The Hardy Boyz Versus The Dudley Boyz: Iconic Matches And Wild Moments

Two of the most death-defying performers in all of wrestling taking on the two men who popularized the use of tables in WWE, The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz.

That is a sentence would have easily sold a good few thousand tickets back in 2000 or 2001, but it's also a sentence that is still relevant today because The Hardys and The Dudleys (now known as Team 3D) are going to have one more match against each other at TNA Wrestling's most prestigious event of the year, Bound For Glory, on October 12. Not many people expected a feud between two of the Attitude Era's most beloved tag teams in 2025, but then again, not many people expected The Hardys or The Dudleys to still be able to walk properly in 2025 given what the four men have put their body through.

Along with Edge and Christian, who themselves have just recently reunited in All Elite Wrestling as Adam Copeland and Christian Cage, The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz put their bodies on the line every single time they wrestled during their prime years. In return, their three-way feud is widely regarded as one of, if not the greatest tag team feud of all time, and is one of the reasons why the Attitude Era is so fondly remembered. Not only did you have The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H and more dominating the main event scene, but you could rely on the stacked midcard, and the tag team division especially, to keep fans excited throughout the whole show.

Given that Matt and Jeff are going to have one more dance with Bubba Ray (now known as Bully Ray) and D-Von (now known as Devon), we felt like it's only right that we take a trip down memory lane to visit some of the greatest matches to feature the four men, as well as some moments that even the most loyal fans to both teams might have forgotten. So instead of sitting back and relaxing, set up a ladder and a table and join us on a journey through the history books, as we look back at the feud between The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz.

Like all journeys, you have to start at the beginning, and the beginning of the rivalry between The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz technically starts in September 1999. 

Fresh off of their legendary run in ECW, Buh Buh Ray (yes, that is what his name was because of his stutter) and D-Von were ready to take over the World Wrestling Federation, and if they needed to put a few people through tables, that wouldn't have been a problem. Their first actual feud that they were involved in was with The Acolytes, Bradshaw and Faarooq, who were already known for being able to beat the color out of teams that came from other promotions, just look at what they did to The Public Enemy, and to give themselves a bit of momentum heading into the 1999 Unforgiven pay-per-view, The Dudley Boyz needed a win, and that win came over a young Matt and Jeff Hardy.

At this point in time, Matt and Jeff had already had a brief run with the WWE Tag Team Championships, but they weren't the world beaters that they would go on to be, and they hadn't even showcased how well they could use ladders as their tag team ladder match with Edge and Christian was still a few weeks away. They were a team that could easily make the former ECW guys look good, while also being trusted enough in the ring, even at a young age, to get themselves over as well.

The first official match between The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz, who were then known as The New Brood and had Gangrel as their manager, took place on the September 20, 1999 edition of "WWE Raw," with Bradshaw and Faarooq scouting their opponents for the pay-per-view on commentary. It's a match that really is a time capsule and a look into a different era. The Dudleys are still wearing their tie dye gear, something that would be changed by the turn of the millennium. Stevie Richards was even at ringside dressed as a member of the Dudley clan, and the match ends after two-and-a-half minutes with Matt eating a 3D to absolutely no response from the crowd.

It's not a five-star classic, it's not even a classic if we're being perfectly honest, but it is historic for the fact that it was the first meeting between two teams who go on to have Hall of Fame careers, and was also first match that The Dudley Boyz had ever wrestled on "Raw." By the start of 2000, The Dudleys had earned the respect of the WWE locker room after withstanding The Acolytes, The Hardys had catapulted themselves into the spotlight as one of the most exciting tag teams on the planet, and a collision course on one of the biggest stages that WWE could offer was on the horizon. All Buh Buh Ray and D-Von had to do was bring the wood.

Tag team tables matches are common place in professional wrestling these days. They are an easy way to get a pop from the crowd on a match with no heat based solely off the fact that everyone loves seeing people going through tables, and when there's more than one table involved it's even better. However, back in January 2000 there had never been a tag team table match in WWE, but that was all about to change at the 2000 Royal Rumble pay-per-view as The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz were going to make history together.

