Big Boss Man

Ray Washington Traylor Jr. (May 2, 1963 – September 22, 2004) was an American professional wrestler best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name (The) Big Boss Man, as well as for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as the Boss, the Man, the Guardian Angel, and Big Bubba Rogers. During his appearances with the WWF, Big Boss Man held the WWF World Tag Team Championship once and the WWF Hardcore Championship four times. Traylor was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016.

Early life Ray Washington Traylor Jr. was born on May 2, 1963, in Marietta, Georgia. He attended Paulding County High School where he graduated in 1982. Later, Traylor then worked as a corrections officer from the Department of Corrections in Cobb County, Georgia.

Professional wrestling career Early career (1984–1988) After his career as a correctional officer, Traylor then transitioned into professional wrestling where he debuted in 1984 Head booker Dusty Rhodes took notice of Traylor's potential (particularly after seeing him take Tully Blanchard's slingshot suplex finisher despite being 6'6 and over 350 lbs) and took him off television for three months before repackaging him as Big Bubba Rogers. In the second WarGames match on July 30, Traylor, as War Machine, teamed with The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger and Tully Blanchard) in a loss to The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal), Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes and Paul Ellering, when Animal forced the War Machine to submit by gouging his eyes with a spiked armband.

Traylor made his first tour to Japan in March to April 1988, wrestling for All Japan Pro Wrestling as "Big Bubba" as part of its Champion Carnival series. During the tour, he primarily teamed with Bruiser Brody, marking some of Brody's final matches before his sudden death in July 1988. His matches during the tour included defeating Shunji Takano in Tokyo's Nippon Budokan, wrestling John Tenta to a double count out in the Okayama Budokan in Okayama, and teaming with George Skaaland in a loss to The Great Kabuki and Shunji Takano in Tokyo's Korakuen Hall. On August 29, he defeated Koko B. Ware at the inaugural SummerSlam.

Big Boss Man began his first major WWF angle by attacking Hulk Hogan (who he was specifically brought in to the WWF to be an opponent for) in an October edition of "The Brother Love Show". The Twin Towers were a key part in the top storyline of Savage turning on Hogan, leading to the WrestleMania V main event; in the later part of a tag match between the four on February 3, 1989, at The Main Event II, Hogan abandoned Savage to attend to the hurt Miss Elizabeth and went backstage. After being double-teamed for a while, Savage eventually rallied until Hogan returned to the match. After Savage tagged Hogan in, he slapped Hogan and left him to defeat The Twin Towers on his own, which led to The Mega Powers' demise as Savage beat Hulk in the backstage medical room where fellow wrestlers, managers and staff had to break them up.

At WrestleMania V on April 2, The Twin Towers defeated The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty). Meanwhile, Boss Man continued his feud with Hogan in a series of steel cage matches; in their most notable encounter on May 27 at Saturday Night's Main Event XXI, he failed to win the WWF Championship from Hogan. During the match, Hogan superplexed Boss Man off the top of the cage. The Twin Towers were then involved in a feud with Demolition (Ax and Smash) over the WWF Tag Team Championship. Boss Man subsequently feuded with Dusty Rhodes and led a team on November 23 at Survivor Series including Bad News Brown, Rick Martel and The Honky Tonk Man, but they lost to Rhodes, Brutus Beefcake, Red Rooster and Tito Santana.

Face turn and various feuds (1990–1993)

Big Boss Man turned face on the February 24, 1990 episode of Superstars, when DiBiase had paid Slick to have Boss Man retrieve the Million Dollar Championship belt from Jake Roberts, who had stolen it. Boss Man retrieved a bag containing both the belt and Roberts' pet python, Damien. On The Brother Love Show, he refused to accept DiBiase's money for the bag, and returned it to Roberts. Boss Man then defeated his former partner Akeem in less than two minutes on April 1 at WrestleMania VI. Later that month at the WWF/AJPW/NJPW Wrestling Summit in the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, Boss Man lost to Jake "the Snake" Roberts. The entrance theme song "Hard Times" was performed by Survivor lead singer Jimi Jamison, written by Jimmy Hart, JJ Maguire, Mike Stock and Pete Waterman.

