When fans think of the most iconic weapons in wrestling, there’s a very short list. Steel chairs have traditionally topped the list, but some of their luster has worn away as the public has learned more and more about the danger of headshots. Using a championship belt as a foreign object has its poeticism to it, but it’s always balanced by the prestige of the title as a prize. Brass knuckles have a long tradition in the business, but are limited by how visible they are to fans in live attendance. In the last twenty five years, there’s a real case that tables, then, have moved into the number one spot. They’re big, loud, and readily visible. Moreover, The Dudley Boyz in particular made using them in matches into an art form.

The Dudley Boyz Got Attention By Putting Women Through Tables

Bubba Ray Dudley Powerbombs Terri Runnels And Mae Young Through Tables

Table spots have been a part of wrestling for a deceptively long time. That includes Terry Funk piledriving Ric Flair through one in Jim Crockett Promotions in the late 1980s, Diesel sending Bret Hart crashing through one at the WWE Survivor Series 1995 PPV, and a number of lower profile usages.

ECW’s hardcore sensibilities saw a surge in table spots, but it was when ECW mainstays, The Dudley Boyz, progressed to WWE that they brought tables into the mainstream. While they put male opponents through tables, too, one of the earliest ways Bubba Ray and D-Von got heat as a major heel act in WWE was by Bubba powerbombing women ranging from Lita to Mae Young to Trish Stratus. The violence and carnage fit into the ethos of the Attitude Era, delivering some of the most provocative table spots of all time. To Bubba Ray’s credit, he delivered the move safely, taking the vast majority of the impact himself to protect his victims.

Tables Served The 3D Finisher For The Dudley Boyz Well

Dudley Boyz 3D Christian Through Table

As The Dudley Boyz carried on with their careers in WWE and elsewhere, they understandably transitioned away from brutalizing women (though putting Dixie Carter through a table would become a major plot point for them in Impact Wrestling years later). A part of why tables remained relevant to their offensive repertoire was how well they fit the tag team’s finisher, The Dudley Death Drop, popularly known as the 3D.

Indeed, for its originality and skillful execution in the hands of the Dudleys, The 3D was on the shortlist of the best received tandem finishers in wrestling. The fact that they could deliver the move through a table only elevated it to the next level. Between this execution, and Bubba Ray’s increasingly iconic call--“D-Von! Get the tables!”--the legacy of tables as a great weapon and the Dudleys as a great tag team became permanently intertwined.

TLC Matches In WWE Pushed Tables To The Next Level

Hardy Boyz Put Bubba Ray Dudley Through A Table Cropped

While steel chairs were a traditional weapon and ladders gained major traction off of successful Ladder Matches in the 1990s, it was combining these two elements with tables that elevated all three at the turn of the century. In particular, the Tables, Ladders, and Chairs Matches, for which The Dudley Boyz, Hardy Boyz, and Edge and Christian were the respective representatives, caught fire. In the process all three pairs joined the ranks of the most iconic tag teams in WWE history, and Edge and Jeff Hardy in particular laid a foundation to become main event singles stars.

Related: 10 Great TLC Matches (Ruined By A Bad Finish)

While ladders remained the focal point of these matches—the set up for the highest spots and the mechanism for winning the early incarnations of them—each tended to feature at least one dramatic table spot as well. The legacy of TLC carried forward to the point of it becoming the focal point of an annual WWE PPV for over a decade.

The Legacy Of Tables In Wrestling

Sheamus Beats John Cena And Alexa Bliss Beats Becky Lynch In Table Matches For Titles

One of the main ways of distinguishing the importance of an innovation is wrestling is that it outlives the wrestlers who popularized it. Indeed while tables and table matches were once synonymous with The Dudley Boyz, they have outlived the tag team in WWE and other wrestling companies. To this day, well past even the final Dudley run in WWE, fans chant “We want tables” in hardcore situations, and bumps through both collapsible tables and announce tables remain crowd-pleasing spots.

Perhaps the biggest testament to the success of the Dudleys and tables in wrestling is Table Matches, which have gone on to be a part of other wrestlers’ feuds. Two key examples of the concept came when Sheamus won his first world title off John Cena in a Table Match in 2009, and when Alexa Bliss similarly beat Becky Lynch for her first title by putting her through a table in 2016. These historic victories bespoke the drama and value of a Table Match. It’s not only a spectacle or a premise for compelling action, but sets up a unique circumstance in which a fresh challenger can win a title, while the champ remains protected by not suffering a loss by pin or submission.

Time will tell how tables hold up in wrestling history. Nonetheless, the late 1990s and early 2000s went a long way toward establishing The Dudley Boyz as one of the most iconic tag teams of all time, and tables as one of the most iconic weapons. Fans will never be able to separate the two.