Just a few months earlier, Matt and Jeff had been in the first-ever tag team ladder match against Edge and Christian, and so to have them in another first-time match just a few months later showed the world that WWE saw big things for the brothers from Cameron, North Carolina. With that said, Bubba Ray (he had changed his name by this point) and D-Von were the masters of the tables. While people can credit Sabu for making tables famous in the United States, it was The Dudley Boyz who perfected the use of them, covering them in barbed wire, thumbtacks, and lighting them on fire in ECW for maximum damage.

The 2000 Royal Rumble also saw The Dudleys have a homefield advantage as the show was taking place in Madison Square Garden in New York City, and with Bubba being from Queens, D-Von being born in New Rochelle, and ECW being based in the North East, the crowd on hand that night were firmly behind the former ECW Tag Team Champions. That didn't stop Matt and Jeff from bringing the fight, who even incorporated some ladders to help them gain the advantage at certain points. For a match that was on the same card as the WWE debut of Tazz, The Rock winning the Royal Rumble, and the iconic street fight between Cactus Jack and Triple H, the fact that people still make an argument for the tag team tables match to be considered the best match on the show proves just how hard these four men worked.

Despite having a little bit of their time cut, The Hardys and The Dudleys did a speed run of what they were meant to do in the match, with all four men flying all over the place, and each of them going through tables at different times. The match came to an end with the legendary dive Jeff performed off the top of the arena fire exit through Bubba Ray and two table below, a dive he would recreate at the 2002 Survivor Series event, and after literally being dragged back to the ring by his brother because he didn't want to anger Vince McMahon, The Hardys had their hands raised at the end of the first truly great "car crash" in WWE history. If you thought that was wild, wait until what they did next.

Things really got interesting for The Hardys and The Dudleys after two different things happened a few weeks after the Royal Rumble. Edge and Christian got themselves involved to make it a three-way rivalry, and The Dudley Boyz defeated The New Age Outlaws at No Way Out 2000 to become the WWE Tag Team Champions. All of a sudden, this feud between six of the youngest and hungriest men on the WWE roster now had genuine stakes on the line, it was down to them to climb the ladder of success, and that's exactly what they did.

At WrestleMania 16, the three teams met in a Triangle Ladder match, another first of its kind, for the WWE Tag Team Championships. However, you would be forgiven if you had thought that the match was actually a different stipulation which was born a few months later. Edge and Christian captured the titles on that night, but the war had only just begun as a match would be created by Commissioner Mick Foley specifically for the three teams, using all of their specialities. The Dudley Boyz were the masters of using tables, The Hardy Boyz would jump off of any ladder they could see, and both Edge and Christian could swing a chair better than anyone in the company at the time. The TLC match had been conceived.

The original TLC match took place at SummerSlam 2000 in Matt and Jeff's home state of North Carolina, leading many to see them as the odds on favorites heading into the match. Their match at WrestleMania 16 is always seen as the prototype version of the TLC match, testing out ideas and seeing what worked in front of a big audience. By the time SummerSlam happened, all three teams knew each other inside out and were taking bumps that even the most seasoned deathmatch wrestlers would have to be talked into doing. D-Von being afraid of heights yet dangling 15 feet above the ring, both Matt and Bubba taking 20 foot falls, and Jeff missing his Super Swanton Bomb on the outside led to Edge and Christian escaping with the win.

All three teams would continue feuding towards the end of 2000 and into 2001, and when it came time to finally decide which team was the superior duo in WWE, a second TLC match was booked for WrestleMania 17. Dubbed "TLC II," the WWE Tag Team Championship match from that is seen as one of the best matches in WWE history, with Edge spearing Jeff in mid-air, Bubba and Matt crashing through four tables on the ramp, and each team having an extra hand to cause even more chaos in the form of Lita, Rhyno, and Spike Dudley respectively. Edge and Christian once again picked up the win, and while they would have another TLC match the following month, that was more of a storyline beat for Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit than a continuation of this feud.

