D-Von Dudley sits down with Chris Van Vliet for interview

D-Von Dudley sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Orlando, FL to discuss The Dudleys reuniting at Impact 1,000 and why a reunion looked to be out of the question at one point in time, losing 85 pounds with the help of Diamond Dallas Page and DDPY, being open to one more match with the Hardys, his time in WWE as a producer, The Usos using the 3D as their finisher, the creation of “D-Von, get the tables!” and “Testify!”, his scariest moment in ECW, the success of his YouTube channel, saving Maven from disaster and more!

Please note this interview was recorded before TNA Slammiversary 2025.

On the Impact 1000 reunion:

“Well, Bubba called me as usual. ‘D-Von, let me ask you a question, could you go again?’ And of course, my ego, ‘Yeah, of course I can. I can do it, not a problem.’ And when he said it I said, ‘But why are you asking?’ He says, ‘Well, TNA is doing a 1000 episode, and we were thinking about maybe doing one more match for the Dudleys.’ I said, ‘I could do it, it’s not a problem. But I’m going to tell you right now, I don’t want to do the wazzup, I don’t want to go up on the top rope and jump off the top rope into some guy’s crotch. Either you do it or we’re going to find another way of doing it.’ [He goes] ‘Can you go on the second rope?’ I go ‘No, Bubba I can’t go on the second rope. I’m not doing it.’ And of course, you know, when you watch the match, I did it anyway. I remember when I did that I went [groans]. I ain’t doing that no more.”

How did he convince you to do it?

“It was more of him saying and asking, and then the adrenaline at the time, it was like my ego got in the way and I was like, Okay, I’ll do it. Yeah, I can do it. I remember looking down at my family, and I went sorry before jumping. [Do you regret doing it?] No, I don’t regret it. Because, I mean, again, nothing happened. If I would have got hurt, then yes. Is there moments where I feel like if I get back in the ring, I’m gonna get hurt? No, I don’t. I have the wrestling school in Winter Park Florida, which is doing extremely well. And the great thing about that 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. But 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. There is no one more can you come back 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!”

On the opponents being The Hardys or Edge and Christian:

“If I was to do anything in the ring again, it would have to be with Matt and Jeff. I would say Edge and Christian too, but they’re in the other 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 Tony [Khan], who is a huge fan of the business and always has been, 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. But those are the only two I would trust to put my body on the line, and go in there one more time.”

On The Usos using the 3D:

“The Usos wanted to do the 3D. I was producing one of their matches, and they had asked me about it, and I was like, ‘Well, you want to do it tonight?’ They were like, ‘No, not tonight, but we want to know if we can go forward doing it?’ I was like, ‘Hell, me and Bubba don’t do it no more. I’m retired, so why not do it?’ Then WrestleMania, I think my last WrestleMania where I produced, and I can’t remember which one it was. It might have been in Dallas, okay, so had to be 38, because Bubba and I were in 32 against The Usos. I believe Jey had said something about ‘Man, I would love to do the 3D. Would you be okay if I did?’ I said, ‘Jey, I told you before we would love that for you to do that. You’re paying homage to us, and you’re keeping us relevant. Because you know people are going to say that’s the Dudleys. So for those that might have forgotten about us, will now remember us.’ So we don’t get upset, they’re paying homage. They’re giving you respect. So I don’t get angry or mad about that, neither does Bubba. We actually like it that they do that because, again, they’re giving us respect, they’re paying homage. And we were proud of it.”