WWE: Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

WWE: Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Blu-ray Movie Review

D-von, get the Blu-ray!

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 20, 2016

Few tag teams have left such an indelible mark on the WWE landscape -- and a trail of busted tables and splinters in their wake -- as The Dudley Boyz, the tandem of Bubba Ray and D-Von, also known as Mark LoMonaco and Devon Hughes in the real world. Released some eight months after the duo's surprise return on Monday Night RAW, Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz offers a quality retrospective of the team, looking back at their youths and rise in the ranks in ECW and, eventually, the WWE, set against their pending re-debut on the August 24, 2015 episode of RAW.

Together at last.

The documentary proper runs just a bit over an hour and presents a basic narrative flow that explores the Dudleys' childhoods (they grew up in close proximity to one another, D-Von in Elwood, New York and Bubba in Dix Hills, New York). They recall their earliest memories of watching and enjoying wrestling and the sports entertainers they admired most. The film explores their drift from other athletic pursuits towards a career in professional wrestling and how each broke into the industry. It spends plenty of time on their days in ECW, including the growth of the greater "Dudley" character roster, their rivalry, and eventual pairing. It looks at their signature 3D finish and incorporating tables in their matches. It further examines their transition to WWE, eventual return to WWE, and additional pursuits, such as Bubba's time in Japan and D-Von's training facility.

Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz is unsurprisingly a straightforward WWE documentary/match compilation hybrid release. The frame is the duo's return to RAW and candid interviews inside their trailer. Their story builds through a narrative compiled of additional interviews and vintage video footage and photographs. Participants include friends and family, Edge, Tommy Dreamer, and Mick Foley, amongst many others. Though hardly a groundbreaking presentation or much of a revelation -- beyond some insight into their youths this is all very basic stuff that longtime wrestling fans will already know -- the program is well versed in the art of storytelling. It's engaging and enjoyable and a fine compliment to the greater Dudley experience. Hopefully, WWE will release another match compilation somewhere down the line, but with a solid main program and plenty of great career-spanning matches, this is a must-own for any serious fan of the Dudley Boyz, tag team wrestling, or tables.

Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz contains the following matches, moments, and commentaries on discs one and two under the "Matches" tab:

Disc One:

• Career Match: Buh Buh Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley vs. The Pitbulls. Hostile City Showdown -- April 20, 1996.
• Career Match: Buh Buh Ray Dudley vs. D-Von Dudley. November to Remember -- November 16, 1996.
• Interview Segment: Bubba & D-Von Reflect on November to Remember.
• Career Match: D-Von Dudley vs. Tommy Dreamer. Raw is War -- February 24, 1997.
• ECW Tag Team Championship Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Eliminators. Barely Legal -- April 13, 1997.
• Interview Segment: Bubba & D-Von Reflect on Barely Legal.
• Dudleyville Street Fight: Buh Buh, D-Von & Big Dick Dudley vs. Tommy Dreamer, Sandman & Spike Dudley. Heatwave '98 -- August 2, 1998.
• ECW Tag Team Championship Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. Tommy Dreamer & Raven. ECW on TNN -- September 3, 1999.
• Career Moment: The Dudley's ECW Farewell. After the Show.
• Career Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Acolytes. Unforgiven -- September 26, 1999.
• Elimination Tables Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz. Royal Rumble -- January 23, 2000.
• WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. New Age Outlaws. No Way Out -- February 27. 2000.
• TLC Match for the WWE Tag Team Championship: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge & Christian. SummerSlam -- August 27, 2000.
• Tables Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Rock & Undertaker. SmackDown -- September 24, 2000.

