WWE Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley spoke with Denise Salcedo about various topics, including the wildest spot he has ever performed.
Dudley said, “I think hanging with Jeff Hardy, which is what I say a lot of times, hanging with Jeff Hardy and, you know, 15 to 20 feet up in the air and then dropping on my back was huge. And I told Jeff I’ll never do it again cuz Jeff wouldn’t stop kicking me while we were doing it. So, it was kind of, it was hell.”
On how The Dudleys vs. The Hardys at Bound For Glory came about:
“Well, the 1000th episode of TNA, I was happy, but I wasn’t happy. It didn’t really, it wasn’t a proper sendoff. So, when Bubba [Ray Dudley/Bully Ray] came back to me and told me about 3 years later, I have an idea to do the Hardys and the Dudleys one last time, I jumped on it. And at that particular point in time, my body felt good. I basically for the 1000th episode, I had just started DDP Yoga, and the yoga was really working good, but it got me to be able to move a certain way back then, but not where I wanted to be cuz I had just started. So, it took time. So, three years added to that, and I had been doing DDP yoga religiously. it started really coming about and me basically training six months prior to the event with my regular trainer with the weights and all of that being in the gym the ice cold plunges however Matt Cardi likes to say they are I mean it really works it really does and then um basically I took boxing just to help with my footwork and all not to be a boxer but the training in boxing is just incredible and it really got me to the point where I didn’t get tired I didn’t blow up in the ring or nothing. So, I was able to do that. So, to do that for 6 months, that felt good.”
On being nervous for his final performance:
“I think I was more nervous because I knew all eyes were on me. Not that they were on, they weren’t on Jeff Hardy or Matt, or Bubba. And I say that because of the fact that I hadn’t been in the ring in a long time, and I had the back surgery, and I had the stroke two years prior to the back surgery. So people were wondering, should I be back in the ring? Was I ever going to be the old D-Von again? And I had proved that the old D-Von was back, and I was ready to go. Is this it? Yes. That was it. I don’t feel like I can go on and do another match that will top what we did at Bound for Glory. I think if I go in there and do another match, it will hurt me as an individual, as a performer, because of what I did at Bound for Glory. I’m not going to get any better than that.”
On not wanting to undo his retirement match:
“Don’t want to undo it. And not to mention to have everybody in the arena crying. The emotional thing that we gave them in terms of handing the boots to the Hardys, you know, no one had ever done that before, and we were the first ones to do that. So when we did that, you could hear the oh in the audience like and then you saw the tears coming down people’s eyes, and you know, we even seeing Jeff start to tear up because they had no idea we were going to do that.”
On Bully Ray wanting to hand their boots to The Hardys:
“I mean literally is they had no idea. They had no clue. We had discussed taking our boots off and leave them in the ring, but not to take them off and then hand it to him. So Bubba had told me, he goes, he said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to take the boots off.’ Cuz I wanted to do that because I wanted to let the people know that that was it for me. And then he said, ‘No, we’re going to scratch it.’ And then I saw Bubba later on that day, and he goes, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do the taking off the boots.’ I was like, ‘All right, great.’ And I started to walk off. He goes, ‘But Devon, we’re going to hand them to the Hardys.’ I went, ‘Wow.’ I said, ‘That’s big.’ I was like, ‘We definitely got to do that.’”
On his retirement:
“Yeah, it’s over. I mean, you know, I gave 33 years of my body, my life to the wrestling business, and I’m very grateful, not only to the business, but the fans. But now it’s time for me to do it with my kids. And I have a 2-year-old, I have a 5-year-old, and a 7-year-old. My other kids are grown, but those are the three I want to concentrate on. And I don’t want them to feel neglected in any way, shape, or form, like daddy’s not there anymore. So, I don’t want to sacrifice myself for the business anymore. And I don’t mean that to say that in a bad way, but my kids come first.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
