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At what we have here folks, to the only show that matters, the
Queen of the crop. Duke loves wrestling.
And there is no one that does it better than your house.
I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass and I'm all out
of bubble. Brothers and sisters, welcome
back to episode 4 of Devon and the Duke, a limited podcast
series hosted by your main man. Duke loves wrestling and the
Hall of Famer himself, Mr. Devon Dudley.
How you doing there Devon? I'm doing good man, how you
doing? Well, Devon, I, I have to break
some news to you here. The word is out, man.
Devon Dudley is a good guy, a baby face in life.
You know, not only did we have folks who saw you at the River
City Wrestling Con, you had your baby with you, had your wife
with you. You know, you're doing the
family thing and now we have folks like Eric Bischoff putting
you over and talking about how great of a guy you are.
That's it. Devon, you're, you're a good
guy, man. There's this whoever the, the
bad guy version of Devon Dudley is.
I I don't think you're going to be able to sell that too well
anymore. Well-being that I'm not
wrestling anymore, that's probably a good thing, you know?
You know, now that I'm retired and you know, and this and that
and I don't know, being a bad guy, I mean, what?
Unless I went back and did it, you know, the only place that I
would ever wrestle for, other than what I'm going to be doing
in November with Bubba for Wrestle Cade, the only place I
would ever go back to wrestle for is WWE.
That's it. I wouldn't go anywhere else to
do it. And of course TNAI don't have
any issues with TNA or anything like that.
My heart is with WWE and being that WWE is now doing something
with TNA now I can put TNA that I would go back to TNA, but I
don't see it happening. I, you know, everything that's
in my tank is pretty much done. I'm going, I had the 1000
episode. I had a lot of fun doing that
with Bubba. You know, we tore the house down
and we hit the greatest hits, which is what we were going to
do. And we weren't thinking about
doing a tour around the country, you know, to hit the greatest
hits and do that. And I don't think it's going to
happen. I'm not saying it's out of the
water, but I don't think it's going to happen.
So, you know, I just don't see me getting back in the ring
unless it's WWE, and that ain't going to happen because I think
we're way over the hill to go back to WWE.
People say, oh, you guys look in great shape and it's not, It's
one thing to look good, but it's one, it's another thing to have
your body just broken up inside. You know, I, I hear that 100%,
Devon and I understand, Hey, you definitely want your body to be
in working order, especially if you're going to be out there
taking bumps. But when it comes to pro
wrestling and retirement, you know, the two don't mix.
I'm thinking back to a great friend of yours and Terry Funk.
That man retired how many times over and yet he still managed to
find himself in rings all over the world doing what he does
best. So maybe it's a never say never
when it comes to retirement. Well, there's one thing between
there's one thing you got to understand about Terry Funk, and
I knew him on a personal level. That son of a bitch was crazy.
God rest his soul. He was one crazy SOB.
And I think he enjoyed pain. I think whatever was ailing him
when he got in the ring, he kind of enjoyed it, you know?
And that's the way some wrestlers are.
They enjoy that pain. They don't know how to handle
themselves without the pain 'cause they're so used to
dealing with it for so many years and then all of a sudden
when it stops, it's like they permanently hurt themselves.
That's where they can continue to feel that pain.
I know a couple of people like that in the business that have
done that and that have admitted it to me.
But again, you know, never say never.
You're right. You never say never.
But as of right now, you know, and I've said this before, I've
said I was, I wasn't retired and I said I was retired.
I went back and forth until the 1000 episode, but I just feel
that right now it might be the end for everything.
Just because you know the the new generation now is doing a
fantastic job, especially in WWE.
I don't know if it'll take just hitting the greatest hits to
keep up with these guys. These guys are so damn good in
WWE right now, and I wouldn't want to do anything to cramp
anybody's style in the ring. So, you know, Bill Cosby said it
best when he ended The Cosby Show.
He ended it on top. Ratings were still up.
They weren't going down or anything, but he felt that it he
needed to get rid of the show before the ratings did start
dropping. And people will say, damn, I
don't even watch it anymore. It's not that good.
It's not like it used to. He ended it before that
happened. And that's the way I feel like
it should be with with us. You know, we need to get out
before we get to that point where people say, damn, they're
too old. They don't need to be in the
ring anymore because it it will happen.
You know, it will happen. We can't stay young our whole
lives. At some point stage of the game,
you got to say when it's when it's over, you got to admit to
yourself that it's over. Leave on a high note, you know,
leave with, you know, the Wrestlemanias, the the TLC
matches and all those great matches that you had.
Don't leave with, with a match that probably showed that you
should have been gone, you know, years ago and you decide to come
back. I just don't want that to
happen. Wise words there from the Hall
of Famer Devon Dudley. And, and I get it.
I respect that. Makes perfect sense.
Leave on a high note so people remember you the best of you as
opposed to remembering the lesser version of you, so to
speak. So certainly understand that.
As we said, Eric Bischoff was here on Duke Loves Wrestling and
he was very complimentary of you, just like you were about
him previously. Eric talked about the fact that
you're a great friend of his and how he loves running into you
and you always make him feel good.
