How Good Were The Dudley Boyz Actually?

Cultural Significance

The Dudley Boyz lack entirely in cultural significance; unless that person watched the WWF between 1999-2001, you won’t find a soul on this planet with a clue who they are.

This criteria was introduced in the first entry of this series, and it’s not unfair; if you want to determine who really was great, to a transcendent extent, you must wonder if their bumps echoed beyond the wrestling arena and across the wider world. If you were so memorably entertaining in an industry that people laughed at, you had to be a red supergiant.

This is true of most tag teams, to be absolutely fair. In the United States at least, the public only gravitates towards the marquee singles stars. To make this somewhat more generous, then, let’s instead assess the significance of the Dudley Boyz within wrestling.

Is there a single tag act that would not exist today without their influence? That is debatable. Sabu was such an electrifying sensation that you’d see a table spot on every major show even if the Dudleyz were never around.

The Dudleyz are the only tag team in wrestling history to have captured the WWE, ECW, WCW, TNA, NWA and IWGP World Heavyweight Tag Team titles. This cannot be described as anything other than very impressive - but to what extent, really?

Getting over to the degree they did in ECW and WWE was inarguably remarkable. They forged a connection with the most discerning fans and the most amount of fans alike. The WCW title stint is a nice bit of trivia, and nothing more; those titles were promoted by the WWF at the time. Moreover, during that time, too many wrestlers were awarded with a belt. Bookers were obsessed with title changes, which were practically meaningless.

The NWA tag title reign counts even less. Unlike the Mid-Atlantic lineage, the belts never meant a great deal, and were fought over during the brand’s wilderness years before the inception of TNA. Team 3D held the titles for a month before the NWA-TNA relationship was severed.

The TNA reigns were short and forgettable, and few hardcore fans of that promotion would call Team 3D the best it had to offer. The Motor City Machine Guns, America’s Most Wanted, LAX, and Beer Money occupy that Mount Rushmore. If not them, then Bad Influence, or even Triple X.

The Dudleyz did more stat-padding than embark on a proper belt collector run. The IWGP title reigns are less impressive when you consider that both happened before NJPW entered its creative and commercial renaissance.

You could argue that the Dudleyz did it all, and you’d not be incorrect - but the achievement is quite superficial when you look back upon it.

6/10