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D-Von Dudley Says There's No Heat With Bully Ray, Dudley Boyz Reunion, Favorite TLC Match, WASSUP
D-Von Dudley (@testifydvon) is a professional wrestler and an inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame and the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his legendary career as both a singles competitor and part of arguably the greatest tag team of all time The Dudley Boyz, how he got his start in ECW, what he learned from Paul Heyman, why AEW is the perfect place for his twin sons Terrence and Terrell (TNT) to wrestle, the origin of the WASSUP and how Vince McMahon loved it, why he says a Dudley Boyz reunion is possible, he squashes the rumors that there is heat with Bully Ray and much more!
Check out D-Von Dudley's Wrestling School here: https://dvonacademy.com/
This episode is sponsored by Ketone-IQ. Use the promo code CVV to save 20% at https://hvmn.com/CVV
“I'm not interested. I'll be honest with you. I had a great run. You know, I had a seven year, I'm sorry, eight year, including the year that we came back. And then the producing years, I had a great time. I did, there was some stressful times working behind the scenes. But, you know, again, I basically did what I was supposed to do there and my time is up. I believe God puts you in places where he needs to put you for that time being and I think that's what happened with this. Now here’s what I'm also going to say, you know, when we left in 2005 the first time it didn't, it didn't sit right with me. It didn't sit right with me at all. And even though we went to TNA, we went to Japan, we did what we did, it just didn't sit right with me. So I basically always felt that we needed to go back and we needed to leave the right way. And so I felt this time we didn't leave the right way. There's nothing left in the basement for me, talent wise to go back, or producer wise. I'm okay. You know, I said in my tweet interview, which I messed up a couple of times, some of the verbiage, because my hands are too big when I'm starting to type and I didn't bother to look at it again. But you know, I think, you know, Vince, I think Triple H, Stephanie, and the whole McMahon family for allowing me to come in there. And to do what I did, I have no hard feelings. I have none whatsoever. We agreed to disagree towards the end. And that was when I knew that it was time to leave. You know, a lot of it was autograph signings and things like that. But, you know, again, they allow, you know, their talent to do certain things and things like that, or their employees. And then there's other points that they don't allow to do it, you know, whatever. I just felt that I should have been able to do certain things outside of the company, if the company was not working at the time. So, you know, again, I was told no, and that was made public with the ECW arena, I got pulled from that show. And it caused a little bit of controversy. And then, you know, there was another issue. So my thing was, you know, again, agree to disagree. You know, I don't have any ill feelings but I'm done. I think I think I'm finished. I'm not gonna say never. Because in this business, you never say never. I do know that. But at the same token, the way I feel right now, there's no reason for me to go back. There's nothing there for me anymore. You know, everybody who I came up in the business with talent wise is pretty much almost gone. And, you know, and this and that, but, you know, again, that shouldn't matter, because you're not there for friends. They have to make money and to have a job. But at the same token, I just feel that that's not the right fit for me. So again, I thanked them for the opportunity that they gave me since 1999, up until, you know, January 23 of this year, but it's just not for me anymore.”
“It might have been on me because I said, somebody asked me would, you know, we see the Dudley Boyz, I did an interview. They said, would we see the Dudley Boyz back together? And I said, No. Because at that time, I had a stroke, my back was giving out on me, and I spoke the truth. I said no. I said, because I can't do it anymore. I said, but here's the deal. Bubba is still doing his thing, and I'm doing my thing as a producer. So he's doing his thing, and I'm doing mine. So we're separating, we're going our separate ways and doing our own thing and we're happy doing that. But just because I said that doesn't necessarily mean that there's animosity between us. You know, are there things that I didn't agree with? Yes. Are there things that he didn't agree with me? Absolutely. But guess what, we squashed it, whatever that little disagreement was, and we're, and we're together, but we would never apart. That's the thing, we were never apart. We had it, we were agreeing to disagree on certain things. You know, and like every other tag team or any other brother, you know, you do your own thing for a little bit. I do my own thing for a little bit. And guess what? We were united again, no different. Listen, Bubba likes to use analogies, and I heard him say it on your show a couple of times KISS, you know, you know, when KISS took off the paint and all of that they weren't as big as they were once they took all that off. And they started getting rid of members in the band and this and that because of whatever demons that they might have had, so they had to replace certain members. But then all of a sudden when they put the paint back on, they were able to bring everybody back together. Even those that had demons in the past and they would have bring them back together and form the group KISS. Not taking anything away from anybody that filled in the void when those members were gone, but I feel like Bubba said, we're like KISS, we're gonna put on the face paint one more time. And we're gonna do it. And when I say we put on the face paint one more time, autograph signings, things like that. Is there a possibility for the Dudley Boyz to ever get back into the ring again? I'll put it this way. I can say yes and I can say no. And I'll say this, in terms of like I told Bubba, I said, you know, the only thing is, I don't know about going up on the top rope and doing a Wazzup no more. I say because, you know, I don't know how much my back, I'm not willing to put my back at risk like that. There are certain moves that I would have to fix. A 3D would be great, I could do a 3D no problem.”
