Stevie Ray has gone from tag team wrestling mainstay, to nWo Black and White, to announcer, to Hall of Famer.
Today, Stevie Ray is transitioning from podcasting to video magazines, preparing this "Inside Professional Wrestling With Stevie Ray" series. His videos have done insane traffic, with him sharing his knowledge of the pro wrestling world and welcoming others. When speaking to Fightful, Stevie remembered who provided him help early on.
"Well, the thing is, man, just like when I was doing my Hall of Fame speech and I talked about how Arn Anderson had greeted me when I first came in, me and my brother, and I never forgot that. So, when it comes to professional wrestling, it’s just like in life, man. It’s easy to not give. It’s hard to give and have empathy for others that’s trying to come up and do the same thing. ‘Cause I’ve never been one of those persons worrying about somebody taking what I got. Never been that guy. If I can help you, I’ll help you. I can inspire you, I’ll inspire you. I think that’s how life should be because that’s how Jesus Christ lived his life," said Stevie.
Stevie would progress from Harlem Heat into a singles run that included a short WCW TV Title reign. Later, he'd utilize the "slapjack" as a gimmick, a move, and a personality. Ray remembered how the gimmick came about.
"Somebody heard me talking in conversation with some other wrestlers and I was saying, “Man, if I could think of my own gimmick, you know what I would do? I’d make me a slapjack and I’d hit somebody in the back of the head.” Like they used to do on the old gangster movies, right? So, somebody heard that and it got back to the office. The office thought it was cool. Next thing I know they made me a slapjack, but they never told me about it. And I’m like, “Where’d this come from?” That was a true story. But, in the real—yeah, I still keep a couple of me slapjacks with me. Maybe I’ll start marketing them!," Ray said.
Part of that era, was serving as a member of nWo Black & White alongside noted legend Virgil. When speaking to Stevie Ray, he was ecstatic about his stablemate appearing on AEW TV. However, he thought it was a photoshop at first.
"You know, I saw that." Stevie Ray admitted. "But, I thought the stuff was superimposed. I swear to God, I thought somebody was making a joke. I’m just saying, with the picture I saw… I did not know that. Hey, good for him. I think it’s great. I mean, I haven’t gotten a chance to watch AEW at any length. But, I think they’re doing a hell of a job."
Booker T's theme keeps being wild pic.twitter.com/YXuAHeMO9x
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) August 1, 2019
If you've been a long-time viewer of Fightful, you may have seen our breakdown of the samples of the Harlem Heat theme. We confronted Stevie Ray with the facts, and he was STUNNED.
"Well, you know, I’ma be honest with you. I didn’t produce the song. Then it got into the hands of Jimmy Hart from what I was told. The rest is history, I guess. I knew that wasn’t him. But, I thought it was somebody had sampled a theme from the Flintstones or something like that. But, be that as it may, that’s good history. That’s good to know. I’m kinda glad they didn’t," said Ray.
You can see our "Making A Finisher" with Stevie Ray at this link. Make sure to check him out on Twitter at @RealStevieRay, as well.