Your your positive presence rubs off on him.
After hearing that back, what did you think of what Eric had
to say about you? Well, I love, I love Eric a lot.
He's a very good friend of mine. I consider him a very good
friend of mine. And Eric didn't know really a
lot about my background until one day he was right next to me
when we were doing an autograph signing.
And I believe it was in Texas somewhere.
And we started talking and I don't know how it came up, but
my background came up and things like that and we just started
talking and started going from there.
And he was pleasantly surprised 'cause he didn't know any of
that. We knew each other before this
conversation took place, but we never really indulged in each
other's lives. So it was one of those things
where it was cool that he realized, you know, all the
things that I had went through to get to where I am today.
And he, he really appreciated, he loved hearing the story.
You can tell that he was quite intrigued by everything that I
told him. And he was really taken back
about my parents being reverence 'cause he didn't know that.
He also, you know, said to me, he goes, that explains your
demeanor and how you are said, yes, I said, you don't gotta
understand. I grew up in Sunday school.
I grew up in revival. I grew up in regular church, you
know, regular morning service, afternoon service.
I grew up in all of that. So it wasn't something that I
was uncommon to. And you know, if you didn't do
what you were supposed to do, you got your butt whooped.
It's just wild to think about, man.
You know, the the preacher's kid, the church boy grows up and
he's putting people through flaming tables in ECW.
You talk about a a difference there.
It, it just goes to show, never judge a book by its cover and
you never know what you're going to get from folks.
And certainly the Hall of Famer here, Devon Dudley, is full of
surprises. I I wonder, Devon, the lessons
that you learned not only from your parents, but from being in
the church and growing up with a religious background, Do you
feel that that's helped guide you through all of the
challenges that come along with being in the wrestling business?
Absolutely. Even now as an adult, you know,
living life, you know my morals, how I feel about certain things.
The respect I should say more importantly than anything.
I mean, let me put it to you this way.
There might be stuff I might be into the the next man might not
be into a might not like that. Each his own in my opinion, but
in terms of respect, you know, I've learned to respect people
and not sit there and pass judgment just because it doesn't
fit my realm with things. You know, when you go on social
media and you say things or you put things out and somebody
might not agree with what you're putting out or saying, so they
get rude and, you know, they say things that are not
complimentary and they sit there and say, well, I got freedom of
speech and I'm allowed to say whatever I want.
Yes, you do. You do grant you 100% you do.
But being rude about it, No, you know, you don't have the right
to do that because if somebody did that to you or if somebody
did that to one of your family members, you'd be ready to
fight. You'd be ready to take a gun and
shoot them. There are things I see on social
media that I don't agree with, but that doesn't mean I'm going
to sit there and belittle that person or I'm going to sit there
and say something rude just to get a reaction from him.
Those are those type of people are the people that don't have
any lives that they want the reaction so they can go back to
their other friends and go guess what I said this about?
I said this to Divo on the social media and he responded
and he said this. What an idiot.
No, you're the freaking idiot. You're the Jackass.
You know, it's like for what? Like my son, there was a, a
video that he saw online and he put his two cents on what he
felt about it. And it was rude.
He told me about it. And he told me that when he said
it, you know, he was laughing. And I go, son, I go.
Let me ask you a question. If somebody put something like
that on your social media after whatever you put up there you
thought was OK to put up, but they thought it indifferent, if
they say if they made the same comment to you that you just
made to them, how would you feel?
How would you feel if it was me that they said that to?
How would you feel if it was your grandmother or your mother?
And he sat there he goes, yeah, you're right, I shouldn't have
said that. I said, yeah, you really
shouldn't have. I said you really should go back
and take that down because there's a 5050 chance that that
person might not have seen what you wrote, and there's a 5050
chance that they did. But you have no idea how you can
be towards a person when you say things like that.
You know, you're never taking consideration their feelings.
So again, there's a lot of people that listen to this
that's going to listen to this and go, you're absolutely right,
Devon. But guess what?
They're the ones doing it. That's the funny part.
It's like the people in church, you know, they're hypocrites.
They'll sit there and tell you what you shouldn't do and what
you shouldn't like, but then yet they do something totally they
do the same thing you're doing, if not worse.
Devon Dudley coming with the life lessons.
How about that for your Sunday folks?
That's why Devon and the Duke, you know, we want to drop these
on Sundays so that you get that extra dose of not only fantastic
conversation about pro wrestling, but fantastic
conversation about life. There's nothing wrong with that.
And certainly, as they would say, this is food for the soul.
And I also, you know, listen, what I'm saying is not going to
change people's opinions. They're still going to say what
they want to say and do what they want to do.
But at the same token, I'm just saying, think about what you're
saying before you write it. Think about the person that
you're saying it to. Even if you don't like that
person, So what? So what?
