For over two decades, wherever Bubba Ray Dudley competed around the world, D-Von Dudley wasn't far behind. The duo has been everywhere, and they've done everything together.
Whenever Bubba Ray has belted his famous catchphrase -- "D-VON, GET THE TABLES!" -- his brother in arms was always ready to help crush another sorry soul through some wood. If Bubba asked, "waaaazzzzup," D-Von was there perched on the top rope with his tongue sticking out shouting, "waaaazzzzup" right back. Their most famous double-team move, the "3D", is one part flapjack from D-Von and another part cutter from Bubba Ray. Both parts combine to make a devastating maneuver that has helped make The Dudley Boyz the most decorated tag team in professional wrestling history.
That kind of synergy carried them through successful stints together in ECW, WWE, and TNA. But sometimes, even the most inseparable of duos need to blaze their own paths. During their time in TNA, Bubba, as Bully Ray, stuck out on his own and became a two-time singles world champion.
The WWE's unwillingness to split up the Dudleys this time around ended the team's latest and probably final run with the company in August 2016. Bubba Ray, in particular, wanted to showcase a side of himself separate from D-Von. A persona that is far from the stuttering "Buh Buh" Ray Dudley of early ECW or the table-crazed Bubba Ray in WWE.
He wanted to be the bully again.
"We were one day away from becoming Bully Ray in WWE," Bully Ray told ESPN.com. "One of the problems with having Bully Ray in the WWE was the word bully. How could they have a guy named Bully when they had the 'Be a STAR' program? It was a little too risky for them."
Bully Ray was responsible for some of the most successful feuds and storylines in TNA's history, during a time when he went toe-to-toe with Hulk Hogan. The character, at least at its peak, was as dastardly a heel as there's been in the business for quite some time.
"I mean [the WWE] have other characters there that do bully-ish type things, but the whole basis of Bully Ray is he is the quintessential bully," he said. "His entire character is built around bullying people. Built around making people do things against their will. And with the business they have going on now -- the Be a STAR program and more PG-rated stuff, bullying being such a sensitive subject around an entire world -- it just wasn't gonna work out."
The Dudley Boyz left WWE exactly one year after making their long-awaited return, which happened on the day after Summerslam in 2015. While D-Von ultimately walked away from in-ring competition to become a WWE producer, and WWE wasn't interested in debuting Bully Ray, it didn't take long before other promotions came calling with a different kind of opportunity.
"Ring of Honor reached out to me I think the day after I left WWE," Bully Ray said. "They were actually interested in bringing in both me and D-Von into Ring of Honor, which would've been insane. D-Von had made a life decision where he wanted to devote a little more time to his family and physically in the ring wanted to slow it down just a little bit. I still have gas in the tank. I think Ring of Honor was the perfect place for me to continue as Bully Ray."
Bully Ray chose to sign with Ring of Honor, a company he'd never wrestled for in its 15-year existence, over a more lucrative offer from the place where the "Bully" character was born.
"I had a huge offer to go back to TNA (now called Impact Wrestling), but I just knew in my heart it just wasn't the right decision at the time," Bully Ray said. "I am making less money with Ring of Honor than I would have been making with TNA if I accepted their offer, but I knew Ring of Honor was the right fit. Bully Ray belonged at Ring of Honor at this time. I don't think I could've topped what I did as Bully Ray in TNA with the current landscape of TNA. Knowing all the great talent that Ring of Honor has, the passion of their locker room, the passion of their fans, and the fact that it's the kind of setting I love to be in more than anything else, it was absolutely the right fit."
Bully Ray had come to terms with Ring of Honor, but no one in the wrestling community was aware of it as his debut neared. That has been a specialty of Bully Ray throughout his career -- making real surprises and returns in an era where almost everything is spoiled on the internet. No one expected him to walk out as the third entrant in the 2015 Royal Rumble. The Dudley Boyz' return to WWE in August 2015 after a decade-long absence was known by so few people that even the wrestlers backstage only found out as Bubba and D-Von strolled into gorilla position. Bully Ray's ROH debut in March was no different.
"It was very special to call the surprise debut of Bully Ray. I didn't know what was coming. That's completely legitimate," ROH play-by-play announcer Ian Riccaboni said. "I got a tap in my headset that said, 'Please refer to him as this,' and that was it. I did not know he was in the building. That was a really cool moment."
Bully Ray ran out in front of a shocked crowd at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City and chokeslammed an equally stunned Adam Cole through a table. The crowd erupted into 'E-C-DUB' chants as Bully Ray made a major statement in his first moments as a Ring of Honor performer.
"Of course I didn't enjoy being put through a table," Cole said. "As far as Bully debuting in New York City and putting someone through a table, it was a perfect debut for him."
Bully Ray fought off the rest of the Bullet Club alongside the Briscoes and Bobby Fish, and grabbed the mic to cut an impassioned promo.
