Big Bossman " For the tag team , see War Machine " . Raymond Walter Traylor , Jr . ( May 2 , 1963 – September 22 , 2004 ) was an American professional wrestler . He was best known for his appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring name Big Boss Man ( sometimes spelled Big Bossman ) . Professional wrestling career . Early years . Traylor , a prison guard in Cobb County , Georgia , made his debut in 1985 , initially working in Jim Crockett ' s World Championship Wrestling promotion as an enhancement talent under his full name , Raymond Traylor . Seeing potential in Traylor , head booker Dusty Rhodes pulled him off TV for 12 weeks in order to repackage him as Big Bubba Rogers , a silent bodyguard for Jim Cornette , who along with the The Midnight Express , was feuding with the James Boys ( Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T . A . under masks ) . He got a solid push as a seemingly unstoppable villain and feuding with Rhodes , who was the top babyface at that time in a series of no holds barred battle royal s called The Bunkhouse Stampede , in 1986 . After the series , both he and Rhodes were tied in wins , which led to a tiebreaking cage match in which Rhodes came out victorious . In 1987 , he won the Universal Wrestling Federation title from One Man Gang , who was dropping his belt after signing with Vince McMahon ' s World Wrestling Federation . World Wrestling Federation ( 1988 – 1993 ) . In 1988 , Traylor joined the WWF under the name The Big Bossman , based on his previous profession ; wrestling as a heel , Bossman ' s post - match gimmick involved handcuffing his defeated opponents ( mainly jobbers ) to the ring rope and beating them with a nightstick . After defeating Koko B . Ware at the inaugural SummerSlam , Bossman made his first major WWF impact when he attacked Hulk Hogan on Brother Love ' s interview segment . During his feud with Hogan , Bossman also challenged for the WWF Championship , held by Randy " Macho Man " Savage ; and began teaming with Akeem to form The Twin Towers . As the Twin Towers , Bossman and Akeem feuded mainly with Hogan and Savage ( who had formed The Mega Powers alliance ) , and were strongly involved in the storyline involving Savage ' s slowly building heel turn and eventual betrayal of Hogan . The Twin Towers were The Mega Powers ' opponents the night of Savage ' s turn ; Hogan , who was abandoned by his partner late in the match , rallied to defeat the Twin Towers . The Twin Towers moved on to defeat The Rockers at WrestleMania V , and feuded for most of the spring and early summer of 1989 with Demolition for the Tag Team Championship . This went on while Bossman was wrapping up his feud with Hogan in a series of steel cage matches ; one of the most memorable matches aired on the May 27 , 1989 edition of " Saturday Night ' s Main Event " , where Hogan superplexed the 350 - pound Traylor off the top of the cage . He later became a fan favorite in early 1990 on " The Brother Love Show " after refusing to give Ted DiBiase his Million Dollar Championship belt back after DiBiase had paid Slick off for Bossman to retrieve the belt from Jake " The Snake " Roberts ' bag that also held Jake ' s python . Bossman refused to take a payoff and returned the bag with the belt and snake to Jake Roberts . After this change he feuded with former tag team partner Akeem , defeating him in less than two minutes at WrestleMania VI ; he also stopped his post - match routine of beating of jobbers during this time . He joined forces with Hogan at the 1990 Survivor Series along with " Hacksaw " Jim Duggan and Tugboat , defeating Earthquake ' s team . In 1991 , Bossman began feuding with Bobby Heenan and The Heenan Family after Heenan began insulting Bossman ' s mother . Bossman eventually gained the upper hand against Heenan ' s wrestlers , getting wins over The Barbarian at the Royal Rumble and Mr . Perfect via disqualification at WrestleMania VII for the Intercontinental Championship ; the latter match featured a returning Andre the Giant . Later in 1991 , Bossman defeated The Mountie in a Jailhouse match at SummerSlam ; the stipulation had it that the loser would ( kayfabe ) " spend a night in jail . " In 1992 , Bossman became involved in a feud with Nailz , whose gimmick was that of an ex - convict ; in a series of promos that aired before his debut , Nailz claimed to be abused by Bossman during his incarceration , and warned that he was coming for revenge . During a television taping that aired May 30 , Nailz — clad in an orange prison jumpsuit — ran into the ring and attacked the Bossman , handcuffing him to the top rope and repeatedly choking and beating him with the nightstick . Bossman eventually recovered and went after Nailz in a series of matches during the latter half of 1992 . The feud culminated when Bossman defeated Nailz in a Nightstick on a Pole match at Survivor Series . Bossman lost his final pay - per - view match to Bam Bam Bigelow at the 1993 Royal Rumble before leaving the WWF in March . World Championship Wrestling ( 1993 – 1998 ) . After leaving the WWF in 1993 , Traylor had a brief stint in All Japan Pro Wrestling , where he was paired up with Stan Hansen and " Dr . Death " Steve Williams , before returning to the United States to work for World Championship Wrestling . He made his WCW debut on WCW Saturday Night in December 1993 by pinning the International World Champion Ravishing Rick Rude in a non - title match . He received a World title shot against Rick Rude at Starrcade ' 93 with Rude retaining the title . Traylor was originally known as The Boss , but the WWF legal department determined the character to be too similar to the one that Traylor had portrayed in the WWF and forced WCW to change it . As a result , Traylor became the Guardian Angel . He feuded with Big Van Vader for most of 1994 . Soon , Traylor turned heel and returned