Especially in the resting world. Listen, they had enough courage
to go out there, pay their money to the whatever wrestling school
they went to, got taught how to wrestle good enough to where
they got picked up by NXT. And from NXT they went to the
main roster. So you might not like them, you
might not think that they're good wrestlers, but that don't
mean you go and bash them and try to belittle them on social
media. I just find that very
disrespectful and wrong. And that's where my upbringing
comes in, where I was taught not to do things like that, that
just because you don't like something, what somebody does,
that doesn't give you the right to belittle or say anything
terrible to them. I agree 100% and I mean, it
really comes down to how you say it and what your true intentions
are. So everyone listen out there as
as a consumer, absolutely you have a right to point out what
you don't like and what you feel needs to improve because they're
marketing to you. You know, this is something that
is supposed to entertain you and make you feel comfortable enough
to not only spend your time, but spend your money, your hard
earned money on these things. So certainly saying, hey, I
didn't like that. I don't feel that that was of
quality, what have you. That's fine, but it's when we go
to the point of trolling and, and just to 'cause, you know,
hardship and chaos in people's lives just for the hell of it.
Could you think it's funny? That's when we were crossing the
line there and, and certainly Devon Dudley knocked it out of
the park with that point. Good stuff there.
I got some breaking news for you here, Devon.
AEW Dynamite, they managed to have their lowest rating ever.
They averaged about 502,000 viewers, which is way, way, way
down not only from last week, but even compared to to last
year. It's it's the worst rating
they've had in history. Let's just call what it is worst
in history. And what's interesting is that
they normally have The Big Bang Theory that leads into AEW
Dynamite, which, you know, when the, when the TV channel
switches from Big Bang Theory, which is a rerun at 7:59 and
switches over to 8:00 PM when Dynamite starts, a lot of those
folks who are watching Big Bang Theory, they, they've stuck
around. So AW has been using these folks
and saying, hey, you know, they watch our show.
Technically not true, which is why there's always such a major
drop off in the first quarter hour compared to the rest of the
show because you know, a lot of those folks are not AEW fans.
So now here we are, where there was no Big Bang Theory this past
Wednesday, which was also Juneteenth.
No Big Bang Theory to lead in, and AEW just completely in the
toilet. It's clear that they are
slipping and it's not because of a lack of talent.
Something else that is amiss here.
Anyways, Deewon, I want to get your take on this year.
What are your thoughts on AEW pulling in their worst rating
ever at barely half a million viewers?
Well, you know Tony Khan, I guess he hasn't been out there
bashing WWE as of late after the comment he made during the NFL
Draft. But my thing is this, instead of
worrying about what the WWE is doing, worry about your own
show, worry about your own ratings.
You know, here's the deal. Like I said before, and I'll say
this again, there's a lot of guys in AWI have I am friends
with and I've grown to be friends with.
And there are a hell of a talent.
Some I haven't met, some that I have, some that I've worked
with, you know, but my thing is this, with all that great talent
that is there in that company, and there's a lot of people that
are great, why is it that those ratings are the way they are?
And I'm sorry, after being in this business for 33 years, it's
not the talent and it work. It starts writing, it starts
right in the office. Here's what I'm going to say.
When WWE was letting people go left and right during that harsh
time during the Vince era. And then all of a sudden, you
know, because a lot of those guys weren't being used on TV or
nothing like that, because Vince didn't know what to do with
them. The people in NXT, you know, the
whole 9. And then Hunter comes in, he
takes over, he brings them back, and now a lot of them are bigger
stars than they ever were. It's the booking.
Hunter knew what to do with
them. Vince didn't.
That's not a crap on Vince. It's just that he didn't know
what to do with them. So, you know, somebody came in
and did the right thing. My thing is, Tony might want to
look in the mirror and see that it's not the talent that he has.
It's him and whoever he has writing and doing whatever.
That's what he should be looking at.
Because there's no reason with all that great talent that AW
has that the ratings should be that low, that the houses should
be empty the way they are. There's no reason for it because
you have to agree with me, They have phenomenal talent over
there. It's just that none of them are
being used, right? You know, and some of the guys
who leave WWE to go there, you know, it's always good to have
an alternate place to go because when you get burnt out from one
territory, you go to another to rebuild yourself and then
eventually you wind up going back to the original territory.
I just hope a lot of them realize that when they do leave
WWE or unfortunately, if they get let go, that you're going to
be on, you know, the high end of things for the first month or
two months, maybe even 3, and the next thing you know, you put
right back on the shelf. Again, that is something I don't
understand and I don't agree with.
There's so much talent in that company that should be doing a
lot more things than what they're doing in that company
and they're just not. So to me, again, it's not the
talent, it's the people who are in charge that are doing it.
And I've spoken to a lot of AW people that I'm friends with and
they're just like shaking their heads.
They're like Devon, we know, we know.
We don't get it either. It just makes no sense.
But a lot of them are there just taking the money.
You know, Tony wants to throw out a boatload of money to
people. He throws it out and they're
going to take it. You know, it's one of those
things where why wouldn't you take the money if someone's
going to give you, you know, if someone wants to give you $10
million to go and and sit home and not be on their TV when
you're supposed to be contributing to the company, why
wouldn't you take the money? Why wouldn't you do it?
