Reason why The Dudley Boyz turned heel revealed, Latest on Sheamus’ current WWE status

[Big Red Machine]

Source: WrestleChat

By C.J. Quinn
– Posted on February 10, 2016Posted in: WWE

– We noted a few weeks ago that Sheamus was out of action with tendinitis in the left arm and while he’s still able to work out, he is not cleared to return to the ring. It was believed that he would remain on WWE TV in a limited role. Word now is that the injury is a lot more complicated than they originally thought. No word yet on when he will be back in action but he’s said to be very optimistic.

– As seen on Monday’s RAW, The Dudley Boyz turned heel and attacked The Usos. There are several reasons for the turn but the main reason is that WWE officials recognize Bubba Ray Dudley is a natural heel and that his role as Bully Ray really worked with fans in TNA. This new direction with The Dudleyz could actually be Bubba’s chance to shine on his own and there’s speculation that it could lead to a split between he and D-Von Dudley.

[Serujuunin]

Sure, split them up and do nothing with Devon.

[Big Red Machine]

Sure, split them up and do nothing with Devon.

This. They are SOOOO much better together than they are apart.

[cero2k]

Sure, split them up and do nothing with Devon.

This. They are SOOOO much better together than they are apart.

devon doesn't need to stay

[Big Red Machine]

Sure, split them up and do nothing with Devon.

This. They are SOOOO much better together than they are apart.

devon doesn't need to stay

How could you possibly prefer to have Bubba shouting "do you know who I am!" and stalling all of the time rather than having the legendary Dudley Boys working with teams like the Usos in the tag team division?

[cero2k]

How could you possibly prefer to have Bubba shouting "do you know who I am!" and stalling all of the time rather than having the legendary Dudley Boys working with teams like the Usos in the tag team division?

1) this version of the Dudleyz are a joke and cartoon. Glasses, Wassap moves, devon getting tables every match. if they were booked as legends, with cool stories, maybe, but not like this.

2)there's not much you can do with a legendary tag team other than have all the younger guys feud with them. Bully Ray on the other hand could have unique storylines, hell bring in Velvet Sky. and Gallows and Anderson!! Aces & Nines LIVES!!! jokes aside, Ray could be a great heel by himself, he doesn't need to be Bully Ray, but he could be a great heel.

3) while we're at it, let's get rid off the Usos too, they suck, they haven't evolved in the last 3 yrs

[Big Red Machine]

How could you possibly prefer to have Bubba shouting "do you know who I am!" and stalling all of the time rather than having the legendary Dudley Boys working with teams like the Usos in the tag team division?

1) this version of the Dudleyz are a joke and cartoon. Glasses, Wassap moves, devon getting tables every match. if they were booked as legends, with cool stories, maybe, but not like this.

2)there's not much you can do with a legendary tag team other than have all the younger guys feud with them. Bully Ray on the other hand could have unique storylines, hell bring in Velvet Sky. and Gallows and Anderson!! Aces & Nines LIVES!!! jokes aside, Ray could be a great heel by himself, he doesn't need to be Bully Ray, but he could be a great heel.

3) while we're at it, let's get rid off the Usos too, they suck, they haven't evolved in the last 3 yrs

1A) I never understood why people were so against the glasses. They're a bit goofy, but they've been part of the gimmick for so long that it doesn't bother me at all. It never stopped me from seeing them as tough, dangerous motherf*ckers.
1B) Yes, the Wazzzup is dumb, but so is a lot of other stuff. It's certainly not enough to make me think of them as a joke. They're the f*cking DUDLEY BOYS.
1C) Well... Devon won't be getting any tables for a very long time

2) "Not much you can do with a legendary tag team?" YOU CAN BUILD THE WHOLE F*CKING DIVISION AROUND THEM!
Here is a list of teams that can have good feuds with the Dudleys:
1. Usos
2. Matadores
3. A babyface New Day (turning maybe a bit after Summer Slam)
4. Lucha Dragons
5. Neville & Kofi (make em' a team for this)

You could also get a great one-off title defense against Dean & Roman, and possibly one or two other makeshift combinations. You could even have the Social Outcasts win a battle royale or something via fluke and give them a shot as severe underdog challengers who the Dudleys don't take seriously and it almost winds up costing them.
Then, finally, at WrestleMania XXXIII, the Dudleys drop the belts to our conquering babyface heroes of Tyson Kidd & Cesaro.