In the fall, Boss Man began feuding with Bobby Heenan and the Heenan Family after Heenan continually insulted Boss Man's mother. and Mr. Perfect on March 24 at WrestleMania VII in an Intercontinental Championship match via disqualification. Following this, he feuded with The Mountie to see who the real officer of the WWF was, culminating in a Jailhouse match at SummerSlam on August 26. Boss Man won the match, thus the Mountie had to spend a night in jail; this was the only such match ever held by the company. He also had an upset victory vs The Undertaker in November 16 via DQ.

In 1992, Boss Man had an 8-man tag team match at WrestleMania VIII teaming up with Virgil, Sgt. Slaughter, and Jim Duggan against the team of Brian Knobbs, Jerry Sags, Repo Man, and The Mountie which Boss Man won. He then began feuding with Nailz, an ex-convict character who, in a series of promos aired before his debut, claimed Boss Man had been his abusive officer in prison, and warned he was seeking revenge. On the May 30 episode of WWF Superstars, Nailz – clad in an orange prison jumpsuit – ran into the ring and attacked Boss Man, handcuffing him to the top rope and repeatedly choking and beating him with the nightstick. Boss Man took time off to sell his (kayfabe) injuries, eventually returning and having a series of matches with Nailz in the latter half of 1992. The feud culminated at Survivor Series on November 25, where Boss Man defeated Nailz in a Nightstick on a Pole match.

Boss Man's last major feud was against Bam Bam Bigelow, leading to a match at the Royal Rumble on January 24, 1993, which Boss Man lost. He left the WWF shortly after a house show in Gatineau, Quebec on March 14 defeating Doink the Clown and later made appearances in USWA, SMW, Australia and Japan. He challenged for Rude's title at Starrcade '93: 10th Anniversary on December 27, but was unsuccessful. In light of legal complaints from the WWF regarding the similarity of "The Boss" to "Big Boss Man", Traylor was renamed The Guardian Angel and sported similar attire to those in the organization he was named after. Fall Brawl on September 18, and Halloween Havoc on October 23 to end their feud.

Various feuds (1995–1996) In early 1995, Traylor turned heel and again became known as Big Bubba Rogers, defeating Sting at Uncensored on March 19 but lost in a rematch at Slamboree '95: A Legends' Reunion on May 21. On September 4, Rogers challenged Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on the debut episode of WCW Monday Nitro, but failed to win the title. whom he lost to at The Great American Bash on June 16 and Bash at the Beach on July 7.

New World Order (1996–1997)

On the December 16, 1996 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Rogers defected from the Dungeon of Doom to join the New World Order (nWo), attacking the Faces of Fear during a bout against the Outsiders.

Feud with the New World Order (1997–1998) Upon his return in September 1997, Traylor resumed wrestling under his real name and began feuding with the nWo, forming an alliance with The Steiner Brothers, who also sought Ted DiBiase as their manager. After Traylor lost to Goldberg on the March 30 episode of Nitro, he left WCW the following month. He served as Vince McMahon's bodyguard during his feuds with Stone Cold Steve Austin and D-Generation X (DX) and was one of the first members of his heel stable, The Corporation, briefly wearing a mask before he revealed his identity. however, on the following day's Raw is War broadcast, they won the WWF Tag Team Championship in a rematch, making Boss Man a double champion.

