The Dudleys Didn’t Tell The Hardys About Handing Over Their Boots At TNA Bound For Glory

The Dudleys handed over their boots to The Hardys after losing their final match together at TNA Bound For Glory, and they recently revealed the Hardys didn’t know it was going to happen. The Hardyes defeated career-long rivals at October’s show in a Ladder Match.

After the match, The Dudleys took off their boots and handed them over to the winners. Talking about the match on Talk Is Jericho, they discussed how it had never been done that way. While people have taken off their boots, none of the five could think of a time the losers gave the winners their boots. You can see the highlights below:

Jeff On If They Knew The Dudleys Were Going To Take Their Boots Off:

“No, no I had no idea. And we didn’t wanna know. So I had no idea.”

Matt On Not Knowing It Was Coming:

“They had something great in mind, and we didn’t want to know. The more natural, the better. Because just like Bully said a minute ago, so much stuff in pro wrestling is overproduced in this day and age.”

D-Von On The Idea Behind The Gesture:

“To me, the way I looked at it is that they conquered it. They finally got — they’re the best. It’s like, we’re passing the torch to them. Although they don’t need the torch to be passed. But it’s like, ‘All right, you guys are the greatest now. You beat the greatest; now, here you go.’ And it was kind of like when you go to war, it’s like an African warrior. He goes to war, when he gets conquered, what does he do? He gives his sword, or he gives his spear or what have you to the victor. That’s exactly what we did. We gave our boots. And for me, it signified that taking the boots off, that was it. ‘You got it, that’s it. It’s over.’ But to me it was just almost in the sense of passing the torch in a sense. Again, not that they needed to be having the torch pass. But for us, we had the title of being the greatest tag team? Now you guys are the greatest tag team.”

D-Von On Bully Pitching The Idea:

“Well, the great part about it, I had to asked Bubba early on, ‘Are we still taking our boots off in the middle of the ring to say that we’re done?’ And he goes, ‘No, we’re not doing it anymore. We scratched it.’ I was like, ‘All right.’

“So some time went by and he comes and he goes, ‘D-Von, we’re gonna do this, this, this. Oh by the way, we’re gonna take our boots off and give it to Matt and Jeff.’ I was like, ‘Oh, we are?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, just don’t tell them. They don’t know about it.’ I was like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be good. This is gonna be good!””

Bully On His Thought Process Behind It:

“I racked my brain [to think of if it had been done before]. Because I knew what I wanted the final scene to be. And to Matt’s point earlier, Matt was concerned that after the Swanton what we were gonna do in the ring might not be able to capture the excitement, the emotion of what Jeff just did. I was pretty confident in the story. And eventually we agreed on it, but I knew what the safety net was. The safety net of everything was the boots. And I was really the only one that knew, D-Von knew. Because we didn’t tell The Hardys what we were gonna do

“I said, ‘It’s customary to take your boots off and leave them in the ring. But wrestling fans have seen that. It’s nothing new, it’s nothing different.’ What wrestling fans have never seen — ever, ever, ever — is for a wrestler or a tag team to take off their boots and hand them over to the guys that conquered them in their own match. And I thought that that’s another moment that I think will live forever, and nobody’s ever done it before. You know, we pride ourselves in doing things that have never been done before. And in an age of wrestling where nobody remembers anything? We have forced them to, once again remember The Hardys and the Dudleys.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.