WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray (also known as Bubba Ray Dudley) appeared on Busted Open Radio to discuss various topics. He expressed his belief that Nic Nemeth should defeat Mike Santana to win the TNA World Title in the main event at this weekend’s TNA Slammiversary 2026.
Ray said, “I think Mike has done as good of a job as he possibly can with the opponents that he had. I don’t think they maximized the potential of the Steve Maclin story and angle. It’s time to change. It’s not like Mike Santana as champion is putting tons of asses in seats because people want to see him defend. And by the way, in TNA, that’s a very tall order. Nic Nemeth is known more than Mike. He’s an exceptional wrestler. Nic could go out there on every single show — and I’m not trying to put Nic in a bad spot here — but I think we all know the type of wrestling machine that Nic Nemeth is.”
On a recent conversation he had with Nemeth:
“Nic admitted Kurt Angle and Chad Gable, they have a gear that not even Nic has. He goes, ‘But I got a gear that’s really close.’ Nic Nemeth could do something really different if he became champion. He could go out there and go, ‘I’m sick and tired of champions wrestling once a month. I’m sick and tired of champions never really defending their championship, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Every single week, I will defend my championship here on TNA Wrestling.’”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