Boss Man and Shamrock lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett the next night on Raw is War. In March 8, The Undertaker brought The Boss Man to the ring alongside the rest of The Ministry to sacrifice The Boss Man, they did that by tying his arms and legs to a symbol, Boss Man managed to break free from the symbol before crashing down to the ground and The Ministry asssulting him, then The Corporation came to help Big Boss Man, in the end Undertaker was arrested and the symbol was lit on fire by Undertaker (like how Kane does it) . At WrestleMania XV on March 28, Big Boss Man lost his first and only WrestleMania match loss to The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match. After the match, The Undertaker hanged him from the roof of the cage (an illusion made possible by a full-body safety harness concealed under Big Boss Man's outfit). While a video package of the WrestleMania Rage Party was then shown, Big Boss Man had to be safely taken down onto a stretcher so that he could get to a hospital with only minor injuries. At Over the Edge on May 23, Boss Man was a part of The Corporate Ministry (The Corporation and The Ministry Of Darkness united), losing to The Union in an eight-man elimination tag team match. Big Boss Man also competed to qualify for King of the Ring against X-Pac and lost from a rollup. thumb Big Boss Man subsequently entered a major feud with Al Snow, which eventually involved Snow's pet chihuahua, Pepper. He won the WWF Hardcore Championship from Snow on July 25 at Fully Loaded. Boss Man regained the championship on the subsequent episode of SmackDown!. Boss Man ultimately lost the match, but won back the title in a triple threat match involving Snow and Big Show nearly two weeks later, that title reign ended up being for a total of 97 days, making him have the longest hardcore title reign ever. On the November 15, 1999 episode of Raw is War, Big Boss Man semi cleanly (arguably cleanly) beat The Rock after assist from Prince Albert who broke up a pin from The Rock, Prince Albert tried to hit Rock with a steel chair but missed and hit The Big Boss Man, he also tried to break up another pin but Rock dodged and Albert accidentally hit Boss Man again, then Rock proceeded to hit Albert, that distraction gave Boss Man enough time to recover and hit Rock with a sidewalk slam to win the match, making this the biggest win in Boss Man's career to become the number one contender for the WWF Championship. Rock wasn't happy he lost and went ahead to assault and bust Boss Man and Albert open with several weapons, mainly using a steel chain. The following week, Boss Man lost the WWF Hardcore Championship to Test. At No Way Out on February 27, Boss Man lost to Taz via disqualification. On the March 19 episode of Sunday Night Heat, he introduced Bull Buchanan as his protégé. On the June 5 episode of Raw is War, after losing to the Hardy Boyz and subsequently arguing, Boss Man knocked Buchanan out with his nightstick when his back was turned and the team split up. He returned on the December 20, 2001 episode of SmackDown!, his name now shortened to The Boss Man hitting "Stone Cold" Steve Austin with a chair shot in his match against Booker T who he forming a team with after Vince McMahon ordered him to be his enforcer. The team quietly split in late January 2002, and Boss Man returned to Jakked/Metal and Heat. In April, he formed a short-lived tag team with Mr. Perfect after both were drafted to the Raw brand. On the May 26 episode of Heat, he lost his final and only match when the WWF was rebranded to WWE to Tommy Dreamer. On August 31, he competed in a tournament for the vacant IWA World Heavyweight Championship but lost to Jim Duggan in the finals.

Traylor suffered a motorcycle accident on his Harley-Davidson in May 2002 after he hit a deer and was badly injured.

In July 2004, Traylor unsuccessfully ran for Commission chairman for Paulding County, Georgia.

Death and legacy Traylor died of a heart attack at the age of 41 on September 22, 2004, at his home in Dallas, Georgia. According to The Wrestling Observer, Traylor's sister had been visiting, and while his two daughters went upstairs to play, his wife Angela briefly left the room at about 10:00p.m., and returned to find him dead on the sofa.

Traylor was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016 by Slick, with his widow and daughters accepting the award on his behalf.

His life was chronicled and featured as a namesake title on the fifth episode within the seventh season of the Canadian docuseries, Dark Side of the Ring.

Other media

Championships and accomplishments Pro Wrestling Illustrated Ranked No. 23 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1992 Ranked No. 138 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the "PWI Years" in 2003 Universal Wrestling Federation UWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time) World Wrestling Federation/WWE WWF Hardcore Championship (4 times) WWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ken Shamrock WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2016) Wrestling Observer Newsletter Most Improved (1987) Best Gimmick (1996) – nWo Feud of the Year (1996) New World Order vs. World Championship Wrestling Worst Feud of the Year (1996) vs. John Tenta Worst Feud of the Year (1999) vs. The Big Show Worst Worked Match of the Year (1999) vs. Al Snow at Unforgiven