I know freaking I would, you know, But yeah, but I said I you
don't have to put me on your TV. If you want to pay me a boatload
of money to sit home and be with my family, then by all means
Boo, I'll take the check. You know, it's interesting,
Devon, you talking about your experience history in the pro
wrestling industry, which is, you know, over 30 years Hall of
Fame wrestler, most decorated tag team champion with with
Bubba. Now you've transitioned into
being a fantastic trainer and coach for the next generation of
stars. You've also been a backstage
agent, you know, again, helping that next generation and really
current generation of stars understand how to deliver
matches that fans will give a damn about, which is really a
skill to be able to do that. So kudos to you on that front.
Something aired recently on A&E as part of their biography
series. This is A&E biography, WWE
Legends, the ECW episode, folks. So the episode literally is
titled ECW and this is on season four, episode 10.
So everybody listening right now, easy way for you to go look
that up and check it out. You know, whether you have Sling
or Xfinity, AT&T, whatever, I'm sure you have on demand or just
catch the rerun. But season four episode 10
biography, WWE Legends, ECW. Devon, you were all over this
thing. Photos, video clips, you know,
you even spoke about a few things.
And it's funny, you and I had a conversation offline about this
and you said just watching that program evoked some memories and
you had some things to say about it.
So we haven't dealt too deep into the ECW stuff yet.
We've been saving it. But now is a great time to start
knocking on that door. So let's hear it, Devon.
I mean, after watching that A&E biography, WWE Legends ECW
episode there, what did you think and and really what comes
to mind? Well, I will say this, I
remember right before I got into ECW, you know, I was barely
making it. I was working in the post office
as a letter carrier and a mail sorter, and I was unloading
trucks. And I remember, you know, I was
married at the time to my twins, Terrence and Terrell, to their
mom. And money was very, very tight.
I remember not knowing how I was going to survive with a wife and
twin boys. I mean, we, we would, we were
looking to do one baby, but when two came, it was like, oh, my
God, what are we going to do? And there were times where, and
I'm dating my, my age here. But, you know, back when there
were mannequins in the window of department stores to showcase
whatever outfits they were going, they wanted to sell.
And I remember a lot of times walking past that area and
seeing something maybe for my wife or my kids and going, man,
I wish I had the money to buy that.
You know, I had to go in the store and put it on what they
used to call layaway. You know, it was a layaway
program. And you know, at that time, I
didn't realize how special those moments were because you really
had to bust your behind to make the money to pay to get your
wife or kids the present that you wanted to get them, whether
it was for their birthday, Christmas or what have you.
Anniversaries. And then I got the WWE and, you
know, from ECW. And again, I made good.
I made good money my last two years in ECW, but it was coming
up was very, very hard. And you know, when I got to WWE
now all of this money comes in, all the fame, all the stuff
comes in. Now I can walk to a store and
see something going in and just buy it, you know, didn't have to
worry about putting it on layaway or anything like that.
I just went in there and bought it.
And to me, it got rid of the feeling that I used to get, like
the appreciation that I would have after buying the gift or
something like that in the window because I worked so hard
to get it. Where as in WWE, I worked hard,
but there was just so much money being made during that time
during the Attitude Era, that it wasn't that hard to do it.
You know, you could always appreciate something when you
put the hard work into it as opposed to just getting it.
Boom, OK, here you go. I missed those days.
It brought back certain memories of that when I watched the
documentary because I knew how it was during that time for me
growing up in the business, trying to make it, trying to
really, really establish myself, Bubba and myself, you know, so
it brought back so many memories.
And then not to mention just being on the same accord as the
fans. That was the one thing I loved
about ECW. When I think back after watching
the documentary, how when you're in WWE, you're kind of like, how
do I say it? You kind of like separated from
the fans, you know, you're like this huge superstar, you know,
that's on the Monday Night Raw and Smackdown at WrestleMania,
pay per views and you can't be touched, you know, Whereas in
ECW, we would just like the regular fans, you know, we, you
know, it was easy access to us. We had conversations.
We weren't bigger than what we were during that time.
In other words, you know, we were all on the same level,
believe it or not. We just happened to do things on
TV and act like a bunch of fools beating the hell out of each
other. But you know, that to me was
very special because I remember just meeting so many great
people, watching that documentary, looking in the the
arena as they were showing and looking at the fans sitting down
in the seats. I remember, man, I remember him.
I remember them. And it started bringing back
memories from me of conversations that I had with so
many of them. And then of course, you go to
WWE and you don't have that intimacy like you did when you
were with ECW. It's totally different and a lot
of faces that I see now and I went back for WrestleMania 40,
it was like they look familiar but I couldn't place it 'cause
it had been so many years since I seen them.
So they had to refresh my memories.
And some I felt bad because some I had really long good
relationships with and I just didn't remember, you know, and
I'm like, forgive me. Can you please remind me who you
are and how we connected? And they would tell me I was
like, Oh my God, I'm so sorry. How the hell are you?
How's the family? How's mom and dad, you know, and
things like that. And you know, it was it was
special moments back then that will never be duplicated.
And like I said, even with the money thing, you know, not being
able to buy, you know, your family, whatever, you know,
jewelry, whatever, video game system, whatever, at the time,
because you and everybody else in the company was trying to get
ECW to a certain level where you could make that type of money.
So the first three years of me being in ECW, it was rough.
