Details on The Undertaker refusing to kick out of WWE finisher
Bully Ray, formerly known as Bubba Ray Dudley in WWE, says The Undertaker once refused to kick out of the 3D in a match.
The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) lost a Handicap Concrete Crypt match against the WWE icon at the 2004 Great American Bash event. As the high-profile match headlined the pay-per-view, The Dudley Boyz offered to let their opponent kick out of their finisher.
On Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions show, Bully Ray recalled how nobody had ever kicked out of the move before the match. For that reason, The Undertaker rejected the idea and advised the tag team to allow someone else to kick out at a later date.
“Nobody kicked out,” Bully Ray said. “If we hit the move, maybe there was a save or a pull-out… nobody kicked out. As a matter of fact, at the Great American Bash when it was The Dudleyz versus ‘Taker, we said to ‘Taker, ‘If you want this…’ and he said, ‘Nope, you protected it for so long. We’re not gonna do it if it doesn’t mean anything.’ Total respect.”
@WWE The Dudley Boyz 3D 👌 https://t.co/8gmDlciSNW
The Undertaker defeated The Dudley Boyz in a 15-minute contest after hitting D-Von with a Tombstone Piledriver. As per the match stipulation, the legendary superstar then pulled a lever to bury his former manager Paul Bearer in cement inside a glass crypt.
Who was the first person to kick out of the 3D after The Undertaker’s refusal?
#OnThisDay in 2004: The Great American Bash PPV: The Undertaker beat The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von) in a Concrete Crypt handicap match. https://t.co/a4hyyhjKuJ
The Dudley Boyz lost a TNA World Tag Team Championship match against The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) in 2010. In the closing stages of the match, Sabin became the first person to kick out of the 3D when he survived a pinfall attempt from D-Von Dudley.
Reflecting on the memorable moment, Bully Ray said The Dudley Boyz planned to retire after the match as part of a storyline:
“We hit the 3D on Chris Sabin, D-Von goes for the cover… one… two… Sabin kicks out," Bully Ray recalled. "What the hell? Mike Tenay on the call on commentary, ‘I don’t think anybody’s ever kicked out of this move.’ Blah, blah, blah. The next set of tapings, me and D-Von, ‘Thank you very much everybody, we love you, goodbye, we’re out the door.’”
At that point, Bully Ray punched D-Von in the back of the head to set up a rivalry between the long-time tag team partners. The storyline revolved around D-Von’s failure to win the match, with Bully claiming they would have won if he had made the cover.
Please credit Broken Skull Sessions and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.