“Well, you know, I mean, this big guy, you know, I mean, he was massive, 10 times the size he is now. And I just remember looking at him going good God. I just went, What the hell are they gonna do? I said I hope they don't have them turn on me. Because as they do, he’s gonna beat the shit [out of me], it's gonna hurt. And I just remember, Dave didn't really know anything. You know, like, for instance, we did a spot in the match with myself and Triple H, where I would throw Triple H on the outside, take the referee, Hunter would be getting up, leaning up against the post. Batista sees him, does the sign the cross goes to clothesline him, but Hunter it gets out the way and Batista hits the post and goes down. And I remember, Batista came to me and said, Rev. I gotta ask you a question. I said what's up? He goes, How do I do this? I go, how do you do what? He goes with Hunter? I go Batista what are you talking about? How do I clothesline him when he moves out the way and then hit the post? I go you messing with me, right? He goes, No, I'm not and I just went you're not messing with me? He goes, No. I said, Wait a minute. You've never done anything like this? He goes, No, he goes, in OVW, All they had me do was come in and do run-ins. Because I was so massive and big they never really worked with me the way they did with Brock and Randy and Cena. I was just the guy that came in and nailed people. And that was it. I was like oh my god, I go, you got to be kidding me. I go. Okay, so I'm trying to get a character over, Reverend D-Von. Okay, after being in a tag team match for almost 12 years at that time. Now you putting me in singles, and you putting me with a guy who's green as sh*t. And now I gotta help him get along and help him get over, as well as myself. How the hell am I gonna do this? And I'm already scared to death about going on my own. And it worked though, it worked for a little of time that we did it. And then they went out and then somebody pulled the plug on it.”
“Well, outside of The Bloodline, you know, storytelling, taking your time, letting the people digest what you're giving them. And when you're putting a match together, make sure the story is something that people can invest in. Something that the people can understand and relate to. We need to have a definitive heel and definitive babyface so that people can move and cheer. Let them understand the story that you're telling, as opposed to just putting a bunch of crap together with a bunch of high spots and nothing because listen, our fans are not looking for rocket scientists here. They want to be entertained. They want to be able to go home happy, and giving them a good storyline that they can relate to and invest in, that's going to send them home happy, that's going to make them cheer in the arena. That's exactly what Bubba and I did the whole time. That's why the TLC match was so good, because we didn't just use a bunch of Tables, Ladders and Chairs, we actually put meaning and story behind it. Not only that, but we did it safely. And we did it to where we added three other people to it, which was Rhino, Spike and Lita, you know, at WrestleMania 17, and made it work. I mean, so many people tried to duplicate that match, and yet came up short. I mean, kudos for them trying. But at the same token, you know, you really have to put effort into it. This is something that all six of us got together, put our creative juices and put it together, you just can't just say, Okay, I'm gonna do a TLC match. I'm gonna hit you with a ladder, I'm gonna hit you with a chair and put you to a table, you have to put meaning and time and thought into it and that's exactly what we did.”
