This Week in Wrestling: Week 25 of 2026

Brian Damage

This Week in Wrestling: Week 24 of 2026

There has been a lot of talk this week about both Tommy Dreamer and Bully Ray aka Bubba Ray Dudley. Two former ECW pillars who aren’t exactly being talked about very glowingly. Dreamer recently parted ways with TNA and that led to a few wrestlers coming out and attacking Dreamer stating he was cold to them or just flat out disrespectful. Dreamer was also criticized for being a terrible booker with TNA. Bully Ray made a lot of waves criticizing Jon Moxley and the Death Riders in AEW. Basically, Bully called Moxley a fraudulent tough guy. The criticism led to legit shoot fighter Josh Barnett challenging Bully to a fight. 

Fans have chimed in on both Dreamer and Bully and while some came to their defense, most continued to pile on the two as old has beens that simply are out of touch in the current wrestling climate. Some of it is justified, while some is just over the top hatred for both wrestlers. All I can say is that I met both men in a rather unconventional way and I’ll share that experience with you.

Years ago, I ran a wrestling hotline with a buddy of mine named Matt Zombie. The hotline was pretty popular during a time when that was one of the best ways to get wrestling news. The internet wasn’t as common as it is today. In any case, my friend Matt sold VHS tapes of various wrestling shows and shoot interviews on the hotline we did. One of the items he was selling was the Beulah McGillicutty X-rated video she did a few years earlier in her career. Anywho, someone wanted to get in the good graces of Paul Heyman and ECW back then and reported us while we waited in line to attend an ECW show at the Elks Lodge in Queens, New York.

Atlas security grabbed Matt, me and another individual we did the hotline with and escorted us to a bathroom inside the lodge. When inside the bathroom, there stood Paul Heyman, Tommy Dreamer and the Dudley Boyz (Bubba and D-Von). Immediately Paul Heyman asked as if we were selling bootleg copies of Beulah’s video. Matt said he was…that led to Bubba getting in all of our faces and threatening us physically. Tommy played it cool and backed Bubba up and asked us nicely to stop selling the video of his girlfriend/wife. He could have easily been rough with us but instead asked us to stop selling the video which my friend agreed to do. 

Heck, we were in the wrong at the time and they could have fucked with us worse.  Heyman then took our tickets for that evening’s show and tore them up and flushed them down the toilet. Atlas security came back in and escorted the three of us out of the building. All while Bubba stared a hole in us on the way out. It was the scariest, most awesome thing to experience for us at the time. I guess the point was, Tommy could have easily let Bubba fuck with us or do it himself but instead was kind of a gentleman. While Bubba was the well…Bully. LOL Regardless, different people will have different accounts of people. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are assholes or anything like that or maybe they are. It is what it is.

Photo Gallery

Will Ospreay wedding title!

Lacey Evans

Kathy Dingman fka as BB (Barbara Bush)

NXT Women’s Champion Lola Vice

Elayna Black fka Cora Jade

Kayla Braxton

Maryse

Trish Stratus

Sol Ruca

Teal Piper

Karissa Rivera fka Elektra Lopez

Video Gallery

Check out these brilliant political ads from Jesse Ventura back in 1998. No wonder he got elected in shocking fashion. lol