How Good Were The Dudley Boyz Actually?

Promos

This is the most contentious entry.

Some people think that the Dudley Boyz, Bubba in particular, were great at talking. To an extent, they are correct. Bubba’s voice was perfect for the smaller, sweatier dins that played host to ECW. That profoundly abrasive Queens, New York tongue was the perfect delivery system for his over-the-top, vile material. Pissed-off, aggressive New Yorkers cut great promos even when they aren’t wrestlers. It was a natural gift that he used to almost to its maximum potential, though Taz was better at being aggrieved.

D-Von wasn’t as good as Bubba, in that he was often there to add the exclamation point, but he was more intimidating, adding a genuine edge to what otherwise might have been pure schtick.

Bubba’s delivery was excellent. He knew the rhythm of trash-talk - when to raise his voice, when to add emphasis. He had a unique way of doing that, often inserting a pause between every syllable, as if this cheapest and most direct route to drawing heat needed to be spelled out for the dumb marks to understand it.

As a general rule of thumb, a good and memorable promo in wrestling is both fun and relatively easy for the fans to mimic. Every wrestling fan has done a Ric Flair impression, a Dusty Rhodes. Millions, and millions, have tried to pop their friends doing the Rock. Everybody can do a half-decent Macho Man, yeah. Bubba Ray Dudley, while obviously not in that tier, is a fun one to do - not that you’d want to repeat roughly anything he ever said in 2025.

But what did Bubba deliver, exactly?

What marks the Dudleyz (and Bubba specifically) down here is that his stuff was so artless. You could argue that was the point. The Bubba act doesn’t work if he gets too fancy with his wordplay.

While he eventually, briefly became a standout singles star in TNA, in ECW, Bubba was rarely tasked with building top-level programmes with major stakes. His job was to rile the fans up and secure his beloved heat. He did, but to an extent that is overblown. Nobody was so upset that they actually rioted. People threw acid at Freddie Blassie. More than one fan stabbed a wrestler. Bubba never convinced anybody to hop over the guardrail.

He was spat upon, at Heat Wave ‘99, so that’s something - but this apparently legendary promo was pure edgelord stuff that was overlong, and didn’t do an effective job of promoting anything. He didn’t even generate heat for the match that immediately followed; The Dudleyz Vs. Balls Mahoney and Spike Dudley was a slow, basic exchange of overfamiliar weapon spots. The fans didn’t chant “F*ck you, Buh Buh”; they chanted “Flaming tables!”, since they were bored stiff and wanted him to get to the one bit of the match they wanted to see.

People can do a Ric Flair impression, but they can’t actually write one of his promos - promos that made you actually want to see the match. The key difference with Bubba is that any wrestler could do what he did. It isn’t reductive to state that Bubba just droned on and on in a loop repeating the exact same thing. Vile insult, vile insult, vile insult. He didn’t even craft set-ups and punchlines. He just screamed awful things at people constantly. He was a compelling, loathsome presence with a microphone in his hand, but - and this is ironic, given what he talks about constantly on his radio show - he didn’t tell a story. His sentences were great. They never added up to much. Was Bubba even the best foul-mouthed guy in his own act?

Joel Gertner was funnier, and his individual lines more quotable.

7/10