D-Von Dudley wasn’t ready to trade the ring for a backstage role in 2016. But after WWE turned down his request to continue wrestling without Bubba Ray Dudley, he accepted a producer role that took him nearly two years to embrace.
There was no personal falling-out behind the decision, he explained. They simply wanted different things at that point in their careers. The problem came when D-Von asked WWE whether he could stay in the ring on his own.
I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready to step out of the ring at that time in 2016 and to be a producer. You know, I wanted to still wrestle.
But because of the fact that, you know, the Dudleys kind of went their separate ways after that first contract was over, nothing, you know, bad or anything, but it was just that Bubba felt that he wanted to do other things and he wanted to venture off into, you know, um other venues.
D-Von wanted to remain with WWE and continue contributing to the business, so he took the backstage position. Accepting the job, though, didn’t mean he was comfortable leaving his wrestling career behind.
So to me, I just wasn’t ready. And when I asked, could I still wrestle for the company without him, because he decided to, you know, do his own thing, they told me ‘no’. And I said, well, do I have a choice? I got no other choice.
I said, I you know, I want to still be involved in the business. I still want to be able to, you know, contribute in some way. And if that meant being a producer, then so be it.
That frustration made an already difficult adjustment even harder. For years, D-Von had been the wrestler listening to instructions from producers and agents. Suddenly, he was the person expected to guide other talent through their matches.
He knew what worked inside the ring. Finding the words to help somebody else understand it was another challenge entirely.
Because not everybody can teach. You know what to do. You know how to do it, but it’s very hard to sometimes give that knowledge to somebody.
His comments explain why the move backstage wasn’t a natural next step for him at the time. D-Von was learning how to pass on decades of experience while still wishing he could put that experience to use himself.
