On a recent episode of INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, WWE Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley shared a collection of insane and hilarious road stories from his time traveling with some of WWE’s biggest stars. As the veteran of his travel group, D-Von often found himself in the role of a stressed-out parent, trying to keep his younger, wilder travel partners—including Randy Orton, Batista, and Maven—in line and out of trouble.
D-Von recounted two particularly wild stories that perfectly capture the chaos of life on the road in the Ruthless Aggression era, one involving a backstage fight between two future world champions and another that required him to go to extreme lengths to protect a rookie from the wrath of WWE management.
Batista Knocks Out Randy Orton
The first story involved a time when D-Von had to leave his travel partners for a week to attend his son’s christening in New York. Before he left, he pleaded with the notoriously wild young stars to behave themselves. “I’m not scolding you like I’m your dad, but I’m asking you, please, please do not get in trouble,” D-Von recalled telling them. His pleas were, unsurprisingly, unsuccessful.
“I’m at the christening. I get a phone call from Dawn Marie, frantic,” he recounted. “She’s like, ‘D-Von… Randy. Dave knocked out Randy.’ I go, ‘What?'” He got Batista on the phone to get the story. “He was like, ‘Rev, he kept paint-brushing me in the back of the head… I told him to stop, and he wouldn’t stop. So I whipped him off and gave him a clothesline.’ I said, ‘Dave, how hard was the clothesline?’ He goes, ‘Well, he flipped inside out, but he got a concussion.'”
Saving Maven in England
The second, even more detailed story, involved him having to “clean up” a messy situation with Maven after a long night of partying in England. After finding Maven passed out in his hotel room just minutes before they were due to be on the tour bus, D-Von had to spring into action to save the rookie from the well-known consequences of being late. “I said, ‘Maven, get up… Let’s go now. I said, we gotta be downstairs in 25 minutes,'” D-Von said. “I’m throwing stuff in his suitcase… He goes, ‘Devon, I gotta take a shower.’ I go, ‘No, you’re not taking a shower. Let’s go.'”
The situation escalated when a still-drunk Maven was moving too slowly while trying to brush his teeth. “He’s like, leaning over the thing… ‘Maven, if you don’t brush your teeth faster, I’ma brush it for you,'” D-Von said he warned him. “He’s still not brushing fast. I took that, ‘Give me a goddamn toothbrush.’ I took it. I’m start brushing them… suds coming out because I’m hitting him. I’m brushing his teeth.”
Sneaking Past JR and JBL
After getting Maven dressed, D-Von had to navigate him through a lobby full of legends and management, a true test of his veteran savvy. “We get to the elevator. We get downstairs… Who’s there? JR. ‘Hello, boys,'” he recalled. “As I grab Maven, I go, ‘Don’t you open your goddamn mouth. I said, ‘Don’t you say a goddamn word. I swear to God, I will drop you right in front of JR.'”
D-Von managed to lie his way through the encounter, telling Jim Ross that Maven had lost his voice. “He’s like, ‘Oh, okay. Are you gonna be okay to do the promo tonight?’ I said, ‘He’ll be all right… The less he talks, the better.'” The final challenge was getting past JBL on the bus. “I put him way in the back. I put sunglasses on him. I said, ‘Just act like you’re sleeping.’ He passed out.” The story perfectly illustrates the behind-the-scenes chaos and camaraderie of life on the road for WWE Superstars.
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.
