WWE Producer/Hall Of Famer D-Von Dudley is the guest this week on The New Day’s “Feel The Power” podcast.
Here are a few highlights from the interview:
D-Von talked about his singles run in TNA: “I had to fight and claw to get the television title because they thought Bubba was the Messiah. They thought Bubba was going to take them to the promised land. Grant you, I’m not saying anything negative about him. What I’m saying is you have two guys that helped create history and did what we did in WWE. We come in to help your company out and you’re just going to pick and choose who you think is going to bring your company to the promised land? Well, I made them eat their words. Not only did I drop some weight after letting it pile on after my first divorce, I basically got in the best ring shape that I could possibly be in and made them push me to the point where even Hogan defended me and went public. Then everybody else in the company started doing it. There were so many times in TNA that I was ready to quit and hang it up.”
D-Von discussed his Reverend D-Von character: “I loved it. I thought it was great. I remember Vince and I were doing so good. We were doing promos together and things like that. He said he’s loving this character. It was almost like overnight that the character went downhill and it shouldn’t have. I was wrestling with Cena. I’m wrestling with Orton. I’m working with Batista. Hell, I went over on HHH. I’m glad I retired before he could get the win back. It is what it is. I moved on.”
D-Von was asked if he felt stressed transitioning from a tag team wrestler to a singles wrestler: “Yes and no. It is weird when you’ve been a tag team wrestler for so long. But, when I first came into this business, unlike Bubba who always wanted to be in a tag team, I didn’t. I always wanted to be a single. Even when I got to ECW and I was going to be part of the Dudley clan, I thought that eventually, I would eventually still be able to be D-Von Dudley by myself and work with the other guys. They ended up putting me and Bubba together. At that point, I basically kept going and going until the opportunity came and they asked me to be the Reverend D-Von. At first, we were like, no. We felt we were on a high and why mess it up? At the same token, I always said whatever the new gimmick is going to be, we have to make sure it works. That’s the only way we are going to get satisfaction when your career is over if you ever could have done it as a singles by yourself. When the opportunity came, I knew right away, especially with the Reverend D-Von because it was so close to home with my mom being a preacher and my dad being a preacher, I knew right away this was the gimmick for me. I wanted it. I felt very comfortable in the ring as Reverend D-Von by myself without Bubba. When things went awry, they put me with Ron (Simmons). Being with Farooq, that was the best. Being with Farooq at that point was the best. It was like Doom all over again. I loved it. It was like the second coming of Doom in my opinion. Ron was there to help me during that whole Reverend D-Von thing. It was like he talked me off the ledge. I was ready to jump. Ron and Rikishi were the ones who stopped it from happening. Ron told me to just go out there and continue to do your thing. When we were together, he made sure I shined. He made sure I was going to be on top of my game after the Reverend D-Von thing. I’m not going to lie. When I got the phone call that Bubba and I were going to get back together, and I told Bubba this even on the phone that night, I didn’t want it. I didn’t want it because I wanted to be a single. I wanted to give this a shot. I felt like I got shafted. But, I look at it this way. With everything that happened and however it went down, we went on to create more history together, Bubba and I, but that will be the one thing in my career that I wished I could have done better. It is what it is and I moved on from it.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The New Day: Feel The Power with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
