While speaking on his podcast, former WWE producer D-Von Dudley offered his honest thoughts on the second season of WWE: Unreal, making it clear that the concept doesn’t quite sit right with his old-school wrestling sensibilities.
D-Von admitted that, personally, he wishes the series didn’t exist at all—though he acknowledged that the business has evolved beyond his preferences. “I’ll be honest with you—I would prefer it not to exist,” D-Von said. “And this is just me, the old-school me, because I feel like you shouldn’t let the magic out of the box. I just don’t think you should be telling our secrets.”
Despite his stance, he accepted that wrestling has changed and there’s no turning back the clock. “But the business has changed, and that’s the way it is now. There’s nothing I can do or say that will bring it back to yesterday. Yesterday is gone, and that’s it. End of story.”
D-Von explained that his perspective is rooted in how wrestling felt when he was growing up—when fans truly believed in the surprises unfolding on screen. “I know how I felt as a kid, and I know how a lot of people felt as kids who didn’t know this stuff,” he said. “When somebody jumped from one company to another and you had no idea it was happening—that surprise was real. It was like, ‘Wow, I cannot believe he’s back.’ Your mouth would drop.”
For D-Von, exposing the inner workings of the business risks diminishing that sense of wonder. “I just feel like the magic should never be shown—how we do things behind the scenes.”
Still, he was careful to stress that his comments weren’t meant as an attack on WWE or the people behind the show. “That’s WWE. I’m not knocking them. This is their product. This is what they feel is best. And I’m sure I’m not the only one from the old-school era who feels that way.”
To illustrate his point, D-Von compared professional wrestling to stage magic, referencing legendary illusionist David Copperfield. “It’s like David Copperfield. He has an elephant or a tiger in the middle of the ring, and he makes it disappear,” D-Von explained. “Did he really make it disappear? No. But David’s not going to sit there and tell you how he does his magic.”
That, in his view, is where wrestling should draw the line. “That’s why I feel it’s wrong for us to do that. But to each his own. I’m not knocking anybody, and I’m not knocking WWE. If that’s what they want to do, then God bless them. Testify.”
D-Von’s comments echo a broader divide between old-school wrestling philosophy and modern transparency—one that WWE: Unreal continues to bring to the forefront.