Disc Two:

• World Tag Team Championship Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. Edge & Christian. Royal Rumble -- January 21, 2001.
• TLC Match for the World Tag Team Championship: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge & Christian. WrestleMania X-Seven -- April 1, 2001.
• Interview Segment: Bubba & D-Von Reflect on WrestleMania X-Seven.
• World Tag Team Championship Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Rock & Kurt Angle. SmackDown -- September 27, 2001.
• WCW Tag Team Championship Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz. SmackDown -- October 25, 2001.
• Steel Cage Match to Unify the WWE & WCW Tag Team Championships: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz. Survivor Series -- November 12, 2001.
• Interview Segment: Bubba & D-Von Reflect on Survivor Series.
• Career Match: Brother D-Von vs. Triple H. SmackDown -- May 9, 2002.
• Career Match: Bubba Ray Dudley vs. Brock Lesnar. RAW -- May 27, 2002.
• World Heavyweight Championship Match: Bubba Ray Dudley vs. Triple H. RAW -- September 30, 2002.
• Interview Segment: Bubba & D-Von Reflect on Triple H.
• Career Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. Rey Mysterio & Rob Van Dam. Judgment Day -- May 16, 2004.
• Career Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. Tommy Dreamer & Sandman. One Night Stand -- June 12, 2005.
• Interview Segment: Bubba & D-Von Reflect on One Night Stand.
• WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. The New Day. Night of Champions -- September 20, 2015.

WWE: Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz features the basic WWE Home Video 1080i transfer that offers a blend of native 1.78:1 HD video content and older 4x3 standard definition footage repurposed to 1.78:1. Bonus matches that exist in the set outside of the main feature, however, retain their true aspect ratios. The image's HD-native segments generally look fine. Static interview shots are of a high quality, presenting easily seen skin textures (including Devon's scarred forehead) and clothing features. Minor noise, banding, and macroblocking are present in light quantities. A few interview segments push noticeably more red. Some backstage shots, particularly those featuring Bubba and D-von in their trailer prior to their RAW return, present with a mild softness and washed out appearance. The SD footage is all kinds of shoddy quality, but it never distracts; it fits in well with the narrative and, even reformatted from its native aspect ratio, adds a nice retro charm to the proceedings.

WWE: Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz features a straightforward and wholly unremarkable soundtrack, but then very little is asked of the track to begin with. For the most part, this is a dialogue-heavy production that leans almost entirely on interview snippets, a bit of behind-the-scenes candid dialogue, and key sound bytes from the duo's career in ECW and WWE. The spoken word is intelligible and center focused, always well prioritized and about as lifelike as a lossy track can provide. Music over the opening titles -- The Dudley Boyz theme -- is a disappointment. It's flat, reserved, and lacking the sort of absolute clarity one might reasonably expect. Other sounds throughout the film are largely limited to background support duty, whether music, crowd cheers and chants, or in-ring crashes and other bits of mayhem. They enjoy a neutral presentation, featuring neither lifelike reproduction nor an empty, flat presence.

WWE: Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz contains the following extras on discs one and two. They're labeled as "Extras" on disc one and "Blu-ray Exclusives" on disc two:

Disc One "Deleted Scenes:"

• The Ultimate Pillow
• World Uno Champion
• "My Two Biggest Fears"
• First Impressions
• Little Spike Dudley
• Mae Young
• Broadway Billboard
• Sleepy Rhyno
• Bubba's Bad Mood

Disc Two:

• Tables Elimination Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. Test & Albert vs. Edge & Christian. Rebellion -- December 2, 2000.
• Handicap Tables Match for the World Tag Team Championships: The Dudley Boyz vs. La Résistance & Rob Conway. Unforgiven -- September 21, 2003.
• Career Moment: The Dudley Boyz Come Back to WWE. RAW -- August 24, 2015.
• Career Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Ascension. SmackDown -- August 27, 2015.
• Extreme Rules 8-Man Tag Team Match: The Dudley Boyz, Tommy Dreamer & Rhyno vs. the Wyatt Family. RAW -- December 14, 2015.

WWE: Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Dudley Boyz return to RAW back in fall 2015 was a shock, and nearly as much of a shock as the tandem's recent heel turn that saw them blindside Jimmy and Jey Uso and proclaim their disdain for tables. It's an awkward turn for one of the most dominant names in tag team wrestling and one of the most prestigious, a duo that's been entertaining since the glory days of ECW and that, week in and week out, proves it's still a force to be reckoned with on the WWE landscape. Straight Outta Dudleyville: The Legacy of the Dudley Boyz is a fairly typical WWE retrospective documentary/match compilation release. 1080i video and lossy audio are fine. Recommended, and collectors should not forget that Best Buy is offering the set in a collectible SteelBook.