Spike's Top Ten List
by Spike Dudley
Aug. 18, 2003
Being the lightest man in WWE has its drawbacks. At 150 pounds on a good day, I’m often on the receiving end of some wicked beatings. I spent five years in Extreme Championship Wrestling. ECW developed a cult-like following around violence. I’m often asked which company, ECW or WWE, is rougher. Honestly, I’d pick WWE as the stiffer company. The Superstars are much larger and better athletes. Furthermore, it’s a given that guys turn it up a notch during the 52 live RAWs a year. When you factor in pay-per-views, it makes for a lot of intense matches.
The point of all this is I’m often asked what’s the worst thing I’ve gone through. I hate to single any one move out, so I made Spike’s Top Ten List of worst bumps. I think most will be surprised that some of things that hurt most are not always the “extreme” moves. I often tell people that fans seldom really pick up on the truly painful parts in a match. The little things can hurt much worse than big crowd-pleasing moves. On the other hand, some finishing moves are very painful and dangerous. Anyways, here goes:
10. The first Dudley Death Drop. This one happened in 1996 in the ECW Arena. Bubba and I had tagged for a few months, feuding with D-Von. Bubba decided to join up with D-Von, and they turned on me, beating me with a chair. The first 3-D was not the move you see today. Having never tagged before, Bubba and D-Von’s delivery was a bit different. D-Von lifted me under my legs; at the high point of the lift, Bubba snatched my head and drove me almost vertically upside down on my head. The effect was similar to a piledriver, except I had 380 pounds of Bubba gravity jamming my head and neck. I couldn’t turn my head for a week.
9. This was another ECW match, my first singles PPV main event match, Guilty as Charged 2000. Mike Awesome was ECW World Champion, and I was the challenger. Mike stands about 6 foot 5 and weighs 300 pounds of all muscle. During the match, I went for a rolling senton off the apron to the floor. My back hit Mike’s shoulder and I continued to flip over his frame. My right knee hit the metal guardrail at full speed and snapped my PCL tendon. I felt the give, but didn’t realize the seriousness of the injury. We finished the match (I got slaughtered), and I even wrestled for another month or two until I couldn’t walk any more. I finally broke down to see a doctor, who told me I needed surgery. The doctor replaced my PCL with a cadaver’s Achilles heel. Cool, huh?
I missed six months of ring time.
8. No. 8 is a special one in my heart. WrestleMania X-Seven was awesome. I had been in WWE for three weeks prior to the event, and suddenly I was thrust in the three-way feud of the Dudleys with Spike, the Hardys with Lita and Edge & Christian with Rhyno at TLC III. Sixty-thousand-plus fans and millions worldwide is pretty intense. The move was Jeff Hardy’s Swanton from a ladder onto myself and Rhyno laid out on two tables. Jeff’s back and shoulder hit me square in the mouth from about 15 feet up, chipping my front teeth and knocking me loopy. It hurt like hell to eat, but it was worth it!
7. D-Von, D-Von, D-Von. Oh, how my big brother abused me. My debut appearance in ECW was a very rude awakening. Bubba and D-Von were feuding at the time, and I was being welcomed into the ECW family. I found myself in a brawl that took us around and through a rabid ECW Arena. Fans were all around us. During the fight, we were in the back of the arena on the concrete floor. D-Von had his back to me. Of course, I jumped on him from behind. Since we were in a mob of people and D-Von wasn’t expecting me to pounce him, his instincts told him a fan had jumped him. With everything he had, he threw me straight down on the ground, jolting the heck out of my spine. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he saw me lying there. All he said was, “Oops! Sorry, Spike!”
6. I’ve only been knocked completely unconscious once in my career. Tajiri, the Japanese Buzzsaw, has some of the fastest feet I’ve ever seen. Jim Ross would call them “educated feet.” He caught me on the jaw with a thrust kick during a three-way dance with Tajiri, Nunzio (Guido in those days) and myself in 1999. All I remember was charging Tajiri in the corner and the next moment (actually about five minutes later) waking up as the only one left in the ring. Tajiri pinned me, and they had gone to the locker room.
5. Brock Lesnar is physically the strongest guy I’ve been in the ring with, and that’s saying a lot. He has such awesome raw power it’s really beyond description. In Brock’s debut television appearance, he rushed the ring during a match involving Al Snow and Maven. I had come to the ring in an effort to steal a win and the Hardcore Title. Brock had a different idea. I broke a broomstick over his head and he didn’t even flinch. The next thing I know, he’s power-bombing me three consecutive times.
The back of my head hit the canvas with such impact, I was seeing stars on the first one and was on the verge of blacking out after the third one. I had a headache for a long time after that.