Jim Ross Discusses Bob Holly Attacking Rene Dupree For Real During WWE House Show Match, The Issues Between The Two, If Holly Is A Bully

On the latest edition of Grilling JR, Jim Ross discussed an incident (as reported by Wade Keller) in 2004 during a tag team match in Syracuse, NY between Rene Dupree & Kenzo Suzuki and Bob Holly & Charlie Haas. During the match, Holly reportedly start shoot fighting on Dupree, putting him in a legit face-lock, landed legit punches, and more. Dupree was said to have been bruised up and had both eyes swell from the beating. The incident was allegedly sparked by Holly letting Dupree use his rental car, only to have Dupree get a ticket while driving the car and not paying it. Holly ended up being responsible for the ticket since the rental car was in his name and the ticket impacted his insurance. Meanwhile, Dupree allegedly didn’t do anything to make the issue right. Holly also allegedly ended up being fined $10,000 by WWE for his actions in the match against Dupree and told that he would’ve been fired if it hadn’t been for his long tenure with the company. Highlights are below.

On what he remembers about the incident: “I remember, you don’t lie to Bob Holly. Bob started to let things go that he believes, in his view, a detriment to the business, and that is the boys having each other’s backs. Rene on that occasion did not have Bob Holly’s back. And then when he wouldn’t fess up to it, own up to it, as the story goes, it became Marshall law. You never want, as an administrator, to endorse Marshall law on your locker room, but there sometimes are occasions, where you have to reluctantly look the other way for a few seconds, and that was one of those situations where, that was a house show that Bob was disciplining Rene, but you don’t endorse it, ‘Yeah, beat your teammate up.’ You don’t endorse it, but there are some old school principles that some guys brought with them from the beginnings of their career and through the territories and Bob Holly did that. He’s an old school guy, he’s old school today. I would suggest that if you cross him today, and lied to him, or screwed his life, he’ll try to whip your ass, and more than likely, he will be successful. I don’t remember what, we might have done a fine, I’m not sure.”

On if Bob Holly was a bully: “Borderline. He’s a tough guy. Did he go around knocking your glasses off, or flipping over your table in the lunch room, your tray? No. But he could pick out a liar amongst a million people. And like I said, he’s an old school guy. I can’t defend what he’s doing, but he was never disrespectful to me one second. So how can I, I’m not going to go on some rant, or try to say, be holier than thou. Bob’s a tough guy, and he didn’t take a lot of bullshit, man. The job is hard and he was fighting to, he was in the middle of the card, his income would go up, his income would come down, he wasn’t sure, he wasn’t in the program all the time, there is a lot of uneasiness there, anxiety, so I can understand his, and look, he’s a crotchety guy. I always liked Bob. I thought he was a benefit to us. I thought he was good to have in the locker room. Here’s the thing about it. If Bob is a heel, let’s say, and you got a young babyface to improve, that you want to get better. So on the road, I’m booking that young babyface to get better with Bob Holly. And Bob’s going to beat the shit out of him, we’re gonna find out what the guy’s made of. He’s not going to endanger him, but some of those chops are like getting hit with a belt, but the guy will learn things, and then as he earns Bob’s respect, things will start getting easier, and he will learn his craft better, and he will become a better hand, thanks to Bob Holly.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Grilling JR with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.