3) Yes, they haven't evolved, but that's because they haven't been given anything to do. How many of the women have actually evolved (aside from constant turning)?

[cero2k]

1A) I never understood why people were so against the glasses. They're a bit goofy, but they've been part of the gimmick for so long that it doesn't bother me at all. It never stopped me from seeing them as tough, dangerous motherf*ckers.
1B) Yes, the Wazzzup is dumb, but so is a lot of other stuff. It's certainly not enough to make me think of them as a joke. They're the f*cking DUDLEY BOYS.
1C) Well... Devon won't be getting any tables for a very long time

2) "Not much you can do with a legendary tag team?" YOU CAN BUILD THE WHOLE F*CKING DIVISION AROUND THEM!
Here is a list of teams that can have good feuds with the Dudleys:
1. Usos
2. Matadores
3. A babyface New Day (turning maybe a bit after Summer Slam)
4. Lucha Dragons
5. Neville & Kofi (make em' a team for this)

You could also get a great one-off title defense against Dean & Roman, and possibly one or two other makeshift combinations. You could even have the Social Outcasts win a battle royale or something via fluke and give them a shot as severe underdog challengers who the Dudleys don't take seriously and it almost winds up costing them.
Then, finally, at WrestleMania XXXIII, the Dudleys drop the belts to our conquering babyface heroes of Tyson Kidd & Cesaro.

3) Yes, they haven't evolved, but that's because they haven't been given anything to do. How many of the women have actually evolved (aside from constant turning)?

1. it's not just the glasses, but camo, everything, they left all that back 10 yrs ago. They've evolved from being those guys. If the Steiners reunite tomorrow, you don't put Scott in a singlet

2. so just running a gauntlet on all the younger guys, they could do that with any team. That should be what Harper and Rowan should have been doing these last 3 yrs.

3. granted, it's not just them, but that's really no defense for them.

[Big Red Machine]

1A) I never understood why people were so against the glasses. They're a bit goofy, but they've been part of the gimmick for so long that it doesn't bother me at all. It never stopped me from seeing them as tough, dangerous motherf*ckers.
1B) Yes, the Wazzzup is dumb, but so is a lot of other stuff. It's certainly not enough to make me think of them as a joke. They're the f*cking DUDLEY BOYS.
1C) Well... Devon won't be getting any tables for a very long time

2) "Not much you can do with a legendary tag team?" YOU CAN BUILD THE WHOLE F*CKING DIVISION AROUND THEM!
Here is a list of teams that can have good feuds with the Dudleys:
1. Usos
2. Matadores
3. A babyface New Day (turning maybe a bit after Summer Slam)
4. Lucha Dragons
5. Neville & Kofi (make em' a team for this)

You could also get a great one-off title defense against Dean & Roman, and possibly one or two other makeshift combinations. You could even have the Social Outcasts win a battle royale or something via fluke and give them a shot as severe underdog challengers who the Dudleys don't take seriously and it almost winds up costing them.
Then, finally, at WrestleMania XXXIII, the Dudleys drop the belts to our conquering babyface heroes of Tyson Kidd & Cesaro.

3) Yes, they haven't evolved, but that's because they haven't been given anything to do. How many of the women have actually evolved (aside from constant turning)?

1. it's not just the glasses, but camo, everything, they left all that back 10 yrs ago. They've evolved from being those guys. If the Steiners reunite tomorrow, you don't put Scott in a singlet

2. so just running a gauntlet on all the younger guys, they could do that with any team. That should be what Harper and Rowan should have been doing these last 3 yrs.

