Bully Ray, formerly known as Bubba Ray Dudley in WWE, asked D-Von Dudley for permission before R-Truth used his moves at the 2015 Royal Rumble.
Following a 10-year absence from WWE, Bully Ray returned as a surprise entrant in the 2015 Royal Rumble match. He briefly joined forces with R-Truth to hit The Dudley Boyz’s famous moves on The Miz in the early stages of the 30-man contest.
Speaking on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions show, Bully Ray recalled how he was initially hesitant to perform the moves with anyone other than D-Von:
“They asked me to do everything with Ron [Ron Killings, R-Truth] that I would normally do with D-Von, and I was like [hesitant]," said Bully Ray. "I actually called D-Von that night too. I was like, ‘Are you cool with this?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, go ahead, no problem.’ This is stuff that’s synonymous with me and D-Von. I would never think of doing this with anybody else.”
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The Dudley Boyz won the WWE Tag Team Championship nine times between 2000 and 2005. The legendary duo are also eight-time ECW World Tag Team Champions and one-time WCW Tag Team Champions.
Bully Ray blacked out shortly before his moment with R-Truth
The 2015 Royal Rumble took place in Philadelphia, the same city where ECW was based. Due to his ECW history, WWE brought back Bully Ray for a one-off appearance in the Rumble match.
Reflecting on the crowd's reaction that day, the 50-year-old said he blacked out during his entrance before quickly regaining his composure:
“You know what that [entrance footage] says to me? I am in no control because I have no idea what’s going on. The wall of sound that hit me rushed my adrenaline so high, I blacked out. Not until I start running [to the ring] do I come back," Bully Ray continued.
Seven months after the Royal Rumble, The Dudley Boyz returned to WWE as full-time in-ring competitors on the post-SummerSlam 2015 episode of RAW. They performed in that role for 12 months before Bully Ray left the company and D-Von became a producer.
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Please credit Broken Skull Sessions and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.