At TNA Slammiversary, a dream rematch decades in the making was made official for Bound for Glory 2025. The legendary Dudley Boyz will reunite for one final showdown with their iconic rivals, The Hardys, at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts on October 12.
This will mark only D-Von Dudley’s fourth match since 2016, and his first since briefly stepping back into the ring on the 1,000th episode of TNA iMPACT in 2023. A seven-year in-ring hiatus followed by a serious health battle—including a stroke in 2020 and spinal surgery in 2022—didn’t stop the tag team legend from getting back into ring shape. He’s since dropped 85 pounds through DDP Yoga and a strict diet regimen.
Appearing on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, D-Von spoke candidly about his health, the upcoming bout, and why this really is the final ride.
“Is there moments where I feel like if I get back in the ring, I’m going to get hurt? No, I don’t,” D-Von said. “I have the wrestling school in Winter Park, Florida, which is doing extremely well. And the great thing about that is, is that I roll around with some of the guys sometimes in the ring. So every once in a while I take bumps and I feel good when I’m in there. So there’s no hesitation in how I think or feel about what I do in that ring now.”
The interview was recorded before Slammiversary and before the Bound for Glory match had been announced. Still, D-Von made it clear that if he were to return, it would be for one match only.
“But, you know, at 50 years old, I don’t want to go in here and do it, like I said, until I’m 70 and 80. That’s not going to happen. If we were to do one more match, it would be the last one and that would be it,” he explained. “There is no one more, ‘Can you come back one more time, one more time?’ No, because — and I tell this to everybody when they ask — I go, every time I do one more time, that one more time is over, let a year go by, ‘Hey, you guys look great, you can go another match.’ No, we can’t, stop, stop.”
When it comes to the ideal opponents for such a high-stakes swan song, D-Von made it clear it had to be Matt and Jeff Hardy.
“If I was to do anything in the ring again, it would have to be with Matt and Jeff,” he said. “And, you know, I would say Edge and Christian too, but they’re in the other, you know, organization, AEW, and I don’t think that would ever happen. When the opportunity came, when Edge left WWE and went to AEW, you had Christian and Edge there, and then The Hardys were there. And it was like, we were wondering why, you know, Tony [Khan], who is a huge fan of the business and always had it, why wouldn’t he take the opportunity to be the one to put those three teams together and to do that, but he never did. So I think that opportunity is lost.
“But, you know, if I was to come back and do something, it would have to be with The Hardys. And those are the only two I trust. Even though I think Jeff is out of his damn mind [laughs], but those are the only two I would trust [with] my body on the line and to go in there one more time.”
The match was officially set up during TNA Slammiversary this past Sunday night, when Bully Ray issued the challenge to The Hardys after they captured the TNA World Tag Team Championships in a four-way ladder match.
TNA Bound for Glory 2025 goes down on October 12 in Lowell, Mass., and will feature the historic tag team clash between The Hardys and Team 3D.