3. granted, it's not just them, but that's really no defense for them.

1. Totally disagree

2. But feuding with Harper and Rowan won't mean anywhere near as much as feuding with the Dudleys

3. THEY aren't the issue. Once creative starts to be competent, they will feel like they are going somewhere.

[KILLdozer]

I agree. Throw the fuckin' Usos OUT!!!!

[KILLdozer]

I hate the New Day.

[KILLdozer]

Aces 'N 8's !

[cero2k]

1. Totally disagree

2. But feuding with Harper and Rowan won't mean anywhere near as much as feuding with the Dudleys

3. THEY aren't the issue. Once creative starts to be competent, they will feel like they are going somewhere.

1. what exactly do you disagree with? would you be ok with Scott Steiner wearing a singlet just because they reunited the Steiner Bros?

2. except these are not the dudleyz in NJPW, they're just the dudleyz in WWE, just another team, they're not treated like the legends they are

3. how much can they really evolve? they'll always be 'The Rock's cousins' and leaving it to creative is just like giving up. Creative won't get competent any time soon

[XIV]

At this time in their career there's no use in splitting them up and making one a mid card star. None. They're beefing up the tag division and putting teams over.

There's a great reason to turn them heel. I'm happy with that because Bubba is gold on the mic and can say all sorts of shit and Devon can add his "testify" at the end and it's a great promo.

There's no use in throwing away 20 years of chemistry again. Not when it does nothing for either of them.

[Big Red Machine]

1. Totally disagree

2. But feuding with Harper and Rowan won't mean anywhere near as much as feuding with the Dudleys

3. THEY aren't the issue. Once creative starts to be competent, they will feel like they are going somewhere.

1. what exactly do you disagree with? would you be ok with Scott Steiner wearing a singlet just because they reunited the Steiner Bros?

2. except these are not the dudleyz in NJPW, they're just the dudleyz in WWE, just another team, they're not treated like the legends they are

3. how much can they really evolve? they'll always be 'The Rock's cousins' and leaving it to creative is just like giving up. Creative won't get competent any time soon

1. The Steiners comparison doesn't work because Scott looks so different. If Scott still looked like he did in 1991, then yeah, I'd want him to be in a singlet. Bubba and Devon are physically no different now than they were in 2000 (I guess Bubba has lost some weight and Devon probably has a few more scars in his forehead from crazy blade-jobs in TNA). They still look like the Dudleys, so I have no problem with them dressing like the Dudleys. I wouldn't complain if they wore t-shirts instead of camo like they did in TNA,either, but the camo does not bother me at all.
You say they "left" the camo and the glasses, but I think it's more correct to say that they were forced to leave it due to trademark issues (remember the "Trademark This!" t-shirt from their early TNA days?)

2. They absolutely were treated as such in the beginning, and even throughout this feud with the Wyatts, they won a decent chunk of the matches. In the world of today's WWE, just the fact that they are a tag team that was on the show every week even though they weren''t the champs or feuding with the champs says a lot about their status.
And even if they had been beaten a bunch of times, this heel turn was all you needed to freshen them up. Have you seen their promo from Smackdown? That was a superstar reaction, and they really felt like the Dudleys of old.

3. Their lack of evolution doesn't stem from just being "The Rock's cousins." They are a high-flying babyface brother tag team in a promotion that puts no thought into it's tag team feuds.
I'm not even sure I'd argue that the Usos need to "evolve" just yet. What they need is an actual story to be told about them. Not trying to toot my own horn here, but the angle I did with them in my fantasy booking where they wanted to win the tag titles and Neville/Gabriel were the champs and whatever the Usos did they just couldn't beat them so they got depressed and tried going their separate ways for a while but decided to come back together and I built to WrestleMania with them finally winning the tag titles from Neville/Gabriel is a perfect example of the type of story WWE lacks in pretty much every division aside from the occasionally the heavyweight division (granted, in that case I had the advantage that this would have been their first title reign so the accomplishment is grander, but the idea is the same). The Usos can go pretty much forever without evolving because they are high-flying babyfaces with a cool entrance. What they (and a lot of people on the roster- and not just in WWE, but in ROH, New Japan, and TNA, too) need to a story that makes it feel like they are going somewhere.

