WCW Semi-Final; Match 2. The Hart Foundation vs. The Dudley Boyz

[Shocky]

The following match takes place int he WCW Region under WCW Rule.s

The Hart Foundation (Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and Bret "The Hitman" Hart)

vs.

The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley)

 

[a0161613]

Oh my god this would be an absolute classic. My gut says Dudleys but my head says Harts simply due to the fact it is in WCW. (In ECW this would not be as close.) This will be the closest match of the round. It should be.

 

[Big Sexy]

The Dudleyz would give a valiant effort, but the Harts are just too good. Maybe if it was under extreme rules then the Dudleyz could pull out a victory, but under normal rules they wouldn't stand a chance.

 

[My$terio_Fan]

Duddleys were a very solid team and one alot of gold. They excelled in hardcore matches and Bubba was a great talker, but The Harts just have an edge I think. Bret could out wrestle both Bubba & Dvon and Neidhart's strength would help out. Duddleys were not as strong in the ring but have good chemistry together but even with their cohesiveness I'll give the edge to the Harts.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

Holy Hell.

How do you choose? On one hand, you have the most decorated pure tag team in wrestling history in the Dudleyz with more than 20 major world tag team titles won. As a tandem, few have historically worked as well together, and they've never really split up for long into singles pushes.

The Hart Foundation was one of those great pure tag teams for a long time in the late 80's and early 90's. We've spoken at length about the "perfect combination of power, speed, agility, and technique" in a tag team, and really, only the Harts, the Bulldogs, and Big, Bad, and Dangerous exhibit that to me.

The difference between these teams is the fact that the Dudleyz have accomplished, LITERALLY, ten times more than the Hart Foundation has. 20 world titles, to 2 world titles. Not to mention the innovation the Dudleyz took part in as a pure heel team and the 2-time MOTY winners, though E&C and the Hardyz carried both matches.

But it's still the Hart's who win this.

Had Bret not been lifted out of tag wrestling to go singles, the Hart Foundation would have OWNED tag team wrestling as well or better than the Dudleyz. They were too dominant a team as faces or heels, and could adapt styles.

Give me the Hart Foundation over the Dudley Boyz in a classic match between two eras.

 

[klunderbunker]

Allow my jaw to hit the floor first.

Let's see. We have a team with one of the best singles wrestlers of all time, bar none on it, paired with a guy that could match power with anybody, versus the team that has more title reigns than the Road Warriors. They are the Ric Flair of tag wrestling. More titles than anyone else and it's not even close. But do they win this? No they don't. The Hart may be the perfect tag team. I have said for a long time the best combination possible is power and speed. Right here, we have power and speed, with technique thrown in. The thing is though, the Dudleyz have one weapon that not even the legendary Bret Hart and survive; The greatest finishing manuever in tag team history: The 3D. Can the Dudleyz 3D the Anvil? Yes. Can they 3D Hart? Yes, and neither would kick out. That move ends matches. However, they have to get it on one of them, and I don't see it happening. I'll take the Harts, but I'd love to see either of them get an ECW style 3D.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I hate the Dudleys, I really do. I think they were just the right team in the right place at the right time. From ECW to WWE to TNA, the Dudleys have benefitted from their circumstances more than their skill. After the first year of watching them put everyone and their monkey through a table, they soon grew dull. Their actual style of wrestling, if you can call it that, is dull. Little more than a few clubs and weak looking clotheslines, with the occasional diving headbutt thrown in.

My hate grew larger in a match with LAX and Staniels (reuinited for one night only as a heel team, yes I wet my pants). The Dudleys sat on the sidelines the entire match as LAX and Staniels absolutely tore it up in the likes of a match that we hadn't seen since, well, LAX and Staniels faced off. The Dudleys, or should I say Team 3D, then just collected a cheap win at the end when the other two teams were exhausted. They retained the titles and I was furious. And this is a team that wrestle a style that isn't affected my time - slow, plodding and crude is something they've always been, Bubba's expanding waistband isn't going to change that.

However, there is no denying how massively successful a team they have been. Despite the massive luck involved, it is an impressive achievement that such a team prevails where better ones have failed. And yes, dull and repetitive their style may be, but it's undoubtedly got the job done. I will say that many of those title reigns were a joke though. They were during a time when the belts were involved of a game of pass the parcel. I mean, they won the WCW title belt after WCW had collapsed. The most notable title reign if their one with the NWA title - after months of LAX leaving them in a bloody mess, 3D bested them in (imagine me letting out a big sigh here) Electric Cage Match to capture the belts. And as many times as the Dudleys have won those belts, they've lost them. To The Hardys, to E&C, to the APA, to BOD, to Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe.

So there you have my three paragraph long bashing of the Dudleys - with the occasional begrudging compliment thrown in - and it's now time to assess the Foundation. Just one more quick bash of the Dudleys: of course they're going to win ten times as much as the Hart Foundation when they stick around like a bad smell, leaching off better teams. Anyway, with bringing out a table a disqualification offense, I think that the Dudleys plodding, crude style is not going to serve them well here. I think Devon's steroid induced physique will mean nothing to the Anvil, and that Bret will dance around him. I think that the only way Bubba will have any effect is if he attempts to suffocate other teams with his moobs - he's the cruder and clumsier of the two, and that's saying something. Neither would have any problem with him whatsoever.

So yeah, the Hart Foundation in a match that proves that gold doesn't reflect skill, nor really success.

 

[Shocky]

Another one of these matches I had a hard time with, suprisingly. I respect and love the Hart foundation, but I went witht he Dudleys. My memories of the Hart foundation are from 1987ish, while still very good, but still green. I think I'm voting based on that first impression, as opposed to what most people remember from the 1990 version of that team.

I remember the Dudleys from ECW, and from their first few months int he WWE. They were a nasty heel team that were willing to do whatever to whomever. I see Neidhart being the weak link in this match, as odd as that maybe.