D-Von Dudley opens up about his departure from WWE at the beginning of the year.
The Hall of Famer and former multi-time tag champion spoke on this topic during a recent interview on Insight With Chris Van Vilet. D-vone\ explains why he doesn’t foresee himself returning to WWE at any point in the future due to a number of disagreements with the company, as well as a lack of interest in working in the business.
I’m not interested. I’ll be honest with you. I had a great run. You know, I had a seven year, I’m sorry, eight year, including the year that we came back. And then the producing years, I had a great time. I did, there was some stressful times working behind the scenes. But, you know, again, I basically did what I was supposed to do there and my time is up. I believe God puts you in places where he needs to put you for that time being and I think that’s what happened with this. Now here’s what I’m also going to say, you know, when we left in 2005 the first time it didn’t, it didn’t sit right with me. It didn’t sit right with me at all. And even though we went to TNA, we went to Japan, we did what we did, it just didn’t sit right with me. So, I basically always felt that we needed to go back and we needed to leave the right way. And so, I felt this time we didn’t leave the right way. There’s nothing left in the basement for me, talent wise to go back, or producer wise. I’m okay. You know, I said in my tweet interview, which I messed up a couple of times, some of the verbiage, because my hands are too big when I’m starting to type and I didn’t bother to look at it again. But you know, I think, you know, Vince, I think Triple H, Stephanie, and the whole McMahon family for allowing me to come in there. And to do what I did; I have no hard feelings. I have none whatsoever. We agreed to disagree towards the end. And that was when I knew that it was time to leave. You know, a lot of it was autograph signings and things like that. But, you know, again, they allow, you know, their talent to do certain things and things like that, or their employees. And then there’s other points that they don’t allow to do it, you know, whatever. I just felt that I should have been able to do certain things outside of the company, if the company was not working at the time. So, you know, again, I was told no, and that was made public with the ECW arena, I got pulled from that show. And it caused a little bit of controversy. And then, you know, there was another issue. So, my thing was, you know, again, agree to disagree.
While D-Von does say the classic “never say never” line, he reiterates that working at WWE just isn’t for him anymore.
You know, I don’t have any ill feelings but I’m done. I think I think I’m finished. I’m not gonna say never. Because in this business, you never say never. I do know that. But at the same token, the way I feel right now, there’s no reason for me to go back. There’s nothing there for me anymore. You know, everybody who I came up in the business with talent wise is pretty much almost gone. And, you know, and this and that, but, you know, again, that shouldn’t matter, because you’re not there for friends. They have to make money and to have a job. But at the same token, I just feel that that’s not the right fit for me. So again, I thanked them for the opportunity that they gave me since 1999, up until, you know, January 23 of this year, but it’s just not for me anymore.
Back in February, D-Von did an interview discussing the specifics of his WWE departure and whether it had anything to do with him getting pulled from the ECW reunion show. You can read about that here. Check out his latest interview below.
(Special thanks to Chris Van Vilet for sending over quotes)