10 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: Big Boss Man
9. Then, The Other Side…
When Ray reached the WWF and turned into the mega-famous Big Boss Man, he was often gone as many as 25 days per month and 300 days per year. When he was able to get home, Lacy would ask: “Who is this man. Why is he stealing my attention from my mom?”. Sitting her down for a chat, Ray explained what he did for a living and the sacrifices that needed to be made, but it must’ve been really challenging for a child to grasp that.
Basically, Lacy became so used to not having dad around that it was actually abnormal to have him home.
Also, a lot of the time she spent with her father was “going to visit sick kids at the hospital”. She added: “It was a duty to him”. In a neat twist, WCW solved a lot of the family's problems by snagging Ray for another run between 1993-1998. Lacy says she’s “very thankful” that her dad went to WCW again, because he was working 150 days per year for the same amount of money and could build a relationship with her at home.
That meant they could spend more time together, and it was a generally less stressful time for her father's body and mind on the road. There are countless tales of fishing trips and holidays from around this time period, and it's obvious reminiscing about all of that means the world to Lacy and Angela.
In hindsight, signing Traylor and holding onto him for 5 years was a blessing from WCW's decision makers.