The Dudley Boyz, Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley, are the next inductees into the WWE Hall of Fame. The Dudleyz join Goldberg as the only names announced for the Hall of Fame class of 2018 thus far.
The Dudley Boyz are often recognized as one of the most decorated tag team champions in the history of professional wrestling. They are the only team to hold the WWE, WCW and ECW tag team titles (while they never joined WCW, they captured the titles during the Invasion angle after the then-WWF bought WCW), and including their long stint in TNA and their two reigns in NJPW, they have held tag team gold an astounding 23 times.
Bubba Ray and D-Von are kayfabe brothers in the expansive Dudley family, which started in ECW. As the story goes, “Big Daddy Dudley” was a traveling salesman who got around a lot, and thus had children with many different women. The faction was originally a comedic one in Extreme Championship Wrestling, but that all changed when Bubba Ray and D-Von began teaming together, wreaking havoc in the division and being taken very seriously. In an interview with CBS Sports following the announcement, D-Von explained:
“We were considered a joke at one point. Bubba was stuttering and there are like nine other Dudleys coming in from other places. It was like a ‘ha ha’ moment. But when we got together, that ‘ha ha’ moment became real and became serious. That’s when people started taking us serious because of what we were doing in the ring and the commotion and the chaos we were causing.”
The Dudley Boyz joined the World Wrestling Federation in 1999 and immediately changed the landscape. Along with the Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian, the team innovated the Tables, Ladders and Chairs match and helped usher in a new era of brutality in the division.
WWE will hold its Hall of Fame ceremony this WrestleMania weekend.
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