WWE Hall of Fame News: The Dudley Boyz Will Join 2018 Induction Class
It was announced on Monday that the Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) will be inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame in 2018. The Hall of Fame ceremony will take place on Friday, April 6 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans just two days before WrestleMania. They join the previously announced Bill Goldberg in the class of 2018.
This news was not a surprise since it was reported in the Wrestling Observer a few weeks ago, which we covered here and there were rumors of it last month as well.
The Dudleys are one of the best tag teams in wrestling history after starting as a team in the mid-90s in ECW and officially retiring as a team in 2016. D-Von currently works for WWE as a backstage producer while Bubba is part of the Busted Open Radio Show while also working for Ring of Honor. Both men returned for Raw 25 last week. The duo won 9 Tag Team Titles in WWE although you could say it’s 10 because one of them was a WCW Tag Title win when it was booked by WWE. They have 24 Tag Team Title reigns as a team including their stints in ECW, TNA and New Japan.
The news of Bubba and D-Von in the Hall of Fame was first revealed by CBS Sports because WWE likes to leak these things to news outlets to give them interviews and then WWE officially announces it shortly after. Here are some comments via CBS Sports from both Dudleys.
Bubba Ray talked about their famous Dudley Death Drop (3D) finishing move:
“The very first thing we knew was that it had to be different and new and unique, and it had to be out of nowhere. I’m proud to say it’s probably up there among the greatest finishes of all-time, and that’s what gave us a uniqueness that set us apart from the rest.”
D-Von discussed how important it was to have chemistry as a team:
“Bubba and I clicked on so many levels when we got together and knew that we could hang with the big boys if we got the opportunity to go to WWE. When we did, we just went from there and were on fire. We just knew that if the WWE would let us be us, we would be extremely good and be able to accomplish exactly what we wanted to do — and that’s be the best tag team in the history of the business.”
Bubba Ray spoke about how they are the first ECW created talents to get into WWE’s Hall of Fame:
“It probably means more to me than anything else. Yes, going into the WWE Hall of Fame is cool, but being the first original act ever created in ECW is really a big deal. ECW meant so much to us and it meant so much to wrestling fans. To me, it’s a great honor to represent a company that revolutionized and changed the wrestling business.”
Very well said.
TJR Thoughts: They’ve been everywhere and won a lot of gold along the way. Whether they were heels or faces, they were able to consistently get over and stay over. The speech should be pretty good especially Bubba because he’s one of the better talkers in the business. He’s very good at telling stories. Perhaps they will even find a table nearby and put somebody through it.
I don’t know who will induct them, but it would be cool if four people could do it: Edge, Christian, Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy. Those four guys really put tag team wrestling on the map in the Attitude Era and set a high standard. Paul Heyman would be a good name, but he’s apparently inducting Goldberg. Maybe they will go with Tommy Dreamer, who is a close friend of both guys.