I didn't make that much. If I'm not mistaken, I believe I
made $75 a night NECW Every time I wrestled it was $75 a night
and we wrestled two nights a week with the 4th week of the
month being off. So you talk about $150.00 a
week. I still had to work at the post
office, you know, because the company was just getting started
and they didn't have the budget to pay the big money.
And, you know, we all understood that.
And that's why we did what we did to put our bodies on the
line to try to make that company, not just some indie
company that was here today and gone tomorrow, but a legit force
to be reckoned with. We never thought in a million
years that we would help change the face of professional
wrestling, and we did. We did just that.
I think the documentary was a tremendous documentary.
I just wish they could have did a second or third series on it
because there was so much more to ECW than what you saw.
There was so many people that are still alive today to tell
you everything that was going on.
I wish we could have seen more of the franchise.
Shane Douglas, Gary Wolf from The Pitbulls, Mikey Riprack, you
know, go get Spike. You know, Francine, you know,
all of these people that are still around this, you know,
that that can be able to tell these stories about how ECW
really was and what it was about how many tremendous matches
there were that we had that made ECW the phenomenon that it is.
That's what I wish that could have been told more of, but you
can only do it so much in 42 minutes.
I was happy that I was part of the 42 minutes that made that
happen. But I wish that they would do
maybe two or three more series on it.
You know, like an episode 2, episode 3, episode 4.
You know, there was so many. Like for instance, you know, New
Jack, the gangsters, New Jack passed away, but Mustafa still
around, you know, why not get him?
Why not interview him and find out his thoughts and what he
thought about ECW and how it was with him and New Jack coming
from Smoky Mountain, coming to ECW, working with the Public
Enemy, working with John Cronus and Perry Sadden.
And that's another name that was very integral in making ECWA
success and that was Perry Sadden.
You know, he's still around, you know, get his thoughts and views
because he was dead right in it. You know, little Guido.
There's so many names that have stories to tell about ECW.
And then some of the legends like Tommy Rich, you know, that
was there. It, it's just, it just, I was
happy with the documentary, but I was also saddened because
there was so many people that we couldn't talk to in 42 minutes
that needed to tell the story as well, you know?
So I just wish we would have had more time to be able to do that
or more episodes to be able to do that 'cause there was just so
much more than what the fans saw on TV for that documentary.
And I'll put it you this way, if you watched ECW, then you
understood it. If you were there you definitely
understood, but if you weren't you would never understood.
Why should they understand why it was the way it was?
ECW was a very special place that will never be duplicated.
I don't care what people can say or try to re innovate, it'll
never be duplicated. You will never have the type of
men and women that were in that company that would want to put
their bodies and souls on the line to make that company the
number one company in the world. I see things that people do in
other organizations, whether they emulate Ecws craziness, and
sometimes it's taken way too far.
There's no story behind it. There's nothing behind it.
They just use light bulbs and stupid things like that just to
get the pop from the crowd. I'm like, the thing about ECW is
that we told a story and you invested it in that story.
That's what made ECW matches so good, because we told stories.
Were there matches that didn't have stories that was just
chaotic? Absolutely there were.
I'm not denying that. But think about all the matches,
you know, with us three being Beulah Mcgillicarry and telling
that story. It was, it was stuff like that
that made you hate the dubbies. The people were very invested in
the stories. And you know what?
It's funny to me that a certain person who owns a certain
company now used to be sitting in the ECW arena holding up
signs and cheering everybody on. I guess that makes him qualified
to run a huge company. So he does.
And I'm not knocking him. I, I listen.
When I met him, I thought he was a great guy.
I thought he was a little off, but I thought he was a great
guy. I thought that, you know, he was
a little out there, which a lot of people are if you're in this
business. But I don't think reality sits
in with him very well when he starts talking about the
business. I think he looks at it still
from a fan's point of view. And that's fine, but you have to
have somebody to be able to pull you back and to say, hey,
listen, you're not a fan anymore, you're an owner.
Let's start doing it the way we should do it.
And he doesn't have that person. You know, that's a great point.
And I think that that's a lesson for everybody, whether you're a
promoter or a vendor or somebody who is doing anything related to
pro wrestling, Once you're in, in any capacity you're in,
you're not a fan anymore. You shouldn't be conducting
yourself like a regular fan. You shouldn't be sitting there
trying to hustle to take pictures and get autographs and,
and, and you want to hug this one and all this nonsense.
It's like you're in you in some capacity are part of the club.
So act like you've been there and act like a professional.
It's it's fascinating to see how many people are out there
carrying on, you know, similar to Tony Khan, where it's just
like, buddy, what are you doing? You know what I mean?
There's business trying to be conducted here.
I digress, folks. You know that here on Devon and
the Duke, we've been a slow burn.
Really wanted you to get acclimated to listening to Devon
talk about his life and you know, things that are happening
currently and what have you. Now we feel it's time for Devon
to really lean back in the chair and start telling some some
stories and discussing things that you want to hear about from
his illustrious career. So certainly you can shoot me a
message on social media or you can e-mail
dukelovesraphson@gmail.com. Let me know what would you like
to hear Devon go long form about because there's so many things
to touch upon, whether it's from EC, www.e, TNA, whatever.
