WWE LFG Season 3 premieres April 26, 2026.
Jaime Yandolino
Bubba Ray Dudley doesn’t mess around. He told me so using more TV-MA language, but it’s always been clear that the WWE Hall of Famer has the hard-nosed, no-nonsense bona fides required to develop and foster the eclectic group of wrestling stars of tomorrow.
Bubba Ray returns to television for his third season as a coach on WWE LFG Season 3. Bubba Ray joins fellow veteran coach Booker T as well as new coaches—and current WWE Superstars—Nattie and Kevin Owens. This will be the first season of WWE LFG to feature active WWE Superstars as head coaches, and for Bubba Ray, it’s a welcomed change.
“Kevin has a lot of patience,” said Bubba Ray in an exclusive interview. “Kevin does his best to explain as well as he can. [He explains] His vision, or the lesson he’s trying to get across for the day. I believe that the future greats have enjoyed working with Kevin. Whenever you can get a different perspective, it helps younger talent.”
“For two seasons, they were around The Undertaker or Mickie James or Michelle McCool. Great wrestling minds, but Kevin is actually doing it right now. He’s in the midst of his career—a very successful career I might add—so he can probably lend some information or teach the future greats some things from the ‘now’ point-of-view. 'This is what works now in WWE.’"
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Much has been made about the advanced age of WWE’s current roster—mostly in bad faith—but not only was WWE’s future on full display last weekend at WrestleMania 42, WWE has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to its developmental system. From WWE LFG, to NXT, even in AAA and TNA, WWE has its fingers on the pulse of the entire business. And Bubba Ray has the all-important task of helping to shape its future.
“I’ve never looked at the job as easy or hard," said Bubba Ray. “I go in there with one thing in mind and that’s to instill the best knowledge I possibly can into the future greats. As someone who has owned his own professional wrestling school for years—the Team 3D Academy—I take the very same approach. ‘Here’s what it takes; here’s ow to get over; here’s what to do.’”
"I very much enjoyed Season 3 because it’s more of a hard-nose, direct approach. I can compare it to the HBO show Hard Knocks where everybody has come together for the common goal of putting the best team on the field and getting each future great ready for getting a phone call in a day that says ‘you’re moving up and moving on,’ or getting a phone call saying ‘you’re going home.’"
WrestleMania 42 came and went with a cavalcade of celebrities on display—a staple of WrestleMania. But in the context of WWE’s relationship with TKO, celebrity involvement and corporate advertising has been criticized by longtime wrestling fans, including Ariel Helwani and Andrew Yang.
WWE’s top stars like Cody Rhodes and CM Punk have made in-character comments about TKO’s apparent meddling. But the celebrities involved seem to have simply caught strays amid the corporatization of WWE, which is a story as old as time in the wrestling business. Jelly Roll, Pat McAfee, Logan Paul and IShowSpeed all have a real-life affinity for pro wrestling. The same goes for Lil Yachty, who recently announced he’s here to stay before getting his flowers from Paul Heyman.
Bully Ray Dudley is also in the camp of welcoming celebrities in this business. He’s even willing to train them as long as they’re here for the right reasons.
“If you have respect for our industry, and you truly want to get involved and do this for all the right reasons, I would have no problem training somebody or working with somebody who wanted to invest real time in pro wrestling," said Bubba Ray.
“I’ve never had a problem with celebrities being involved in WrestleMania or wrestling in general. WrestleMania I was one of the biggest celebrity spectacles of all time, Lawrence Taylor and Bam Bam Bigelow. I’m sure I’ve done things with celebrities that I’ve forgotten about and this year it’s no different.”
"I understand why IShowSpeed is a part of this, I understand why Logan Paul is a apart of this, between both of them it’s about 50 million Instagram followers. It’s about eyes. It’s going beyond the wrestling scope of things and taking people who might not have ever been exposed to the world of WWE an bringing them in."
WWE LFG Season 3 airs Sunday, April 26, 2026 at 10:00 pm EST.
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