I love the Dudleyz. They are my favourite tag team of all time and have provided so many fond memories for the fans throughout ECW, WWE and TNA. Who could forget their matches with Edge + Christian and the Hardyz, or the way they enticed the bloodthirsty ECW faithful into a violent rage on many an occasion.

Their return was explosive and as fans joyously relished in the table-based antics of Bubba and D-Von the claiming of yet another tag-title championship reign seemed inbound. One thing has roadblock their inevitable victory though – the unprecedented popularity of the New Day.

Xavier, Kofi and Big E have grabbed the WWE firmly by the balls and fired their way up the card, reveling in the adoration of the wrestling universe. So whilst this is great news for the tag division, it means the Dudleyz are not utilised entirely to the best of their abilities; people want to see the ECW originals gold the belts, however, people don’t want to see the New Day titleless. A quandary that the federation rarely finds itself in.

This savoured second-coming may have been better served in a previous time instead… Cast your mind back to this point last year where the tag roster was in a state of flux. At Hell in a Cell 2014 the Dust Brothers defeated the Usos in a match we seemingly saw 1 million times over, and the only other team on the show was Miz and Mizdow who would light up television for a time – but we all know how that one ended. Spoilers: it was shite.

The swapping of titles a year ago meant that there was no clear frontrunner in the rankings. Having Bubba and D-Von around would have injected consistency into the doubles game as they could have had the championship run against various opposition as opposed to constantly fighting the losing battle with the New Day.

Furthermore, we all know the Dudleyz can rock the ring still, so imagine the stellar matches they could have showcased with Goldust + Stardust, The Usos, Miz + Mizdow and later with New Day and Cesaro + Kidd. It would have successfully freshened up the rotting division wonderfully and having the veteran wrestlers carry the belt for a sizeable time would have forced fans to turn their heads and pay attention to the evolving tag feuds.

2014 could have been the year of the Dudleyz then, their ability and nostalgia factor would have granted them rights to rule the roost amongst their foes. New Day versus the Dudley Boyz has been fun the past couple of months but the river has run dry and I just can’t help believing they could have done so much more had their contracts with TNA expired earlier.