This guy has been around for so many different things.
In fact, Devon, I'll tell you a funny story here and I want to
get your take on this. There was somebody who makes no
bones about the fact that at a certain period of time they were
supplying the party favors for a lot of the the boys and the
ladies in the wrestling industry.
And this somebody when they they heard the first episode of Devon
and the Duke, they hit me up and they said, hey, Duke, you doing
that show with Devon? I said, yeah, he never did any
drugs. He's as square as square can be,
Devon Dudley, no matter what. And it was always around him,
but he personally never partake. He's a square.
I thought that was interesting, Devon, just the fact that this
person was so adamant about pointing out the fact that
you're a square. So let me let me get your take
on this kind of a change of pace for a second here.
What do you think when you hear that?
And a lot of, like we said earlier, my upbringing, how I
was brought up, I was told that you didn't need drugs, you need
a guard. You know, that was my drug of
choice. And I'm not going to sit here
and say I was the perfect guy because I wasn't, that I slipped
in other ways. Yes.
Was it drugs? No.
Did I have my fun? Absolutely I did.
But it was never to the point where it was alcohol or drugs.
Did I have my nights going out with the fellas, having a couple
of beers and a couple of shots? Absolutely I did.
Did I sit there taking nine to 10 to 15 Somers and passing out
in a diner and having somebody carrying me?
It would throw up all over me. No, I didn't do that.
Did I do cocaine? No.
Did I? Do you know LSD, Angel dust,
heroin or anything like that? No.
I never did anything unlike that.
I was very, I was very happy and proud that I never touched that
stuff and never did it. Was it offered to me?
Yes. But I was always scared about
the lingerings effects. I mean, look, I'm a, I'm huge on
on medical marijuana now. I love, I love medical
marijuana. I have my license here in
Florida. After my stroke, I decided to
invest in that as opposed to painkillers.
'Cause I didn't want to touch any painkillers, especially
after my back surgery where there was stuff that was offered
to me and I said Nope, don't want it.
I said all I need to do is renew my medical marijuana license and
I'm good to go. I was like, at least I know with
weed I can smoke it, kick out and be good.
The other drugs, not so much. So for the person that said I
was a square, thank you very much.
I appreciate that because I pride myself on that.
And again, I'm not saying I was a St. because I wasn't.
There were other demons that I was fighting, you know, like
women. I'd be the first to say, you
know, I love the women and that was, you know, my drug, you
know, back then when I first started because, you know, I
really, really enjoyed the lifestyle that I was having
during that time. The fame, being on TV, you know,
everybody flocking to you and this and that and blah, blah,
blah. You know, So I enjoyed myself
with that, but never to the point where it was drug related
or alcohol. You hear how candid he is.
Brothers and sisters, this is what we're talking about.
For the first time, you're going to hear Devon Tudley really dig
in and open up about some of these subjects.
Let's keep this train rolling, Devon.
We kind of have like a rapid fire situation going on right
now. ECW, we've seen it in
documentaries. We've we've read about in the
books, Paul Heyman has gone on record himself that ECW had
major financial issues and everybody wasn't always paid on
time and, and, and things of that nature.
So let me ask you directly here, Devon, did you personally ever
had any issues with payouts in ECW?
Was your money ever short? No, I will say Bubba and myself
never had a bounced check. Were there times where we left
the arena not having a check? And Paulie said, I promise you
it'll be in the mail. You know one of his true words
and but he did. I worked in the office, in the
ECW office myself, Dreamer and little Guido.
We were the ones that the fans, when they would call the office
for merchandise, we were the ones that were answering the
phones, putting the T-shirts or whatever merchandise that we
were selling at the time in the envelopes and dropping them off
at the post office to give to the fans.
You know, so I would see Paul Lee so you know, his with him
saying you know, if if if we didn't get if I didn't get my
check or what have you on the last day of the tour.
He always made good with it. You know, I never ever had the
want or need for a check when I was in ECW.
Paul Heyman took care of me. I mean, I can say the same for
Bubba. He took care of both of us.
Not that he was playing favoritism or anything like
that, but, you know, we did not have that problem.
And I'll, I'm blessed to say that I'm happy that that was the
case. And I feel bad that some people
did have to endure that because some people have families.
So they did feel the financial burden of the company hitting a
low at one point, you know, But I gotta say that it never
happened to myself or Bubba. And you know, again, I have
nothing but respect for Paul Heyman.
I always said this Paul Heyman made me a star coming from ECW.
Vince McMahon made me a superstar.
You know, one subject that a lot of fans have reached out and
asked that you open up about is New Jack.
You know, we brought his name up earlier, but New Jack from the
gangsters before he passed away, he had some pretty disparaging
things to say about you in in a number of shoot interviews,
Devon and I don't recall you ever publicly opening up about
New Jack and and your side of some of the things that he was
saying. So I'll just ask you directly.
Was there actual beef between you and New Jack?
And if so, why? What happened, man?
Yeah, that was real beef. It never came to blows.
When the beef happened, we had left and went to WWE.
