[2000-02-10-WWF-Smackdown] Edge & Christian vs D-Von & Bubba Ray Dudley

[soup23]

This has become a heck of a storyline. DVon hits a really sweet neckbreaker when Christian is crotched on the top turnbuckle. The Dudleys really dominate the match and work over Christian. It is effective, southern style wrestling. Edge gets the hot tag and starts running through his finish. Bubba hurts his leg and rolls to the outside. Missile dropkick into a roll up give E&C the win. I really thought Bubba was playing possum there. Sure enough Bubba grabs BB when the stretcher gets rolled out and they give her a powerbomb through a table to a big chorus of AHHHS from the crowd. E&C come back but DVon scurries them with chairs. I am digging all of this. **1/2

[Loss]

This was an excellent 6-minute tag match with Christian once again as FIP doing an awesome job of it before Edge comes in and cleans house as the hot tag. Bubba Ray and D-Von can work and talk and do it all. I don't know that I ever really gave them enough credit as workers. The post-match angle is off the charts, with Bubba Ray faking a knee injury solely so EMT "Barbara Bush" (Remember her?) would come out to help cart him off and he could lure her in to put her through a table before he went into that pseudo post-coital trance. They were really pushing the psychosexual part of Bubba Ray's character without saying as much, which is pretty deep by pro wrestling standards, but that it turned him babyface is pretty revealing about the Attitude Era fanbase. That aside, the match was good and the post-match was great. The WWF did a phenomenal job getting over the Dudleys as top stars. ***

[GSR]

They’ve taken to describing the Dudleys as ‘sick’. We get a recap from Monday night of the tag title bout and of the Dudleys match against the Godfather & D-Lo Brown where they were about to put the EMT, Barbara Bush, though a table until Edge & Christian came to her aid. Double dropkick to both Dudleys and a double shoulderblock gets Bubba out of there. Double flapjack on D-Von and Christian with a Russian legsweep for an early two. Nice neckbreaker off the turnbuckles by D-Von after Bubba had distracted Christian. Huge back bodydrop from Bubba as the Dudleys start to take control. ‘Wassup’ behind the referee’s back and D-Von with a flying elbow. Bubba whips Christian to the corner, but when he charges at him Christian gets a foot up and then hits a tornado DDT. Tag to Edge who takes it to the Dudleys. Bubba with a reversal on an Irish whip and he holds on lifting Edge up for a Samoan drop, however drops him and clutches at his knee. As Bubba rolls to the outside Christian with a diving sunset flip off the top to D-Von. He fights it but an Edge missile dropkick enables Christian to complete the move and give them the victory. Bubba is on the arena floor and looks in agony going “oh please, not now!” The referee calls for some help for him and the EMTs are out and lift him on to a stretcher. Bubba says “it’s my knee, it’s my knee” and when D-Von asaks him if it hurts, his demeanour immediately changes and says “no it doesn’t hurt” and grabs Barbara Bush. D-Von sets up a table in the ring and Bubba powerbombs her off the top through it. Edge & Christian return to help B.B., but Bubba is in an almost trance like state after what he’s just done and doesn’t even notice them. D-Von absolutely cracks Christian over the head with a chair and a bunch of officials (including Sgt. Slaughter) are down to try and get the Dudleys out of there.

 

Match was fine, but the post-match angle was outstanding. I genuinely thought Bubba had hurt himself so it was an awesome sell job from him. As it was, it was all a rouse so he could get his hands on the EMT to put her through the table. There was a heavy emphasis in the announcing, and also with the camera focussing on Bubba’s face, that he was getting some sort of sexual kick out of putting her through the table. Heavy stuff with Bubba prepared to sacrifice the match just so he satisfy this kink.

[Tim Evans]

Man they were pushing the Dudley's hard as bastard heels. They did a good job at it, way better than ECW did a couple years earlier. Good match with Bubba seeming out of it and Edge/Christian taking advantage. Bubba puts BB through the table and the pop for it is not as much as the others were. Nice cameo from Bryan Danielson as one of the EMT's.

[Stiva]

Man, what an angle that I totally forgot about. The Dudleys are great as total bastards and the dynamic of Bubba being the deranged asshole and D-Von being the more put-together asshole is a nice touch. The match was a really fun sprint with Christian in bump machine mode once more, a spirited hot tag from Edge and a crowd that is slowly and surely anointing these guys as the new faces of the tag division. But really, this is all about the angle which, in any other era, would be a recipe for nuclear heat. Instead, I believe Edge and Christian were heels a month or so later and the Dudleys were the faces, powerbombing Mae Young through tables. What a strange old world it was.