Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz

In 2015 one of the most decorated tag teams in history, the Dudley Boyz, made their return to the WWE. Their return run only lasted a year, but during that time they filmed interviews for their first ever feature-length documentary from WWE that spans their entire career. That DVD/BluRay hit in 2016 with the then-trendy title of Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz (trailer).

Bubba and D-Von are interviewed together on the night they returned to WWE as new surprise foils for the New Day in August 2015. There are also new one-on-one interviews with both Bubba and D-Von separately and are used appropriately throughout the feature. These new interviews from the Dudleyz are perfectly supplemented with all-new interviews from their past friends, peers and rivals such as Johnny Rodz, Tazz, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Sign Guy Dudley, Spike Dudley, Rhyno, Lance Storm, APA, Mick Foley, Rob Van Dam, Edge & Christian and yes even Konnor of the Ascension gets a couple of his own soundbites too.

The documentary feels about the perfect length at just under 75 minutes. Both Bubba and D-Von grew up near each other in the greater New York area and I will give major props to whoever got tasked with highlighting adolescent-aged Bubba and D-Von in the crowd at various WWE events as proof of their lifelong fandom. I dug D-Von’s old-school training tales with Johnny Rodz, but Bubba’s story of his training is unlike any other I have heard to the point he will not give credit to his trainer in the doc and is an early must-see part of the feature! Naturally a wealthy amount of time is dedicated to them breaking in and hitting it big in ECW. Even though I devoured the Best of Dudley Boyz in ECW DVD a couple of times I learned several new things about their time there in this feature such as Bubba’s tryout appearance as a heavy for Bill Alfonso and how Bubba and D-Von initially feuded for several months before aligning to dominate tag team wrestling.

It was fascinating to learn here how trepid the Dudleyz were coming into WWE in 1999 after another former ECW tag team, Public Enemy pissed off the roster and left WWE just as fast as they arrived earlier that same year. Their fears were quickly put to rest after they passed a ‘test’ of sorts Bubba & D-Von broke down with their first feud in WWE against the APA and a few months later getting over with WWE fans after their successful tables match with the Hardyz at Royal Rumble 2000. As I anticipated, a fair amount of time is given to the beloved TLC matches that the Dudleyz, Edge & Christian and the Hardyz made famous. One of the highpoints of the doc is hearing the Dudleyz and Edge & Christian reflect on their TLC memories and how over they were at this point during the wildly successful ‘Attitude Era’ of WWE. It was too bad the Hardyz were in TNA/Impact at the time and not on hand for WWE to interview for Straight Outta Dudleyville.

From there the doc focuses on their surprise split at the inaugural roster split/draft in 2002 and how their singles runs did not work out, but I cracked up at D-Von saying he loved portraying the Brother preacher character and how he wanted to keep doing it. One underwhelming area is how the Dudleyz kind of brush off the last few years of their first WWE run after they reunited from 2002-05 and would have loved to hear some stories from their feuds at that time. Instead they stated they were burnt out and needed a break from WWE and the feature spends only a couple minutes focusing on how the Dudleyz spent a decade ‘making a go at’ TNA/Impact and Japan. It is nothing too in-depth, which is understandable since WWE does not own the footage and part of me is gratified just to see WWE acknowledge that large chunk of their career. The documentary winds down covering the Dudleyz big return (minus the retirement) and with them looking forward to helping out current WWE tag teams with all their years of knowledge.

For extra features, there is about 15 minutes of bonus interview excerpts that did not make the main feature and worth checking out, especially for some fun anecdotes about D-Von and Bubba’s origins of their characters and Mae Young memories. There are 26 matches spanning the Dudleyz’ entire career, four of which are exclusive to the BluRay. There are also several interviews every few matches with the Dudleyz where they reminisce on a pivotal match on this collection such as their big November to Remember ’96 one-on-one clash, WMX-7 TLC and their chaotic blood bath at One Night Stand. Aside from those, other standout matches from the extras that I rank highest from this set are a Dudleyz 6-man tag against Dreamer, Sandman & Spike, the aforementioned tables match against the Hardyz, a forgotten gem against Edge & Christian at the 2001 Rumble, a perfectly executed tag bout I completely forgot about against Mysterio & RVD at Judgment Day 2004 and an Extreme Rules 8-Man tag from their return run with Rhyno & Dreamer against the Wyatt Family. These eight of the 26 matches feature the hottest crowds and tons of great moments where everyone was on their game. While they are not five star classics I would also recommend on this set seeing both D-Von and Bubba take on Triple H in singles matches from their solo runs in 2002 for a tease of what their future had in store for them as singles stars.

Bear with me for a moment, because I want to touch on something special about the One Night Stand 2005 match on this disc where the Dudleyz faced off against Sandman & Tommy Dreamer. Click here first before you watch the match to check out Sandman’s unforgettable, uncensored entrance from that show because as expected, WWE dubbed over Sandman’s Metallica entrance music with generic garbage. Because of that, you miss out on the magic of the crowd loudly singing along while Sandman gets progressively more inebriated by the time he reaches the ring in one of my all-time favorite entrances! Speaking of dubbing, WWE also dubbed over all the matches from the Dudleyz’ WWE run when they started using Powerman 5000’s “Get Up, Get Up” song as their very fitting entrance theme with an older Dudley theme that is at least better than what poor Sandman got dubbed over with.

WWE does not often release too many DVDs dedicated to tag teams, but when they do they make sure to do it right. Minus a couple qualms, I am mostly satisfied with how the documentary covered their lengthy career and again, minus a couple nitpicks WWE did a great job at compiling a stellar array of the Dudleyz’ best matches. Definitely take the time out to check out Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz as it is a well-crafted tribute to one of the top teams in the business.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017