Former WWE announcer Todd Grisham has opened up about the intense hazing he experienced early in his WWE career, specifically calling out Bubba Ray Dudley as the most aggressive presence he encountered in the locker room.
Speaking about his early days with the company, Grisham explained that a rumor was intentionally started by The Brooklyn Brawler, claiming that the “new kid” believed professional wrestling was fake.
While many wrestlers were aware it was a joke, Grisham said Bubba Ray Dudley treated the situation as completely real and publicly confronted him. “Someone told Bubba Ray Dudley this, and Bubba Ray Dudley, I’m sure he won’t even mind me saying this, is the biggest asshole the WWE has ever seen,” Grisham said. “Everyone else was kind of in on the joke. He treated it like it was the real deal.”
Grisham recalled Dudley berating him in front of other wrestlers and demanding that he apologize to the entire locker room. “He was like, ‘You got to go apologize to every single one of these people. You don’t belong here. You should never be hired,’” Grisham continued. “He was very serious. And I remember thinking, bro, come on, I’m 27 years old, I’m not saying anything, and he just berated me in front of people, like I thought he was gonna get physical with me.”
According to Grisham, the hazing didn’t stop there. He was later placed in dangerous in-ring situations with some of WWE’s toughest stars as part of what appeared to be a continuation of the locker room initiation. “So next thing you know, Batista is in the ring, and they’re like, ‘Give him a Power Bomb, Batista,’” Grisham said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh my god.’”
Grisham described Batista lifting him for the move but instead deliberately frightening him, including grabbing and pulling his gear to the point of injury. “He grabs my underwear and freaking rips them straight up… and he keeps acting like he’s gonna do it right, and I’m scared to death,” Grisham said. “Thank God he didn’t Power Bomb me, but my freaking butt crack was bleeding afterwards, raw as hell.”
Other confrontations followed, including an especially chilling moment with Hardcore Holly. “I remember Hardcore Holly getting in my face going, ‘You think this is fake? I’ll kill you in the parking lot right now,’” Grisham recalled.
Grisham has previously spoken about the harsh environment he entered during WWE’s Ruthless Aggression era, a time when locker room culture was notoriously unforgiving toward newcomers. His latest comments provide another stark look at the extremes of that culture—and how seriously some veterans took perceived disrespect of the business.
