The Dudley Boyz are a legendary tag team. They are without question the most legendary tag team on the WWE roster right now. The Dudley Boyz are veterans with years of knowledge, they’re beloved by fans all over the world and they can get a reaction out of any crowd in any city. So why isn’t WWE doing anything with them at the moment?
The day after SummerSlam 2015 The Dudley Boyz made a huge return to WWE and everyone was ecstatic. In the months that followed they seemed to be on a roll feuding with teams like The New Day and The Wyatt Family. But ever since their feud with The Wyatt Family ended The Dudley Boyz have been lost in the shuffle.
They’re not featured on TV regularly and they have no clear path or purpose at the moment. Letting such a legendary team like this, with such name value get lost in the shuffle so easily is not a good move. These guys don’t have to be in the tag team title hunt at all times, but they add value to the roster and they’re definitely being underutilized at the moment.
Here are a few things WWE could try to make The Dudley Boyz a more vital part of the show.
Have Them Win The Tag Titles And Setup A Triple Threat TLC Match For Mania
The New Day are one of the hottest things going in WWE right now so they’re going to need a big WrestleMania moment to cap off the big year they’ve had. They have been feuding with The Usos for months now and it looks like the teams are likely building towards a match at Mania. Both teams need to make an impression this year and The Dudley Boyz can help them do that.
The best way to give both teams their “WrestleMania moment” would be to throw them into a TLC match with The Dudleys. Sure, The Usos and The New Day both competed in a triple threat TLC match at the TLC pay-per-view in December. But what does anyone remember about that match? When people talk about that match they talk about Kalisto’s Salida Del Sol off of the ladder and that’s about it.
The TLC matches The Dudley Boyz had with Edge & Christian and The Hardy Boyz, people still talk about those daily, and they talk about them like they happened yesterday. The Dudley Boyz are the masters of the TLC match and they can help give both teams memorable moments that people will hopefully be talking about years from now.
The New Day have been great as the WWE Tag Team Champions but it wouldn’t hurt them to drop the belts to The Dudley Boyz. Especially if it meant that they would be able win them back and walk out of WrestleMania saying they won the WWE Tag Team Championship and defeated one of the most legendary teams ever on the grandest stage of them all. Now that’s a WrestleMania moment.
Simply Put Them In Another Feud
The Dudley Boyz and their ECW alumni ended up in a heated feud with The Wyatt Family going into the TLC pay-per-view. The feud was fun for the fans, it helped give The Wyatt Family momentum going into WrestleMania season and it gave The Dudley Boyz something interesting to do. So why not do it again?
It’s hard to believe that such a legendary team has been lost so badly in the shuffle that they recently lost a dark match to NXT team The Hype Bros. at a TV taping. But the sad part isn’t that they lost the match, or that they lost to The Hype Bros. The sad part is that it was a dark match and no one really saw it.
There are plenty of teams in NXT and WWE that The Dudley Boyz could work with and help to mentor. The Hype Bros. are just one example, but there’s Dash and Dawson, Gable and Jordan, the League of Nations, the Social Outcasts and the list goes on. It doesn’t matter if they work with a team on the main roster or in NXT but not using them at all is a misguided decision.
The point is, The Dudley Boyz don’t have to be the focus of the tag team division at all times. But simply letting them drift aimlessly is robbing the fans of the chance to see a team they want to see weekly and it’s robbing younger talent of the chance to work with that team.
Have Them Join A Faction
The Dudley Boyz are fun on their own but they could always work as part of an ensemble too. The Authority is a little short on help these days. Perhaps The Dudley Boyz could work as their hired guns? A heel turn could open up new opportunities that the team doesn’t have access to right now.
The Social Outcasts could always use a team to mentor them. The interactions between The Dudleys and Bo Dallas, Heath Slater, Adam Rose and Curtis Axel could make for some good comedy if done right.
The League of Nations seems to be having some unfortunate issues with injuries lately. Recruiting The Dudley Boyz might not be a bad idea. They don’t currently have anyone in their stable to represent the United States and it would be another way to turn The Dudley Boyz heel.
Hell, you could even have The Wyatt Family brainwash The Dudleys and recruit them for a while. Could you imagine how unstoppable The Wyatt Family would be if they added Bubba Ray and D-Von to their ranks?
Some of these ideas might seem like we’re reaching a little too far and we’ll give you that. But we just want to see The Dudley Boyz do something, anything.
Split Them Up
It made a lot of sense for WWE to bring The Dudley Boyz back as a team, but they aren’t utilizing them in the tag team division. Maybe it’s time to let them loose and give them singles runs.
Bubba Ray proved without a doubt that he can work as a top level heel with his work as Bully Ray in TNA. Bully might not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but one thing’s for sure, the character is a heat magnet. Bully Ray knows how to make people hate him. It would be worth the time to build him up as a legitimate threat to the roster so that an up and coming face could eventually take him down and gain some momentum.
D-Von also had a pretty good singles run in TNA when he was defending the Television Championship on a weekly basis. He’s great with a workhorse title and would be good in a role similar to John Cena where he could be used to get a lower tier title over. Heck the US Title could probably stand to regain some of that luster it built up in 2015.
Of course the split would be a pivotal moment as well. If WWE were going to move forward with Bubba Ray transitioning into Bully Ray, they would need to have him do something despicable to D-Von.
If WWE is out of ideas for The Dudley Boyz as a team, why not use that as a launching pad to try new things?
