Dudley Boyz

D-Von and Bubba Ray in the steel cage.

The Dudley Boyz are an American wrestling - tag team . This tag team was signed to Extreme Championship Wrestling as Dudley Boyz and later to WWE as Dudley Boys . At Total Nonstop Action Wrestling they were seen as Team 3D .

With a total of 23 titles won in all major North American leagues as well as in the prestigious Japanese league New Japan Pro Wrestling , the Dudley Boyz are the most successful tag team in the modern wrestling business.

Career

Extreme Championship Wrestling

Originally started in 1995 as a comedy act in the ECW , the team established itself as a permanent fixture in the organization. The real idea was to market the two wrestlers dressed in purple and gray with cardboard glasses as a parody of the Hanson Brothers from the movie Slapshot. But the brothers, supposedly from Dudleyville, were more popular with the audience than expected and soon became a real ECW team.

On March 15, 1997 they were allowed to win the title of ECW Tag Team for the first time. In total, they were able to hold the highest title of this wrestling league eight times and remain the eternal record holders due to the dissolution of the original ECW.

In addition to the main characters Boo Boo Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley, the ECW added several other "family members", some of which, however, really only served as a comical supporting role. Others, such as the "patriarch of the family" Big Dick Dudley and Spike Dudley, however, appeared regularly as wrestlers themselves.

World Wrestling Federation / WWE (1999-2005)

In 1999 the Dudleys moved to the World Wrestling Federation . Buh Buh Ray was known here as Bubba Ray from now on.

The management of the WWF decided to give the two of them their own special fighting style for better recognition. In the course of time, the so-called TLC match was developed , a type of fighting in which tables, ladders and chairs were used as weapons. Two other teams that would appear again and again against the Dudleys in this were the Hardy Boyz , and Edge & Christian . In February 2000 they were allowed to become WWF World Tag Team Champions for the first time . In the following years, the Dudley Boys continued to be present in the title event.

In 2001 the WWF bought both World Championship Wrestling and the ECW. As part of the associated storylines , the Dudleys also competed for the WCW World Tag Team title, which was still being fought at that time and which they were also able to achieve for a short time. At the Survivor Series they were allowed to unite the WWF and WCW World Tag Team Titles against the Hardy Boyz (who held the WWF Tag Team Title) by winning. In 2001, the Dudleyz held the WCW Tag Team title and the WWF World Tag Team title five times.

In 2002 the WWF was renamed WWE and split into two cadres. The Dudleys were divided into the individual shows. While Bubba Ray appeared on RAW , D-Von got on SmackDown! as Reverend Devon missed a church gimmick and put a new companion at his side with Batista . The split lasted until the Survivor Series of the year. The team then appeared on RAW.

After their reunification, they were once again involved in the action for the Tag Team title. At the Royal Rumble 2003 they received the title for the seventh time against the champions Lance Storm and William Regal . But they had to hand them in again the next day. At the Unforgiven 2003 event , they received the title for the eighth and last time. They were allowed to hold them until December that year when Batista and Ric Flair became new titleholders.

As part of an occupation change the two squads they were in 2004 to SmackDown! cleverly. Here they were allowed to hold the WWE Tag Team title once until they had to give them up in July of that year. Towards the end of the year, the Dudleys disappeared from the scene.

In time for the special event ECW One Night Stand , Bubba Ray and D-Von returned in mid- 2005 and appeared in the main fight against Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman . But this was also her last WWE appearance. The contracts were not renewed and the Dudleys lost their team name as well as their engagement, as the rights are with the WWE.

Total non-stop action wrestling

Due to the loss of the naming rights, it was decided to use the name Team 3D . As a distinctive feature, however, both kept their names and they have since appeared as "Brother Ray" and "Brother Devon".

Since September 21, 2005 they have been working together at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . The former Spike Dudley actor, Matthew Hyson, also appeared on TNA on April 13, 2006 under his new ring name "Brother Runt" and supported his former gimmick brothers until he was released in August 2007.

