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WWE Hall of Famer Stevie Ray is one of the most respected tag team wrestlers in professional wrestling history.
Ray is best known as a member of legendary tag team Harlem Heat with his brother, two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T.
During his incredible career, Stevie Ray amassed a record 10 WCW World Tag Team Championships with his brother and also one WCW Television Championship reign as a singles competitor.
Stevie Ray recently sat down with Sportskeeda Wrestling's Dr. Chris Featherstone for another episode of UnSKripted to discuss a variety of topics in the world of professional wrestling and Ray's Hall of Fame career.
Let's take a closer look at five things we learned from Stevie Ray's Sportskeeda interview.
#5. WWE Hall of Famer Stevie Ray discusses his transition into commentary in WCW
Stevie Ray retired from in-ring competition in WCW in 2000. The former WCW World Tag Team Champion quickly transitioned into a commentary role.
The WWE Hall of Famer provided color commentary on WCW Thunder every Thursday night on TBS. Stevie Ray revealed that he went to school for a career in radio. So the transition from wrestler to broadcaster wasn't too difficult:
"Actually a lot of people don't know. That's actually what I was going to go to school for. I wanted to be in radio. Yeah, so it wasn't a real big transformation because I had done it as a young man. The thing that was difficult for me was, when I was doing the show, I didn't know what was going on with the people in the ring 'cause I'm on the show, I don't watch the show. So when two guys have got an angle going on I'm like 'ok, what are they mad at each other about?' So I had to catch up on all of that. But once I did that, I started doing my homework and stuff like that, I kind of caught up to it. I was able to give an assessment from Stevie Ray."
The WWE Hall of Famer also revealed that it was former WCW and WWE head writer Vince Russo who decided to turn Ray into a broadcaster for WCW Thunder:
"Vince Russo. They told me, I'll never forget it, I was in Salt Lake City, Utah and doing some house shows and I got a fax saying I had to come down for a try out to Atlanta. And I'm like 'for what? They have 50,000 guys that can do this." I swear to God, I did not want to do it, I'm a wrestler. Afterwards I found out that they wanted to put a wrestler on commentary that could do it and that was current. Instead of someone that was long retired or something like that."
#4. Stevie Ray didn't initially see Bret Hart getting tackled by a fan during the 2019 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony
WWE inducted Stevie Ray and Booker T, as Harlem Heat, into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019.
Whilst the 2019 WWE Hall of Famer ceremony is memorable for the two brothers for being inducted as a tag team, it is also remembered for another more infamous moment.
Whilst Bret "Hitman" Hart was completing his speech regarding his induction as a member of The Hart Foundation, Bret was tackled by a fan who had jumped the guardrail. The individual was quickly pulled off the WWE Hall of Famer by several wrestlers and security at ringside.
Thankfully Bret Hart was able to complete his speech without incident and didn't suffer any major injuries during the ordeal. Stevie Ray stated that he didn't even see the incident take place when it happened as he was backstage preparing for his own induction speech:
"I didn't see it. I didn't see it until after it was over with. 'Cause we were getting ready to come out shortly after that. So I was sitting down but I wasnt watching the monitor. And I seen everyone in the gorilla jump up. And I'm like 'what happened?' and everybody started saying 'some guy ran into the ring' and by the time I saw it, the guys had already got on him and were beating him down. Then, somebody showed it to me afterwards on their phone and I was like 'wow.'"
#3 An argument between WWE Hall of Famer Booker T and Scott Steiner led to a funny moment during a WCW tag team match in Germany
One former WWE Superstar that many members of the WWE Universe would like to see be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame is Scott Steiner.
During his Sportskeeda interview, Stevie Ray was asked if he had any funny Scott Steiner stories to share. Ray reminisced about a humorous time when Steiner and Ray's brother Booker T had an ongoing argument in Germany:
"I remember one time we were in Germany and he and my brother were arguing the whole loop. He was saying he could be a better heel than my brother and my brother was like ' I could be a better babyface than you any day of the week.' So in the middle of a match we were having in Germany, they turned into the heels and me and my brother turned into the babyfaces. Just to satisfy these two suckas' argument. Then we got to do the finish, everybody go to do what the other team would have done."
The WWE Hall of Famer said he was just relieved that his brother and Scott Steiner's argument was over with after the match had ended:
"I was just glad that they finally got it over with. Because all of the boys, they were laughing so hard. Nobody had ever seen anything like that."
#2 WWE Hall of Famer Stevie Ray says AEW wrestler Max Caster shouldn't resort to cheap heat if he wants a career
WWE Hall of Famer Stevie Ray didn't shy away from discussing recent controversies during his Sportskeeda interview.
All Elite Wrestling has quickly established itself as a major competitor to WWE. WWE Hall of Famer Stevie Ray was asked about his opinion on the recent Max Caster-AEW controversy. Caster's controversial freestyle rap was edited off AEW DARK, despite previously airing.
The Acclaimed's scheduled match this week on AEW DARK was also removed, with Max Caster also removing AEW references from his social media accounts.
Despite initially being unaware of the finer details of the incident, Stevie Ray criticized Caster for resorting to cheap heat during the rap. The WWE Hall of Famer stated that Caster doesn't have "a career in front of you" if he continues to resort to using cheap heat:
"First of all, I played a heel for a long, long time. Even after WCW, for years, I was going back and forth overseas, I played a heel for a long, long time. I never had to resort to cheap heat. I'm a bad dude. I don't need cheap heat like a Colby Covington. This guy, Max Caster, or whatever his name is, if you resort to that, you ain't got a career in front of you, anyway. And for a company to resort to that, especially a company that is owned by a person of color, supposedly. So maybe some people that are in this country are people of color, that would be deemed as people of color, but in your own mind, you are not,"
There has been speculation that Max Caster may have been suspended by AEW. But this has yet to be confirmed by Caster or All Elite Wrestling.
#1 WWE Hall of Famer Stevie Ray shares his thoughts on All Elite Wrestling
Arguably WWE's biggest professional wrestling competitor right now is All Elite Wrestling.
AEW has many similar traits to WCW in the mid-1990s. One being the company's prominence on cable networks such as TNT and TBS, stations that WCW programming aired on during the 1990s.
WWE Hall of Famer Stevie Ray admitted that AEW seems to have significant momentum right now, but did point out the need for more individuality in the characters in the programming:
"I think AEW is really making traction, man. I would love to see the guys in AEW, the guys they're going to push, have a little bit more individuality in their characters. Because to me, everything is starting to look kind of cookie cutter because the guys kind of resemble other guys on the show."
Stevie Ray explained his critique of some of the AEW stars, explaining the need to be unique and separate yourself in the entertainment business:
"The reason I say that, because this is the entertainment business, in the entertainment business you always want to separate yourself from your contemporaries. That's why you don't see two football team's uniforms look the same."
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