Chris Van Vliet recently interviewed WWE Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley from the legendary Dudley Boyz tag team. You can read some of the transcribed highlights below but it is highly recommended that you scroll down to listen to the entire interview.
D-Von Dudley on if he would be interested to returning to WWE:
“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 run, including the year that we came back and then the producing years. I had a great time. I did. There were 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 the time being and I think that’s what happened with this.”
“Now here’s what I’m also going to say. When we left in 2005 the first time, it didn’t sit right with me. It didn’t sit right with me at all. 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. 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 thanked Vince, I thanked 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, again, they allow their talent to do certain things and then there’s other points that they don’t allow us to do. I just felt that I should have been able to do certain things outside of the company. 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. Then, you know, there was another issue. So my thing was, you know, again, agree to disagree. I don’t have any ill feelings, but I’m done. 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. Everybody who I came up in the business with talent wise is pretty much almost gone. 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 23rd of this year, but it’s just not for me anymore.”
D-Von clearing up the rumors of heat between himself and Bully Ray:
“It might have been on me because somebody asked if we would see the Dudley Boyz. In an interview they said, ‘Would we see the Dudley Boyz back together?’ 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 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. 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, we’re together, but we were never apart. That’s the thing, we were never apart. We were agreeing to disagree on certain things like every other tag team or any other brother. 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. Is there a possibility for the Dudley Boyz ever get back into the ring again? I’ll put it this way. I can say yes and I can say no. 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 because I’m not willing to put my back at risk like that. There are certain moves I would have to fix. A 3D would be great. I could do a 3D no problem.”
On his sons, Terrell and Terrance being in AEW;
“They’re doing their thing, They’re still doing Dark in AEW. They’re having a good time and they’re just enjoying themselves, which I’m very, very happy with. I’d rather them be with AEW right now than 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. I think AEW is the best fit for them. I didn’t always think that because I used to work for the company, WWE, and all the turmoil that’s going on right now started. 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, 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 low and behold, look what’s going on there now. You know, there’s so much disarray. No one knows what’s going on. 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, but is that really the case? I don’t know. I don’t think anybody knows except for the people that are working within the company.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. Also, be sure to subscribe to “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” on your mobile device by clicking here if you have an iOS device or here on your Android device.