It really wasn't with Bubba. It was with me and it was all
over. A certain female knew Jack was
talking to this female at one point and they had broken up.
It was like three or four years later, I wind up going to WWE.
Me and the girl bumped into each other.
One thing led to another and we wind up talking to each other.
Knew Jack found out about it and got mad.
And I remember going, Jack told me.
I was like, why are you angry? You hadn't talked to this girl
in three or four years, you know, I mean, and the way you
left off, it was real bad. In other words, you know, he
didn't like her. He didn't want anything to do
with her. You know, he would always pond
her off. In other words, you know, he
would leave and go, hey, can you stay with Keeper occupied until
I come back, you know, and, and anybody be like, yeah, sure,
nice girl, no issues whatsoever. But she wasn't ready for New
Jack. And it just so happened that her
and I started, you know, talking and meeting up.
And next thing you know, we dated for almost maybe about a
year or so and New Jack found out about it and was extremely
angry. And that was where the beef came
in. So, and I remember going to a
couple of times in interviews and I said, I'm not sure why
this man is totally angry with me when I approached him with
the situation at first. And I said, hey, listen, I was
like, you know, me and this person is hanging out.
You know, I kind of like, I kind of like, I'm digging under your
mind. If we, you know, start talking.
And his exact words were, I don't care, go ahead, do what
you want to do. And I was like, OK, but to me it
was kind of like with a, like with a female.
You know how a female you know, And you go to a female and you
go, babe, listen, I'm gonna go hang out with the fellas.
Are you cool with that? And she goes, oh, yeah, go
ahead, go. Yeah, you cool.
What time you coming back? Oh, I'll be back about 11/30/12.
All right, cool. Have fun.
And then you come back in the house and she mad as hell.
She mad as hell 'cause she went out on a date.
I mean, you went out hanging out with the fellas and you should
have been home. You should have been home.
You left me home over and that's the way I took it.
That's the way I felt. And I told Jack, I said, listen,
I'm sorry if you feel that way. I, you know, after everything
when he started saying, I said, but you know, I don't need to
check in with you. I didn't do anything wrong to
you. I said I didn't stab you in the
back. I came to you like a man and
said I was interested in talking to this person.
Do you have an issue with it 'cause you have been gone, you
have been separated with like 3 almost four years now.
You moved on, you got married, you got a, you got a, you got a
wife who had a kid and everything.
You had a, you had a whole life and he didn't see it that way
and that. And then, you know, I think this
was only a cover up where when me and Bubba, Vince McMahon came
to us and said he didn't want us to wear the and overalls anymore
because it represented ECW. He wanted a WWE feel, a WWE
look. So we were, you know, scratching
our heads trying to come up with something.
And then somebody said, why don't you do fatigues?
And at first we thought we were saying, oh, you mean like the
bushrackers and like, yeah, yeah, yeah, the bushrackers.
But, you know, we, me and Bubba came up with the different
color, not the green that they normally, you know, have for
fatigues, but the different color, the red, the green, the
yellow, you know, we came up with that.
We're like, all right, cool, so we'll do that.
The the fatigues was something that WWE basically wanted us to
do and we weren't going to tell them no.
You know, the idea came up and they wanted something different
than ECW, so that was it. You know, I think Jack didn't
really have a lot of well, how do I say this?
I think Jack lost touch with reality for a little bit because
again, he wasn't the first person to wear fatigues.
You know, a lot of it. We were afraid that not that
they were going to look at us like the gangsters, but they
were going to look at us like the Bushwhackers because we
didn't want that because we wanted to be a serious team.
And of course we know that when the Bushwhackers came to WWE in
the 80s, nine 90s, late late 80s, going into the early 90s,
they were kind of like, you know, fun loving for kids and
stuff. And we didn't want that because
we wanted to be the hardcore Dudley's from ECW being known
for us. So that was one.
And then the issue with the music.
You know, I hate pyro. I don't like pyro at all.
It was WW ES idea to have the pyro come in now new jazz music
that he came out to in the Gangsters, America's Most Wanted
with Ice Cube and Doctor Dre. In the very beginning of the
song, it had like a, a missile dropping and of course the the
beat hit and of course the rap came in.
So that wasn't our, our idea. That was Jim Johnson, who was
head of the music department at the time.
We were called to go to gorilla position to basically when we
walked into to the to the building that day and they said
the dud, they said Dudley's they want to see you in gorilla.
So we said, all right, so we want the gorilla.
It was Jerry Brisco and he's like, Hey, Dudley's, we got new
music for you and a video package.
We want you to check it out. We were like, OK, and then we
have pyro as well. So I was like pyro and I can't
wait to see this. And they did the pyro, they hit
the music. We listened for a little bit and
then we walked out and we watched the video package they
did. And we were like, OK, that
sounds like, you know, it could be something and it wind up
being something. The only thing that we had
control of music wise and how it went was Power Man 5000.
When the Dudley Boys got back together in 2002, after me being
on Smackdown doing Reverend Devon and him being on Roar
doing Bubba Ray Dudley, that was the only time we were able to do
that. They got the rights to Power Man
5000, they paid for it and we used it.