"If I came to Ring of Honor, it's because I genuinely want to," Bully Ray said to the raucous crowd. "When I retire I want to be able to say that I fought for Ring of Honor."
Bully Ray spoke with an intensity and sense of reality that Bubba Ray lacked as a more one-dimensional character in his latest WWE run. His words reverberated throughout the same building where the Dudley Boyz main evented the original ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view in 2005, in what would be the team's final appearance in WWE for over a decade.
Bully Ray felt at home again.
"It was really cool, because this had been the first time in a long time I was genuinely excited," Bully Ray said. "I've told people that going out there in the Hammerstein for Ring of Honor that night was actually more exciting for me than walking out in front of 100,000 people at WrestleMania. A lot of people say, 'That's impossible. It can't be. You're crazy.' For me it's more exciting because of the intimate feel. When you come up in a company like ECW and you're used to that intimacy, that's what you really crave.
"Earlier in the day I thought I had an upset stomach. Like, 'Oh man, I don't feel well. There's something wrong. What's wrong with me?' And I was like, 'You got butterflies'. I actually had a little bit of butterflies. It was nervous energy. I was really excited to be back in my hometown of New York City for Ring of Honor. But what a surprise."
The debut of Bully Ray wasn't the only surprise that night. Earlier in the night The Hardy Boyz emerged after the lights went out and confronted the Young Bucks. Moments later, they captured the ROH tag-team belts in an impromptu match.
"What a night for Ring of Honor in New York City to have the one-two punch of the Hardyz and Bully Ray all coming back and nobody knowing about it," Bully Ray said. "It gave Ring of Honor such a good kick in the ass that has helped them even get to the next level."
Every promotion needs star power, even the youthful, in-ring based Ring of Honor. ROH has a history of developing stars before they became household names -- CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins, and Kevin Owens, just to scrape the surface. Bully Ray wants to be a veteran who helps cultivate that talent, much like Terry Funk was for ECW two decades ago.
"ECW needed something in 1995 to help them get more notoriety, and Terry Funk was that guy," Bully Ray said. "He was that veteran wrestler who was able to help with the credibility of the product and that's what I hope I could do with Ring of Honor. No matter what they have me doing -- if they want me wrestling in six mans with the Briscoes, if they want me working with the world heavyweight champion or they want me working the opening match -- it doesn't matter to me. As long as I can lend the name credibility of Bully Ray, or Bubba Ray, or the Dudley Boyz, or Team 3D, whatever it is to help get that company more exposure."
Although the promotion has been around for over 15 years, ROH's business model is far different from that of WWE or even Impact Wrestling. ROH doesn't have a national TV deal. Their shows aren't booked in NBA arenas, but instead field houses, gymnasiums, and small buildings that seat closer to 1,000 fans than 20,000. ROH has been around for so long because they are anything but WWE. The intimate setting of ROH has created as passionate and loyal of a fanbase as there is in wrestling. Bully Ray remembers exactly how that feels.
"Ring of Honor picked up where ECW left off," Bully Ray said. "When ECW was gone there was a huge void left to be filled and Ring of Honor did it. They've been around for 15 years and they have gotten better, and better, and better. They are a perfect example of how slow and steady wins the race."
Bully Ray has enjoyed the more tame schedule of ROH compared to WWE, where he was on the road between 250-300 days a year. At 45, the travel was starting to take a toll on him. Bully Ray plans to wrestle 40-50 shows this year with ROH, which gives him more than enough time to commit to his other ventures. Bully Ray also recently started as a co-host on Sirius XM's Busted Open Radio two days a week. He's also busy training wrestlers at the Team 3D Academy, which he opened with D-Von in 2007.
While Bully Ray continues to compete in ring, D-Von is working with the next generation of talent. Bully Ray hopes to one day reunite with his longtime partner in WWE, only this time they won't be smashing guys through tables. Until that day comes, Bully Ray will just have to get the tables himself.
"It wasn't time for me to hang up my boots yet," he said. "I have been asked in the past by the higher-ups in WWE if I'd be interested in being a producer, and when the time is right hopefully that position is still available."
Whether this is Bully Ray's last stop of his wrestling career, or his last major stop, he's out there now because he wants to be there, and he has value. With an ability to still go in the ring, but a knowledge that most anything you can accomplish in a career is already behind him, it's all about having fun, getting the rush from the crowd and giving back to the business that has given him so much.
"I have nothing left to prove in ring. Zero," Bully Ray said. "People will be talking about the Dudley Boys, or Team 3D or Bully Ray for a long time to come, whether that's from what we did in ECW, being the nine-time WWE tag team champions, stealing shows at WrestleMania, being the most decorated team in the world, the Bully Ray run, what I was able to accomplish in TNA. What is [there] left to do?"