Also, there are stories all over the place of guys pitching ideas to creative that would actually be interesting that get shut down, and those tend to be the angles with the most character development (the angle where Drew McIntyre was trying to prove to Kelly Kelly that he was a changed man being best example). I don't quite think it is fair to say that leaving it to creative is just giving up.

[Big Red Machine]

At this time in their career there's no use in splitting them up and making one a mid card star. None. They're beefing up the tag division and putting teams over.

There's a great reason to turn them heel. I'm happy with that because Bubba is gold on the mic and can say all sorts of shit and Devon can add his "testify" at the end and it's a great promo.

There's no use in throwing away 20 years of chemistry again. Not when it does nothing for either of them.

This.

While a "Bully Ray" type of run for Bubba might feel new, he will wind up in the midcard at best (and Devon will probably just be gone). There are only so many top slots, especially when you only have one top title (that's a big reason why I've kept two in my fantasy booking, and is a major argument for WWE keeping a second midcard title). For these precious few spots, WWE has the following guys already at main event level:
Rollins
Reigns
Ambrose
Cena
Orton
AJ Styles
Bray
Sheamus
Rusev
Del Rio
Owens
Ziggler

Add in to this guys who can be easily brought up to that level temporarily if need be (and who it is important to keep decently strong just for that reason), like Big Show, Kane, Ryback, and Mark Henry, plus guys who we all know could (and should) be at that level like Cesaro and Barrett, and there is quite simply no room for Bully Ray.

In the tag division, though, he and Devon can both shine, and can carry a division that desperately needs new names in the mix. From both a practical standpoint an in-ring standpoint, and a marquee standpoint, the Dudley Boys are much more valuable as a unit than singles heel Bully Ray.
Also... there is no reason why he can't be Bully Ray but as part of the Dudley Boys.

[XIV]

At this time in their career there's no use in splitting them up and making one a mid card star. None. They're beefing up the tag division and putting teams over.

There's a great reason to turn them heel. I'm happy with that because Bubba is gold on the mic and can say all sorts of shit and Devon can add his "testify" at the end and it's a great promo.

There's no use in throwing away 20 years of chemistry again. Not when it does nothing for either of them.

This.

While a "Bully Ray" type of run for Bubba might feel new, he will wind up in the midcard at best (and Devon will probably just be gone). There are only so many top slots, especially when you only have one top title (that's a big reason why I've kept two in my fantasy booking, and is a major argument for WWE keeping a second midcard title). For these precious few spots, WWE has the following guys already at main event level:
Rollins
Reigns
Ambrose
Cena
Orton
AJ Styles
Bray
Sheamus
Rusev
Del Rio
Owens
Ziggler

Add in to this guys who can be easily brought up to that level temporarily if need be (and who it is important to keep decently strong just for that reason), like Big Show, Kane, Ryback, and Mark Henry, plus guys who we all know could (and should) be at that level like Cesaro and Barrett, and there is quite simply no room for Bully Ray.

In the tag division, though, he and Devon can both shine, and can carry a division that desperately needs new names in the mix. From both a practical standpoint an in-ring standpoint, and a marquee standpoint, the Dudley Boys are much more valuable as a unit than singles heel Bully Ray.
Also... there is no reason why he can't be Bully Ray but as part of the Dudley Boys.

Exactly this!

I understand when WWE did it way back in their original WWE run, it made sense, it was worth trying. And it has worked in places. But not WWE. In WWE they're just that team. The "greatest tag team of all time" obviously debatable point. But that's what they're all about here. They're not in their 20's or early 30's. I'll be especially disappointed with this if it happens. Especially since I read above somewhere about building it to a WM33 match with Cesaro and Kidd. Which would see Cesaro and Kidd go over and launch them to the freaking moon.

