By Keith Elliot Greenberg

Few World Wrestling Federation athletes were celebrating when D-Von and Buh-Buh Ray Dudley first cast their shadows the dressing room. In Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) they’d taken hardcore to new levels by incorporating fire, barbed wire and their now-signature “table shots” into their matches. When fans encountered them on the street, the Dudleys rarely broke character, acting surly and intimidating.

The men on the World Wrestling Federation roster had seen this type before. Not long before the Dudleys signed with the Federation, a tandem known as Public Enemy came from ECW. Reportedly, the members of that squad believed the hype from their prior job, and expected to immediately be Superstars. As a result their tenure in the World Wrestling Federation was shortlived. Even after they left, their stay created a sense of unease about ECW transplants. They were bad news, some World Wrestling Federation performers insisted. And since the Dudleys already had such a controversial reputation, it was assumed they'd be just as disruptive behind the scenes.

“We knew coming in what we were going to be up against," recalls Buh-Buh Ray. “Public Enemy had left such a bad taste in people’s mouths that every one automatically figured that the Dudleys were going to be worse. We’d been in ECW longer-Public Enemy were four-time champions there, but we were eight-time champions. We had a lot more in our portfolio. Plus, we were different than other heels [villains] today. We carried our gimmick beyond the ring. We acted like idiots in and out of the arena. So the word circulated that we had attitude problems.”

Vince McMahon wasn’t taking any chances. The World Wrestling Federation owner immediately ordered Buh-Buh Ray and D-Von to tangle with the Acolytes. While Faarooq’s and Bradshaw’s “protection agency” gimmick is now part of the World Wrestling Federation storylines, their image as all-around bad asses is the real thing. If a wrestler’s ego is enlarging too rapidly, Faarooq and Bradshaw are sometimes called upon to slap him back into the real world.

“Right off the bat, they put us with the Acolytes,” Buh-Buh Ray says. “We knew what that meant. Me and D-Von, we were brought up the right way in this business-respect the business, respect the [front] office, respect the boys [wrestlers]. Go in there, do your job, bust your ass and shake hands afterwards. That first night with the Acolytes, we beat the crap out of them, and they beat the crap out of us. The whole locker room watched it. We got up, shook their hands, hugged them and it was all over. Boom, we did business. That’s how we earned respect.”

With their initiation behind them, the Dudleys went all out to earn their tenure in the Federation. They transformed their brawling style into an art form, thrilling the public while ensuring that their opponents could get up the next morning and work another day. Very quickly, the duo became one of the most popular tandems in the Federation locker room. But as they continued slamming both men and women through tables, and adjusting the Dudley repertoire to their adversaries’ diverse styles, another phenomenon occurred: The dreaded Dudleys were getting cheered by fans who were as appreciative of their work ethic as their fellow Superstars.

“We’re just doing what we’ve been doing since day one,” explains D-Von. “We go out there to give the fans what they want to see, and they know it. We might be known as the guys who slam people through table, but there’s no style that we can’t do. When we’re in there with a team like the Hardy Boyz or Edge and Christian, we can high-fly, we can go hardcore, we can get technical. We take whatever we find around us and incorporate it.”

Adds Buh-Buh Ray, “Once you reach a certain level-and the World Wrestling Federation is the highest level there is-you have to be able to go out there and work either as a babyface [fan favorite] or heel. I’m not surprised by the babyface turn at all, because in today’s era of sports-entertainment, people are looking for something different. We come out there and put women through tables. We have ladder matches, table matches, all kinds of crazy things. When you’re in the ring with the great teams we’ve been working with, you should be able to have the fans on the edge of their seats for 30 minutes. And that’s what we’ve been dong. So I don’t see why we shouldn’t be strong babyfaces.”

Ironically, the original concept of the Dudley Boyz was comedic. The duo-real-life New Yorkers Mark Lamonica and Devon Hughes-claimed to be the sons of Big Daddy Dudley, and wanderer who scoured the United States enjoying the company of different women each night. As a result, thee were Dudley brothers everywhere. Buh-Buh Ray was born after Big Daddy watched the film Deliverance one time too often. D-Von was conceived when his father go a flat tire on the “south side” of Dudleyville. In ECW, there were numerous other Dudleys with similarly comical “origins.”