On April 19, 2009, the tag team wrote wrestling history by winning the TNA Tag Team Championships in a Philadelphia Street Fight by Beer Money Inc. and thus winning their 21st title in a major North American league. The match also involved the IWGP Tag Team Championship, acquired in Tokyo in January 2009 , which was only held by three other American tag teams before Team 3D.

Team 3D announced on April 21st to select new challengers to their TNAW titles. host an open tournament that was ultimately won by Beer Money Inc. The following title match was won by Beer Money, Inc. thanks to an intervention by British Invasion, who had lost in the tournament finals , and won back the tag team title. Because of these events, Team 3D defended their IWGP title against the British at Victory Road and were allowed to remain victorious for the time being. In the return match, however, they had to admit defeat to the invasion and had to surrender the IWGP title again after almost 200 days of reign.

On October 18, 2009 at Bound for Glory, Team 3D won the IWGP Tag Title against Beer Money, the British Invasion and the tag team made up of Scott Steiner and Booker T again. On January 4th 2010 at Wrestle Kingdom IV from the Japanese organization New Japan Pro Wrestling in Tokyo Dome , Team 3D gave the IWGP title to No Limit ( Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro ) in a 3-way hardcore match. After further, sporadic feuds, TNA separated the team on November 8, 2010 at the tapings of TNA iMPACT! . A feud between Devon and Ray followed until April 2011.

At the PPV lockdown on March 10, 2013, Bully Ray revealed himself as the president of the Aces & Eights group . This led to a reunion of Team 3D within this table , as Devon was revealed as a member in October 2012.

Return to WWE (2015)

At the major Royal Rumble 2015 event, Mark LoMonaco made his first WWE appearance as Bubba Ray Dudley after a ten-year absence. He had not previously reached a satisfactory agreement regarding his contract with TNA. In the meantime he had made appearances for other independent organizations. On August 24, 2015, LoMonaco and Hughes made their comeback in WWE when they appeared as Dudley Boys on RAW.

In 2016, the Dudley Boys announced their resignation on August 22nd after their one-year contract signed in 2015 expired. So they are no longer under contract with the WWE.

Bubba Ray Dudley RAW (2017)

WWE legend Bubba Ray Dudley - aka Bully Ray, has announced his retirement from wrestling. After suffering a severe concussion from the Ring of Honors pay-per-view "Death Before Dishonor XV" in September 2017 and a night in the emergency room, 46-year-old Bully Ray seems to have his future as an in-ring performer in Having asked the question - and decided to hang up his boots.

At an event in Pittsburgh on, he came to the fans present and gave his farewell speech.

He reportedly told the crowd that the Ring of Honor told him he didn't have to appear on the show, but he didn't want it that way. Bully Ray, famous for his "Get the Tables" slogan, said in This town always meant something to him no matter what company he worked for.

He added that this was part of his dream and passion to be interactive with fans.

The former ECW and WWE Tag Team Champion told them he didn't know if he would ever come back but wanted to say goodbye in person.

However, speculation about his future finally ended 24 hours later when he announced his retirement after completing his game at Global Wars.

Members

Mark LoMonaco

Mark LoMonaco was born on July 14, 1971 in Massapequa, New York . He began his wrestling career in 1991 with the ECW after being trained by Johnny Rodz and Sonny Blaze. After initially taking up the position of Terminator , he appeared as Bubba-Ray Dudley from 1995 onwards . LoMonaco is currently performing at WWE .

Devon Hughes

Devon Hughes was born on August 1, 1972 in New Rochelle , New York . A big fan of Hulk Hogan and the Road Warriors even as a child , he trained as a wrestler from Johnny Rodz and from then on competed in various smaller leagues. From April 13, 1996 he appeared in the ECW as D-Von Dudley . Hughes is currently performing at WWE.

Matthew Hyson

Matthew Johnathan Hyson was born on August 13, 1970 in Providence , Rhode Island . Before he started wrestling, he worked as a primary school teacher. He got his wrestling training in the Californian APW . After two years in various California leagues, he got a contract with the ECW in 1996. Because of his slim and youthful appearance, Hyson got the gimmick of Spike Dudley , the "little 18-year-old brother" of the Dudley Boyz. He was quickly grouped into a tag team with Balls Mahoney , who just had a feud with the Dudleys.