to his original Big Bubba Rogers character . He defeated Sting at Uncensored in March 1995 . Big Bubba joined the Dungeon of Doom faction before eventually defecting to the nWo . Eventually , a loophole in Bubba ' s contract forced him out of the nWo . As a result of this , Bubba became a face once again and began competing under his real name — Ray Traylor and was briefly managed by old nemesis Ted Dibiase , who also recently left the nWo . He frequently worked with the Steiner Brothers during this time period . He began feuding with the nWo , defeating several nWo members such as Scott Hall , Curt Hennig , and Vincent . Return to WWF / E ( 1998 – 2003 ) . Eventually , Traylor returned to the WWF on the October 12 , 1998 episode of " Raw is War " , once again under his Big Bossman persona . However , his character was changed from a regular police officer to a bully - type personal security officer , or bodyguard - type character , willing to do anything for a price . The change was further emphasized by his new SWAT - style attire . Traylor was immediately established as a top of the mid - card character , as he was introduced as a member of The Corporation , a group of wrestlers controlled by WWF owner Vince McMahon to combat Stone Cold Steve Austin as well as D - Generation X , as The Corporation ' s " personal security " . During his time as a member of The Corporation , Bossman won the Tag Team Championship with Ken Shamrock and won the Hardcore Championship four times . While still a member of the Corporation , Bossman competed at WrestleMania XV against Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match , which he lost . Undertaker subsequently " hung " Bossman inside the cage , leaving him suspended in the air . Most of his matches in the hardcore division were part of his feud with Al Snow . At one point , the storyline involved Al ' s dog Pepper . At SummerSlam , the pair fought in a match that never made it to the ring ; it instead spilled into the backstage area , the street , and finally into a nearby bar . Just prior to the match , Snow was seen setting Pepper ' s dog carrier near the entrance way . Minutes into the match , Boss Man picked up the carrier , taunted the dog , struck Snow with the carrier , and carelessly tossed it behind him . Announcer Jim Ross apologized immediately for the stunt , and confirmed on air that Pepper had been removed from the box before the match . Two weeks later , Pepper was taken out of the storyline when he was , in storyline killed by the Bossman , who then tricked Snow into eating his pet . The storyline concluded with a Kennel from Hell match at Unforgiven . The cage surrounded the ring , with a second roofed cage surrounding the ringside area . The men would start in the ring , with the first man to escape both cages being declared the winner . Between the two cages were a number of attack dogs . After this , he feuded with The Big Show over the WWF Championship . The feud included a monologue where Bossman showed up at Big Show ' s father ' s storyline funeral ( his father had actually died years earlier ) and proceeded to steal Show ' s father ' s casket by rigging it to the back of his car and driving off . In a desperate attempt to stop the theft , The Big Show jumped onto the coffin as it was being towed away , riding atop the coffin for a few yards until he lost his grip and tumbled off . Bossman became the # 1 contender for the WWF Championship on the November 15 , 1999 edition of " Raw " . This feud ended with Boss Man being defeated by Big Show at the Armageddon pay - per - view . Bossman participated in the 2000 Royal Rumble match , where he eliminated Rikishi ( with the help of five other competitors ) , Chyna , and Faarooq before being eliminated by The Rock . On the March 19 edition of " Sunday Night Heat " , he introduced Bull Buchanan as his protégé . Together , they would go on to defeat The Godfather and D ' Lo Brown at WrestleMania 2000 and the Acolytes Protection Agency the following month at Backlash . However , the team split on the June 5 edition of " Raw is War " after they lost to the Hardy Boyz and subsequently began arguing before Bossman knocked Buchanan out with his nightstick when his back was turned . In the summer of 2000 , Bossman disappeared from mainstream WWF television and wrestled mainly on " Jakked " and " Heat " , primarily feuding with Crash Holly . When Traylor returned from an injury in late 2001 , he was given a role as the tag team partner of Booker T , as simply The Boss Man . Boss Man served as an enforcer again , only this time for Booker T under the order of Vince McMahon . The team quietly split in late January 2002 , and from there on Boss Man wrestled mostly on " Jakked " and " Heat " . In April , he formed a short lived tag team with Mr . Perfect after both were drafted to the Raw brand . In May 2002 , he competed in his last WWE match , losing to Tommy Dreamer . Traylor was then assigned to train new wrestlers in Ohio Valley Wrestling before being released from WWE in 2003 . Post - WWE . Following his departure from WWE , Traylor ' s last series of matches were in a tournament for the vacant International Wrestling Association of Japan heavyweight title . He made it all the way to the finals before being defeated by old rival Jim Duggan . Personal life . Traylor had two daughters , and was married to his wife Angela , his childhood sweetheart . In July 2004 , Traylor ran for Commission Chairman for Paulding County , Georgia . He was the owner of a Dallas , Georgia storage company called RWT Enterprises . Death . Traylor died at his home in Dallas , Georgia on September 22 , 2004 while his sister was visiting him . He is interred at the Dallas Memorial Garden in Dallas , Georgia . On March 7 , 2016 , the WWE announced that Traylor will be posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2016 .