Trying to capture their career with one column will be a challenge, but I’ll begin with three words: “Get the tables!”
This past weekend, my favorite tag team hung up their boots. The Dudley Boyz (or “Team 3D, if you prefer) competed in a tag team tables match at the TNA Wrestling Bound For Glory event against long-time rivals, The Hardy Boyz, in a match billed as “One Final Table.”
The name was seemingly a reference to this being the final match between the two legendary teams. But after the final bell (The Hardys won), the name took on a much deeper meaning. The Hardys found themselves in the ring, standing face-to-face with the fallen Dudley Boyz, and what happened next sent an emotional shockwave through the professional wrestling world.
Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley both untied their wrestling boots, took them off, and handed them to the Hardys in the middle of the ring, signifying the end of their legendary career.
The story begins in the Philadelphia-based promotion, ECW, in 1996. The then Buh Buh Ray Dudley (real name Mark LoMonaco) was a part of The Dudley Family faction. The Dudley family was composed of several wrestlers playing the Illegitimate sons of “Big Daddy Dudley.”
The group was comedic at first, but that would soon change. In April 1996, at the ECW Massacre on Queens Boulevard event, a new Dudley arrived on the scene, D-Von Dudley (real name Devon Hughes). But D-Von was different from the other Dudleys; he was serious, and claimed that the Dudleys were not comedians.
In February 1997, at the ECW Crossing the Line Again event, Buh Buh Ray and D-Von united and kicked the rest of the Dudleys out of the family, with the exceptions of Sign Guy Dudley and Big Dick Dudley. The chemistry between LoMonaco and Hughes was undeniable, and they would soon become the face of ECW’s tag team division, winning the ECW Tag Team Championship eight times before departing for the WWF in late 1999, putting countless victims through tables along the way.
Not long after they arrived in the WWF, The Dudley Boyz would become one-third of a trio of tag teams that would change tag team wrestling forever. The other two teams were the previously mentioned Hardy Boys and Edge and Christian. The groundbreaking journey of these three teams began at WWF’s No Mercy event in October 1999, when The Hard Boys squared off against Edge and Christian in a tag team ladder match.
The match was a hit and left fans wanting more.
The next chapter came in January 2000 at the Royal Rumble event when The Hardy Boys took on The Dudley Boyz in a tag team tables match. Then at Wrestlemania 2000, we got our first look at all three teams together in a Triangle Ladder Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship. The match stole the show and set a new standard for tag team wrestling.
That August, Summer Slam rolled around, and it was time to raise the bar once again. The Dudley Boyz, Hardy Boyz, and Edge and Christian once again tore the house down in the first-ever Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match with the Tag Team Titles on the line. Tables were broken, bodies flew off ladders, steel chairs were swung, and history was made.
Then at Wrestlemania 17 the following April, these three teams were asked to raise the bar one more time when they were booked to face each other again in a match called TLC II, the second ever tables, ladders, and chairs match, this time in front of over 60,000 fans in the Astro Dome in Houston, Texas. TLC II surpassed the original and cemented the legacy of all three teams in the history books.
The Dudley Boyz would stay with the WWF/E until 2005. During their time with the WE, they won the WWE tag team championship nine times and the WCW tag team title one time during the invasion angle in 2001. They would return to the WWE in 2015, where they would feud with teams like The New Day, The Wyatt Family, and The Usos. In 2018, The Dudley Boyz were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Following their departure from WWE in 2005, The Dudley Boyz would debut in TNA Wrestling that fall under the names Brother Ray and Brother Devon as Team 3D. They would spend the next decade with TNA. During that time, they would feud with all of the top teams in the company, such as America’s Most Wanted, LAX, Beer Money Inc., The Motor City Machine Guns, and the Voodoo Kin Mafia.
During their time in TNA, they won the NWA Tag Team Championship once, the TNA Tag Team Championship twice, and were named the TNA Tag Team of the Year twice in 2005 and 2007. Their time in TNA also saw the first real on-screen feud between Brother Ray and Devon. Ray turned on Devon, became a heel, and adopted the name of Bully Ray.
The split allowed both members to achieve singles success, with Devon capturing the TNA Television Championship twice, and Bully capturing the TNA World Heavyweight Championship twice. They would eventually reunite when both men were revealed to be members of the Aces and Eights faction. Team 3D was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2014.
Over the last several years, The Dudley Boyz have appeared in various wrestling promotions across the globe. Then at the TNA Slammiversary event in July 2025, The Hardy Boys won the TNA tag team championships. After the match, Bully Ray appeared unannounced and came down to the ring and issued a challenge to the Hardy Boys to take on Team 3D in a tables match at Bound For Glory.
The Hardys accepted, and the stage was set for One Final Table. The match was another classic outing between the two teams and ended after The Hardys successfully put both Bully and Devon through tables. After the match, The Dudley Boyz gave The Hardy Boys their boots and left the ring and walked off into the sunset.
Even this column is only a highly abbreviated version of their legendary career. So, how do you put on a bow on the tale of The Dudley Boyz?
Perhaps the best way to do that is to say, “Thank you.” Thank Bubba and D-Von for matches and memories, and best of luck in retirement. Let me close by reciting Von’s three simple rules:
1. Thou shalt not steal.
2. Thou shalt not kill.
3. Thou shalt not mess with The Dudleys!