[badnewzxl]

I don't think you can build the division around the Dudley's but they should be a a huge part of the build. The Usos and New Day need to remain the center of the tag picture; let the Dudley's and the Wyatt's be the teams just on the perimeter. I'd like to see the Lucha Dragons in there too, but I feel like they wanna build Kalisto as a solo guy. Don't even mention Los Matadores; there is nothing they can do to make Epico and Primo stars.

Ray could def be a strong heel vet who helps guys like Kalisto, Neville, Titus, etc grow stronger as face by feuding with him. He's a great heat magnet! New Day is holding down the heel end of the tag division; why not use Bubbas heat somewhere else. They don't need to split up, Hubba could just get into side feuds. Devon could help him bully the faces even. It doesn't have to be either the top heel tag team or break up the team. There are many other options.

[badnewzxl]

At this time in their career there's no use in splitting them up and making one a mid card star. None. They're beefing up the tag division and putting teams over.

There's a great reason to turn them heel. I'm happy with that because Bubba is gold on the mic and can say all sorts of shit and Devon can add his "testify" at the end and it's a great promo.

There's no use in throwing away 20 years of chemistry again. Not when it does nothing for either of them.

This.

While a "Bully Ray" type of run for Bubba might feel new, he will wind up in the midcard at best (and Devon will probably just be gone). There are only so many top slots, especially when you only have one top title (that's a big reason why I've kept two in my fantasy booking, and is a major argument for WWE keeping a second midcard title). For these precious few spots, WWE has the following guys already at main event level:
Rollins
Reigns
Ambrose
Cena
Orton
AJ Styles
Bray
Sheamus
Rusev
Del Rio
Owens
Ziggler

Add in to this guys who can be easily brought up to that level temporarily if need be (and who it is important to keep decently strong just for that reason), like Big Show, Kane, Ryback, and Mark Henry, plus guys who we all know could (and should) be at that level like Cesaro and Barrett, and there is quite simply no room for Bully Ray.

In the tag division, though, he and Devon can both shine, and can carry a division that desperately needs new names in the mix. From both a practical standpoint an in-ring standpoint, and a marquee standpoint, the Dudley Boys are much more valuable as a unit than singles heel Bully Ray.
Also... there is no reason why he can't be Bully Ray but as part of the Dudley Boys.

Well, while Rollins, Cena, Sheamus, and Orton are all out, theres room for another, right? And Rusev? Rusev hasn't been a main events since he lost to Cena! Ray could take his spot easy!

Also, does anyone really think Bully would go to the top of the card anyway? No. Doesn't mean he can't be a top heel. Regal was one of the strongest heels in WCW and never one a title besides the TV title. I think Miz could have been the same way if they didn't make the mistake of exposing him and giving him a terrible WWE title reign.

[Big Red Machine]

I don't think you can build the division around the Dudley's but they should be a a huge part of the build. The Usos and New Day need to remain the center of the tag picture; let the Dudley's and the Wyatt's be the teams just on the perimeter. I'd like to see the Lucha Dragons in there too, but I feel like they wanna build Kalisto as a solo guy. Don't even mention Los Matadores; there is nothing they can do to make Epico and Primo stars.

Ray could def be a strong heel vet who helps guys like Kalisto, Neville, Titus, etc grow stronger as face by feuding with him. He's a great heat magnet! New Day is holding down the heel end of the tag division; why not use Bubbas heat somewhere else. They don't need to split up, Hubba could just get into side feuds. Devon could help him bully the faces even. It doesn't have to be either the top heel tag team or break up the team. There are many other options.

Because New Day ISN'T holding down the heel end of the tag division. People laugh at them and cheer for them as much as they boo them. The Dudleys as a unit and Bubba in particular can really GET heat (especially with this new "we're not using tables anymore" gimmick.