By the summer in 2001, WWE and the wider wrestling world was a very different place to what it was like one year earlier. WCW had been bought out by WWE, ECW had filed for bankruptcy, and both brands had been resurrected within WWE as "The Alliance" for the now infamous Invasion storyline. It's because of this, combined with the fact that WrestleMania 17 acted as the spiritual finale of the Attitude Era that WWE felt the need to shake up a few things, and split up tag teams was one of those fresh ideas. Edge and Christian were no more by the end of August, there were tensions brewing within Team Extreme camp, and rumors began to swirl about potentially letting The Dudley Boyz go their separate ways too.

With that said, The Hardys and The Dudleys would continue their feud into the back half of 2001, only this time there was a clear line drawn in the sand as to whose side everyone was on. The Hardys had effectively grown up in WWE and were fighting The Alliance at every turn, while The Dudleys had turned heel and joined The Alliance due to their long history with ECW, and the fact that The Alliance was genuinely lacking in star power. Thanks to the fact that WWE had outright purchased WCW, all of the company's titles came with the wrestlers, meaning that throughout the Invasion angle, there were double the amount of champions.

If you've ever heard The Dudley Boyz talking about how they are the most decorated tag team in history, and are the only team to hold titles in WWE, WCW, ECW, and TNA, some people will stop and say "When did The Dudleys wrestle in WCW?" Well this was where they won the titles, during the Invasion. Naturally, WWE had gotten sick of having so many titles, and had probably lost track of who had what at certain points, so when the story reached its conclusion at Survivor Series 2001, all of the title matches were to unify the WCW and WWE championships.

Heading into the event, Bubba Ray and D-Von had the WCW titles, while Matt and Jeff had won the WWE titles a week earlier, and thanks to how chaotic the two teams could be, their unification match would take place inside a steel cage. The match itself is actually one of the more underrated bouts from the Hardy/Dudley rivalry as it came at a time that isn't fondly remembered meaning less people have seen it. While it does force you to switch your brain off at times to make the match make sense, it is an excellent bout with an ending that is just as spectacular, with Jeff flying off the top of the cage through a table in the hopes of crushing D-Von. The Dudley Boyz unified the titles at the end of the night, and by the spring of 2002, both teams had been split up.

The feud between The Hardys and The Dudleys isn't exclusive to WWE as TNA Wrestling helped revive the feud for a brief time in 2014.

By this point, all four men were at very different stages of their careers. Jeff Hardy had become one of the most popular wrestlers on the planet who also had to fight his own personal demons live on pay-per-view. His brother also fought his own demons and even scared people that he might die before eventually getting himself on the right track. D-Von Dudley was nearing the end of his career as all the bumps and bruises from the past had caught up to him, and Bubba Ray Dudley had reinvented himself in TNA as Bully Ray, marrying Hulk Hogan's daughter, and becoming the leader of the Aces & Eights stable as the TNA World Champion.

After Aces & Eights were forced to disband, Bully and D-Von (now going by his Devon name) decided to continue teaming and eventually crossed paths with The Hardys once again, who had also reunited after Matt's brief time away from the company to sort out his personal life. Both teams wanted to roll back the years, but there was a problem, the TNA Tag Team Championships were being held by Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards, The Wolves. Thankfully for The Hardys and Team 3D, The Wolves were more than happy to take two of the best tag teams of all time and add them to their long list of duos they had beaten over the years.

For the first time in a long time, The Hardys and Team 3D seemed to be on the same page, and their competitive friendship was rooted more in the quest of becoming champions and less about any real animosity. The then-TNA authority Kurt Angle would go on to set up a best of three series pitting The Wolves, Team 3D, and The Hardys against each other, with the winners of each match being able to pick the stipulation for the next bout, and the overall winner of the series becoming TNA Tag Team Champions. Team 3D won the first match and naturally picked a tables match for the next stipulation. However, The Hardys would win match number two and picked a ladder match for the final bout, but that ladder match was won by The Wolves, which forced TNA management to pit all three teams against each other in a tie-breaker, with Full Metal Mayhem being the stipulation.

Full Metal Mayhem is TNA's version of a TLC match, and while The Hardys and Team 3D didn't leave with the titles in hand, they did achieve their goal of rolling back the years, this time with The Wolves playing the role of Edge and Christian, and produced one of the best TNA matches of the decade in the process. This was the last time The Hardys and Team 3D crossed paths on TV, but that will all change on October 12.