Former WWE producer and Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley recently shared his thoughts on WWE’s latest wave of roster departures, including the exits of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods of The New Day.
Appearing on Duke Loves Rasslin, Dudley suggested he believes the decisions were driven more by corporate leadership under TKO Group Holdings
than by WWE’s creative team itself.
“What I’m gathering from the information that I’m getting, I don’t know if it was WWE. I think that was a TKO [parent company of WWE] decision.”
Dudley acknowledged that TKO has increasingly become the target of criticism from wrestling fans regarding issues ranging from ticket pricing to roster cuts, but argued that corporate-style decision-making fundamentally clashes with how the wrestling business traditionally operates.
“And I hate that, you know, TKO is getting the blame for pretty much everything, whether it’s ticket prices or the releases. But, you know, they’re corporate. And I’ve always said corporate will never work in the wrestling business. It’ll be the downfall of the wrestling business.
And you can’t do wrestling like it’s corporate. You just can’t, because there’s so much involved. There’s so many different things that are involved in that, so you really can’t do it like that.”
Dudley went on to speculate that WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H likely would have preferred to keep Kingston and Woods with the company if the decision had been strictly creative.
“But unfortunately, I think that’s what it was. I think Triple H would have loved to have kept them and whatever, but I just feel that it was a corporate decision that was being made.”
He concluded by reiterating his belief that corporate executives often fail to fully understand the wrestling industry beyond the financial side of the business.
“And like I said, corporate is never good in the wrestling business because they don’t get it, nor do they understand it. They’re looking at the dollar.”