But Buh-Buh Ray and D-Von always believed that they were destined for bigger things. In ECW, they watched future World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion Mick Foley perform as Cactus Jack, integrating the humorous elements of his personality while tearing up arenas in shockingly brutal matches. When Foley took his hardcore style to the Federation and made it work, a door had been opened.

“[The extreme style] is Cactus’ niche in the Federation,” Buh-Buh Ray says. “Cactus took what he did in Japan and in ECW, and he was able to bring it to the Federation on a much larger level. Will they give us an opportunity to do what he did? I hope so.”

“Hardcore wrestling isn’t just reaching underneath the ring and pulling out a mop handle or a cookie sheet,” continues Buh-Buh Ray. “In my eyes and in D-Von’s eyes that’s crap. It’s a way of mind; it’s a work ethic. It’s going in there and taking some crazy bumps, about putting a great match together behind a great storyline, and throwing in some real high-risk maneuvers. Getting hit with a barbed wire baseball bat or a chair that’s been set on fire doesn’t mean anything if you’re just doing it for the sake of doing it. Once you have the story behind it, with established characters, it really means something.”

While captivating audiences with their perilous finisher, the 3-D (Dudley Death Drop) and liberally inserting tables into their confrontations, the Dudleys worked on their character development. “It’s something you really have to do in the World Wrestling Federation,” says Buh-Buh Ray. “With all the television and pay-per0views, you have to keep reinventing yourself. You have to always give the fans something new, so you can get over [achieve popularity]and stay over.”

Among the challenges the changes Buh-Buh Ray made was eliminating a stuttering routine that had been brought back from his old ECW promos. “People didn’t really buy into it because they knew it was such a gimmick. They wanted the monster heels back, and it’s funny because the monster heels have now turned into the monster babyfaces.”

D-Von uses that analogy of Stone Cold Steve Austin, who became arguably the most enamored wrestler in history by behaving like a traditional bad guy: “He gave people the finger and did everything a heel would do. But eventually, that attitude made the people like him even more. It’s something we’ve learned from. We decided not to change our style. Like Steve, we acted like kick-ass heels who wouldn’t take nothing from nobody. And the people adapted to us the way they adapted to Steve.”

The Dudleys can’t pinpoint the exact moment they first heard the spectators cheering their actions. It may have been during their table match with Matt and Jeff Hardy at the Royal Rumble, or the time they put Terri through a table. “The fans were definitely taking us more seriously.” D-Von recounts. “So we just kept going with it, becoming more hardcore. But it wasn’t ECW hardcore. It was World Wrestling Federation hardcore.”

What made the transition even easier was the fact that the other personalities in the World Wrestling Federation were following the Dudleys’ lead, and going all-out in their matches with the tandem. “We were able to give everything we had and entertain with nobody really getting hurt,” Buh-Buh Ray says. “And the word gets around. People would say, the Dudleys are good to work with. The Dudleys are fun to work with. No matter what you’re doing in the ring with them the Dudleys will take care of you.”

Still, they were hesitant about mixing it up with 78-year -old Mae Young, and driving her body through a table from an entrance ramp. “I have to give her credit,” D-Von says. “ I can only hope and pray that if I live to be her age, I can be like her and take those huge bumps.”

Notes Buh-Buh Ray, “An elderly body shouldn’t really be able to withstand that kind of impact. But her body has become so accustomed to taking these bumps over the years that it’s nothing for her. I’d love to be able to work with her again. In fact, she pulled me to the side the other day, and said she’d like to be powerbombed off the top of a steel cage through a table.”

But Mae probably isn’t the only one with ideas about having new encounters with the Dudleys. After their “triple ladder” clash with the Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian at this year’s WrestleMania, Buh-Buh Ray and D-Von may find themselves approached by numerous Superstars in search of the ultimate hardcore, Dudley-style match.