Bully Ray Lays Out Challenges WWE Star Zelina Vega Faces With In-Ring Work

A trend of start-stop pushes has seemingly adhered to Zelina Vega in recent years, with the latest instance occurring earlier this month when she challenged Liv Morgan for the WWE Women's World Championship. After her fiery feud with Morgan concluded, however, Vega then found herself on the losing end of a two minute match to Sonya Deville during this week's episode of "WWE Raw." On "Busted Open Radio," WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray addressed Vega's pattern of booking while outlining some of his concerns with her in-ring work.

"Zelina is a very tiny woman in stature. When you're that small, your physicality can only look so real," Ray said, "and I think that's where the problem lies. How are we going to get Zelina in a ring with the real deal main-eventers in the women's division? ... Zelina has an amazing look. She's doing so much better on the microphone, she has a commanding presence, but once the bell rings, I think that's where the WWE might be concerned, and that's where they hit the gas. Then they hit the brakes, and then they hit the gas and then they hit the brakes."

To successfully navigate her smaller stature, as well as her limited WWE ring time, Ray believes Vega should reserve more practice time in the ring to coordinate matches that make sense for her specific skill set. As an example, Ray suggested the idea of taking out her opponent's knees, which inherently cuts down their size to better match Vega's.

"If I'm Zelina, I'm not worried about going for tilt-a-whirls. Maybe I'm dropkicking the left knee and then dropkicking the right knee and then hitting the ropes and doing a tilt-a-whirl in which I drive my opponent's head into the mat, DDT-style. That's psychologically sound," Ray said.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.