dude called Akeem and he were reasonable wrestlers, but never held the titles. They did, however, involve themselves in a very high profile feud with the "Megapowers" of Hogan and Randy Savage. Akeem and the Big Bossman worked a storyline where they split up the mega powers. Actually, they probably only helped to split up the Megapowers, as Hogan and Savage were supposed to break up over the attentions of one Miss Elizabeth. In any case, the Twin Towers were going along pretty well and Bossman got a few unsuccessful shots at the WWF title. At Wrestlemania 5 the Twin Towers beat the Rockers easily.
After a while the Big Bossman went solo as a babyface. He had lost a great deal of weight . He had this really funky music and his entrance pop was HUGE. He feuded here and there with a variety of different people, including the legendary Dusty Rhodes. Bossman was also instrumental in getting a character named "Nailz" over. This character was supposedly a former inmate and hardened criminal of the Cobb Country Jail and had been on the receiving end of quite a few beatings from the Bossman and his nightstick.
Back to the Bossman. In 1993 Bossman was pretty much jobbing to everyone so when WCW offered him a contract, he jumped at it. His gimmick in WCW was "Bossman" and then he was "Big Bubba Rogers", then he had no gimmick and went under his name of "Ray Traylor". Whatever his name, he still wasn't getting very far so when his contract was up in 1998 he went back to the WWF.
The Big Bossman came back as Vince McMahon's head of security for The Corporation and he was immediately seen as a heel. His first match was at the 1998 Survivor Series where he and Steve Austin got into it in what was actually a pretty good match up. Bossman made two appearances that night as after losing to Austin he also took up an injured Triple H's spot in the tournament against The Rock. He lost in a match against The Rock.
Bossman was favoured as he was a member of The Corporation and the fans were outraged when he won the Hardcore Title off of Mankind after The Rock interfered in their match up. Later, Bossman lost the Hardcore title to Road Dogg but he wasn't too sad because soon after that he and Ken Shamrock became Tag Team champions by defeating Road Dogg and his New Age Outlaw partner Billy Gunn.
At Wrestlemania 15 Bossman wrestled the Undertaker in a Hell In A Cell title match. It was great to see the Bossman getting a share of the Wrestlemania limelight as he pulled out all the stops against the Undertaker. However, he lost and was "hung" on the Undertaker's symbol as a present to Vinnie Mac. While I enjoyed watching the Bossman back in top form but it was no big surprise to anyone when he didn't win the title. There is very little chance that the Bossman will ever be WWF champion and most people in the know knew this going into Wrestlemania XV.
The Big Bossman then started to feud over the Hardcore belt with Al Snow. He defeated Al Snow for the belt at Fully Loaded 1999, only to lose it back to him at Summerslam.
The Big Bossman was a natural for the Hardcore division so it wasn't any surprise when he beat The Big Show and Al Snow in a triple threat match to become an unprecedented four time Hardcore champion. Bossman is doing a good job. While this may not be his most successful run in the WWF, he's still got some moves to bust with that nightstick of his and long time fans are right behind him.
Personal Opinion: I like the Bossman probably because he one one of the 80s wwf wrestlers that has come back and hasnt had a problem jobbing to the younger stars, and is always willing and able to sacrifice his gimmick to get other wrestlers pushed i.e Mentor to Prince Albert ,Bull Buchanan. The bossman might never win the wwf title but will always have a strong relationship with Vince Mc Mahon and who knows could become the 3rd stooge in years to come.
