In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard section, former WWE, TNA & ECW Tag Team Champions Team 3D/The Dudley Boyz discussed the competition they would bring to today’s tag teams, their possible desire to make a return to WWE, their history in WWE, WCW and TNA, travelling with Tommy Dreamer, The Rock and others, pranking Vince McMahon and more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
Devon on why a return to WWE is on hold: “For us not to be back there, knowing that we’re in the best shape we’ve ever been in, I don’t understand it. We’re better now than we were 10 or 15 years ago. I understand that they want the future, but without the older generation that paved the way for these young guys to come up, you’re not going to have it. Wrestling is a lost art, so you need the older guys like us to help show the younger guys how it’s done. I don’t understand it, though I know it needs to be on their terms.”
Bully Ray on the WWE: “Take the Dudley Boyz and put them back in WWE and you’d add instant credibility to the tag division. The great thing about the Dudleys is we can work with any team and we can work any style. Not only will we help one team get over and learn and get better, but we can help all of them. It seems pretty simple to me, having the Dudleys back in the WWE is best for business, so I don’t have a really great answer for why we are not there, only they know.”
Bully Ray on his surprise Royal Rumble appearance without Devon: “It was a little weird doing the signature Dudley Boyz spots with someone other than Devon, but I knew that the people wanted to see it so badly, so I thought it was the right thing to give it to them. Maybe, one day, we’ll give it back to them together for real.”
On pranking Vince McMahon while traveling with Shane McMahon: “When Shane McMahon was on the road for the company, he was in the car with us. One night, we were driving and Shane decided to wake up his father and made us all say hello to Vince at three in the morning, Vince loves all that horses***. Shane was driving and he said, come on, let’s wake up Pop. I said, that’s probably not a good idea, so he called his father and said, Bubba wants to talk, he handed me the phone and all I could hear was Vince say, Bubba, why are you corrupting my son. I told him it was the other way around and we both started laughing.”
The interview is available in full at this link.