“They're doing their thing, they're doing their thing, they're still doing Dark in AEW. They're having a good time. And, you know, they're just enjoying themselves, which I'm very, very happy with. I’d rather them be with AEW right now, then probably go to NXT or WWE. I mean, you know, in my opinion there's so much going on over there right now that I just feel like they might get lost in the shuffle somewhere. And things like that right now, I think AEW is the best fit for them. I didn't always think that, you know, because I used to work for the company, WWE, and all the turmoil that's going on right now started. So I just, you know, figured probably maybe that WWE was the best fit. But I'm a very biblical person, to the point where I feel God does everything for a reason. And if they had a couple of tryouts, and they were told no. And, you know, they were told not right now, but you know, we're definitely gonna be looking at you in the future, then there was a reason for that, because long and behold, look, what's going on there now. You know, there's so much disarray, I like to say that's probably going on, because no one knows what's going on. You know, is Vince back. Is he not back? Is Triple H in control. Is he not in control? You know, I mean, it's one thing for people to come out and say, you know, business as usual. You know, I'm still going to be whatever. But is it really the case? I don't know. I don't think anybody knows, except for the people that are working within the company.”
“Well, because we were on the same, we were on the same page. You know, a lot of tag teams, there's always one that deviates from where they're supposed [to], you know, what they're supposed to do as a team. Bubba, and I never did, we always wanted to be one of the best tag teams that was ever put together. And in knowing how tag team wrestling is, in terms of how entertaining it could be, we were both on the same page with that. Now, at first, I never really wanted to, you know, wrestle in the tag. Bubba always did. I know Bubba did, I saw in an interview that Bubba always said he wanted to be in a tag team. And I never did. I wanted to be the black version of Hulk Hogan. You know, minus the hair. But, you know, we were able to just gel together, you know, we were just able to be on the same page with everything. And we were both perfectionists when it came to in-ring work. You know, if something didn't work, or if we messed up on something, we would go over it 1000 times, you know, until we got it right, and we were both on that same page. Neither one of us took drugs. We were casual drinkers. In other words, if we went out and hung out with the boys, we had a beer, a couple of beers or you know some Jack Daniels, but other than that, that was about it, but we weren't drinkers. So there was nothing clouding our minds to prevent us from achieving our goal, and that was to become a very successful tag team. We just had no idea it was gonna be at this level. You know, the most decorated tag team in the history of the world, voted the greatest tag team of all time. Again, and I say this with respect to a lot of the other tag teams, you know, each generation has their tag teams, has their singles wrestlers, and I'll even go back, I'll even say basketball. This is one of the things I like to bring up, say, for instance, Dr. J. During his time, you know, everybody thought Dr. J was the greatest of all time, nobody would ever beat Dr. J in terms of that title. And then all of a sudden, here comes that guy from North Carolina, you know, Michael Jordan, that just changed the scope of everything in basketball. And in my opinion, is the greatest of all time. He's my generation. And then of course, now, Kobe comes along, and then LeBron comes along. And now we always have that feud of who's the best LeBron, or Michael? Well I’m a Michael fan.”
“Well, if I'm, if I'm correct, I believe yes, there's new ownership. But I think Vince is still very much a part of the company still, from what I'm reading. And from what I understand, Triple H, Paul Levesque is still in charge of creative. That's what I read. But then that's what people are saying. Again, unless you work for the company, you just don't know what's true and what's not. So you just got to wait and see how it plays out.”
“Well, again, The Usos and The New Day. The Bludgeons when they were together. I was mostly doing tag team, and then it got to the point where I was doing a lot of Main Event matches, the show Main Event, that was you know, seeing on the network at the time, I had a lot of those matches, I worked a couple of times with some of the females, not all the time, because at the time that Finlay dealt with a lot of the females within the organisation, but I dealt with the females every so often, and had a good time. I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous about it. Because I didn't know if the way I did business, I would do business, would the women understand, you know, and this and that. And in general, the ones that I worked with Nattie was perfect. Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans, who, you know, Lacey and I have a great relationship, friendship relationship. She's called me many times for advice. And we've always just done shooting the stuff. She was there for me when I had my stroke. Her and her husband and daughter came over to the home and spent some time with me. And, you know, our families, pretty much, you know, we're hanging out and talking. So I built the relationship, you know, as a producer there as well with some of the talent.”
