Kevin Nash has revealed that he has never watched an episode of Dark Side of the Ring and has no plans to change that, explaining that revisiting painful stories involving people he personally knew is not something he wants to put himself through.
The subject came up on Kliq This following the recent episode centered on the late Ray Traylor, best known to WWE fans as Big Boss Man and also remembered for his run as Big Bubba Rogers.
The Traylor edition aired on Vice TV on July 28 as the fifth episode of the show’s seventh season. It featured interviews with Traylor’s widow Angela, daughter Lacy, Jim Cornette, Al Snow, Gerald Brisco, Terri Runnels and others.
Nash, however, made it clear that he did not watch the episode. “I don’t watch Dark Side of the Ring. I’ve never watched an episode of it, nor will I. I’ve got enough post-traumatic stress in my life for the amount of people that I truly spent time with and cared about.”
Rather than discussing the documentary’s portrayal of Traylor, Nash shared his own memories of the man he knew personally. “Ray was a good dude, man. Ray Traylor was a good man, and just salt of the earth.”
Nash also recalled what he had been told about Traylor’s death at the time. “I remember hearing that he was just, he came home, he was tired. He sat in his recliner, and he didn’t wake up. And I don’t know what they told on Dark Side, but that’s what I heard.”
Traylor died from a heart attack at his home in Georgia on September 22, 2004. He was 41 years old. Traylor had been with his wife since high school and was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016, with Angela and their daughters representing him during the ceremony.
Nash’s memories of Traylor are also closely connected to Rick and Scott Steiner. “He lived real close to Robbie Steiner, and we were really tight. We still are. We had breakfast together. I had breakfast with Robbie and Scotty Friday morning in Minnesota before we started WrestleCon.”
Nash recalled Traylor living near Rick Steiner before the Steiners later built homes on Lake Oconee. “Ray lived in the same, if not on the same block, I know, in the same complex of homes that Robbie did, before Robbie moved out to the lake. Him and Scotty built homes on Lake Oconee.”
He once again emphasized the affection he has for both the Steiners and Traylor. “Those are like my brothers. And Ray was a great guy.”
Traylor’s wrestling career stretched from 1985 until 2003 and included runs with several of the biggest promotions of his generation. After breaking into the business with Jim Crockett Promotions, he quickly found himself working alongside Dusty Rhodes. Cornette has previously described Traylor as a prodigy due to how rapidly he adapted to professional wrestling.
He later gained prominence as Big Bubba Rogers, serving as Cornette’s bodyguard, before joining WWE and becoming Big Boss Man. Traylor subsequently returned to WCW before another WWE run that extended through the Attitude Era.
During his WWE career, Traylor became a four-time Hardcore Champion and also captured the Tag Team Championship once. He finished as the runner-up in the 1996 King of the Ring tournament.
The Dark Side of the Ring episode also explored Traylor’s life away from wrestling, placing significant focus on his role as a husband and father. His daughter remembered him as a “big sweetheart” and a great father, while his widow discussed their relationship dating back to their junior prom.
The episode additionally addressed Traylor’s struggles with painkiller addiction, with several interviewees connecting those issues to the demanding wrestling schedule he maintained while supporting his family. It also revisited some of the more controversial storylines he participated in during WWE’s Attitude Era.
Dark Side of the Ring has aired since 2019 and frequently examines some of professional wrestling’s most difficult stories, including deaths, addiction and criminal cases. For Nash, the personal relationships he had with many people from that era are precisely why he chooses not to watch.
Nash recently appeared at WrestleCon in Minneapolis over SummerSlam weekend alongside names including Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. He is a two-time WWE Hall of Famer, having been inducted individually in 2015 and again as a member of the nWo in 2020.
