Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard blog recently spoke with TNA Hall Of Famers Team 3D (aka The Dudley Boyz) — Bully Ray and Devon — to promote the upcoming House Of Hardcore event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On a possible WWE return:
Devon: “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 ten or fifteen years ago. I understand that they want the future. But without the older generation that paved the way for these young guys to come, 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: “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. You would think the most decorated tag team in the history of WWE would be able to go back into a company and breathe life into the tag division. It may never happen, but you never say never. It could be right around the corner.”
On Paul Heyman and ECW:
Devon: “The greatest thing Paul Heyman ever gave us was creative liberty. A lot of the boys liked to call Paul the ‘David Koresh’ of pro wrestling back then, but he believed in you. He’d fire you up to the point where you thought you were bigger than Hulk Hogan. He made you believe in yourself. Paul took the time to develop your character. When people didn’t know how to speak on the mic, he’d sit there with you until three, four, or even five in the morning until you got it right. Paul really let us be us. When WCW fired Steve Austin [in 1995] and WWE wasn’t knocking on his door, it was Paul E. who saw something in Austin. Eric Bischoff fired Austin when he was hurt in WCW, and Paul E. said, ‘I know you’re hurt, but can you talk?’ When Steve came to ECW and delivered those promos – oh my God, you couldn’t believe that was the same guy who was in WCW. That’s what started Austin as a superstar. Steve started to be born again, and it was the same thing when he was in WWE. He didn’t become a star until he was given the creative liberty to be himself.”
Bully: “We text and talk all the time. Me and Paul, our relationship is better than anyone else he had from the entire ECW roster. We respect and like each other as people. Even at the Rumble, it was great catching up with him. When the Rumble was over, I was on Brock Lesnar’s tour bus with Brock and Paul, and we were shooting the s— and reminiscing. When Brock first started and Paul was his manager, I was Brock’s first storyline. The WWE came to me and asked me to get Brock ready for what could be in store for him.”
Bully Ray on Brock Lesnar: “Brock is just so powerful. One night, we were performing at Penn State, and Brock gave me an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. He dropped me right on my head. It was a total mistake, and it could have been a very, very bad injury for me. As soon as it happened, I remember getting up and telling Brock, ‘Do it again, do it again.’ He did not want to suplex me again, so I made him suplex me three more times the same exact way. I didn’t want Brock to become gun-shy about throwing people or change the way he worked if he’d be worried about hurting other people.”
Bully Ray on 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.”
Bully Ray on Vince McMahon: “Vince spent his whole life in the business, added his vision, and made it the best in the world. Vince has a great mind for the industry and thinks on a much larger scale. Paul [Heyman] was great at storytelling and really getting people’s characters to come out and how to hide your weaknesses and accentuate your strengths. Those are the two smartest guys I’ve ever learned from in the business, and Paul, Vince, and Pat Patterson are the three best minds ever in this business.”
On Erick Rowan and Luke Harper:
Bully: “Right now, the one WWE tag team that deserves to taste the Dudley Death Drop is Harper and Rowan. It was very interesting they started hitting the Dudley Death Drop on TV and calling it something else. We’ve been hitting this finish consecutively for eighteen years.”
Devon: “That is a touchy subject. A move like 3D – when you see it, you automatically think the Dudleys. So Harper and Rowan started the fight. Harper said on Twitter, they’d be happy to show us ‘The Way,’ which is what they’re calling the move. Well, we’d be more than happy to hit 3D the way it should be hit.”
Check out the complete interview at SI.com.