“I mean, that's one of the things that we talked about the twins and I, Terrence Terrell. And it's also something that me, Jimmy and Jay talked about. A couple of years back when I was producing for the company and I was pretty much doing all the time, The New Day and The Usos rivalry, those were pretty much my matches. So, you know, I remember the Usos and I used to talk about that because my sons are very big fans of The Usos. And, you know, they, they, you know, love their work and you know what they're doing in the ring, so and I would like to say that they might even idolise them a little bit. It's kind of like Bubba and I, you know, wanting to work and wrestle with the Legion of Doom, Hawk and Animal, but we never unfortunately had the opportunity to do that, because Hawk passed away in 2003. So we never got that chance. But then long and behold, in TNA, I forget the year, but Animal teamed with Rick Steiner, you know, so we didn't get the Legion of Doom, but we got the best of both worlds in the Steiners and the Road Warriors combined, to tag together to face the Dudley's. So that was still a heroic thing for me and Bubba, just like I’m Sure, the Usos with my twins, TNT Terrence and Terrell, I'm sure that would be a huge feather in their cap.”
“Yes, yes, I did. And I was jealous. Because I like to say that even though the SummerSlam TLC match when I was hanging with Jeff, you know. Bubba took a great bump off there, Matt took his bump, Christian took his bump, I mean Edge too, you know, took quite a few bumps in that match. Well, everybody took bumps. But I always felt in my heart. This special bump was me hanging because I was so fearful of heights, and how devastating it looked. So when Edge did that, I went, Oh, damn that gets more play than me now. And he teases me all the time about that.”
“It was Vince's [idea]. Vince had this idea of us going our separate ways. Also, there was talks about Vince having a hard on, no pun intended, maybe I shouldn't use that phrase what I'm about to say. But he had it, he had it in for the Catholic Church. Because remember, at that time, we had people picketing, protesting us. And this and that and being hypocritical, especially people from the church. But meanwhile, this was at the time when the church was having controversy within his own home, with the priests, with little boys and things like that. So there was always an issue when people are being hypocritical, especially back in during that time, you know, we're doing what we're doing, but yet they're doing what they're doing and getting away with it for so many years. But meanwhile, you want to chastise what we do in the ring. So it was, and then plus, you know, Benny Hinn, you know, some of the TV evangelists. Who's the other one? Jim Baker, and the other one, [Chris - Billy Graham, maybe?] No, Billy Graham, there was no controversy with him. But no, who was the other one? God, I can see him now because I guess he had an affair with his secretary. He's on the, he's actually doing TV evangelists now. But anyway, he was basically making a dig at them. That's what he was doing, and he used me to do it. And I just remember going home and asking my parents, I was like, listen, they want me to do this. You know, I would like to do it, but I would like to get your blessing. My mother was a little against it. But my father was like, when you're done doing that, in the ring, you come to where it really belongs in the pulpit. That's what you really do, it spread the words. I was like, You got it, sir. And it took off from there. You know, a lot of people. And Bubba makes fun of me. You know, when he says, oh, you know, we don't talk about that Reverend D-Von, you know, because it didn't get over. I'm like, bullshit it didn’t. I'm like, Look, let me see who the people that I beat, Randy Orton, John Cena, Val Venis. Mark Henry, and the biggest one Triple H, you know. And I always said this, if Triple H didn't believe that the Reverend D-Von gimmick was getting over the way it did. Then he would have never in a million years, especially at that time, laid down for me. He would have never let that happen and Hunter had a lot of power and a lot of say. So back then. I'm not gonna say even more than he does now. But he had a lot of say back then he had just married Stephanie you know him and Vince are so freakin tight, they're not butting heads or anything like that. They're, they're full blown. They're here they go. If he had a disagreement at all, he would have said, No, I don't think so, I'll beat D-Von, I'm not going to let D-Von go over on me.”
“My kids, my love for God and how blessed I am that during my career the bumps I have went through I was able to get out of this unscathed.”