So that was the only thing that we had say something was that
particular song. Other than that, everything else
we didn't have any say so. I have never heard you tell that
story before but wow. Definitely sheds a lot of light
and explains why. Knew Jack was carrying on the
way that he did about you and again, God rest his soul.
Knew Jack not speaking I'll of the dead, but just closing the
loop on something providing some some facts.
The other side of the story, so to speak, from Devon Dudley
here. Yeah, I mean, you know, again
with the, I think a lot of it had to stem from the girl who,
you know, we didn't, you know, we, we only were together for
like a year or so. She went and got married and had
a kid, you know, had me as the godfather of the kid and the
whole night, good friends with the family and the whole night.
So it was never any animosity with me, with Jack, with this.
It was more on him because he took it personally.
Again, I go to you and I say, do you, Are you OK with this?
And I gave him the respect in doing that.
They had been gone. They have been done for about
three or four years. Again, I'll say it again, he
moved on. He got married.
The woman that he married had a kid and they were raising the
kid the whole night. Why do you care?
And that's the part that always, you know, made me think, what
the hell, Jack, you know, but it's it was new Jack at the
time. And, you know, you just had to,
you know, deal with it, you know, and the social media was
eating it up, you know, they were instigating it.
They were feeding into it. So whenever Jack would say
something, you know, on social media or what have you, you
know, oh, did you hear what New Jack said about you?
Oh, you know, he ate you up Devon and blah, blah, blah.
OK. And it got to the point where I
left it alone for a little bit and then all of a sudden I got
tired of the nonsense and I was just like, OK, enough's enough.
I'm not doing this no more. I was like, I'm going to fire
back. I'm going to say something
because I've had it. And that's when I did.
And he really got pissed off when we did the song.
We had enough because Jim Johnson came to me and said, you
know, Devon, is there anything that you wanna add into the song
that would that we just did in the studio?
So I said, yeah, I would like to add something.
So knowing that he was a big Tupac fan, I took something from
Tupac's song and I made it about Jack.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe it said all these other
wrestlers want to be like us, trying to take us down with just
one punch. Now you wonder why me and Bubba
blew you out. Next time grown folks are
talking bitch, close your mouth. Now you're looking like New Jack
flab, being sick, trying to hate, trying to play a hate on
our shit. We had enough and it went out,
you know, through WWE and WWE, you know, it's a big platform.
So everybody heard it and he lost his shit.
He fucking lost his shit. He went into the studio with
Bootsy Collins and decided that he was going to do a rebuttal to
it, but it never got off because he didn't have the same media
type of attention that WWE had. And that album that we did with
the WWE went it it it went, they did very well.
And so a lot of people were talking about it, you know, so,
I mean, it didn't get that the critics ate it up.
In other words, they didn't like it, but a lot of the fans did.
So it did. His song did not get anywhere
near the near play that the WWE version of We Had Enough did.
And that's how that went down. Well, there it is folks, and you
hear how Ken did. Once again, Devon Dudley is
about this stuff. Reach out.
Duke loves wrestling on social media.
dukelovesrosslyn@gmail.com Let me know what else do you want to
hear Devon go long form on? I mean, we'll, we'll dig up real
deep and tell these stories. Certainly a Devon, if they want
to reach out directly to you to provide some suggestions, what's
the best way they can reach out to you and also any aspiring
wrestlers out there If they want to check out Devon Academy plug
away Man, what's the best way that they can get in touch?
Well, they can reach me at Testify Devon on Instagram.
Testify Devon on Twitter. I am huge on Instagram.
I think I talked to a lot of my followers on Instagram more than
I do Twitter. They can find me there.
You can also find me at DDA Devon Dudley Academy, which is
my wrestling school I have in Winter Park, which is only
three, three minutes away from the Performance Center.
We're producing tomorrow's stars and getting them ready.
You know, that's one thing I'm very proud of is that we have a
lot of students that came out of our school that you're now
seeing on WWETV. So, you know, again, I can't be
more than happy and proud of them and, you know, very happy.
You know, one is Dexter Loomis. He's one of my students, you
know, love him to death. I think I mentioned this last
week. Jessica Carr is another one.
Also. We call them Tefita and Partay,
Haku's boys, the one that's with Solo Sekola.
Now they're ours. You know, Bubba and I trained
them before they went to Japan, so we have a lot of history.
Leva Blue Pants is ours. Some pentacle who's in AW now?
Jonathan Cruz, he's ours. God, there's so many.
Josh Dawkins who's in NXT right now, he's ours.
And Lacey, by what's her name? Oh God, I know as Lacey because
that's her real name, but she's in WWE with I always mix this
up. I don't know why.
Carter, She's part of the tag team.
Kaden Carter. Damn, I can't remember that name
for nothing, but her real name is Lacey.
So I always call her Lacey. And the fans go what?
Who? But yeah, Kaden Carter is mine,
you know, and again, there's a lot of other people that are out
there that is mine as well. So, you know, our schools speaks
for itself on the people that we produce and get out of there.
And if you want to, if you want to, you know, become that WW
wrestler and you want to make it happen, you can always contact
me at Devon Dudley Academy or call us at area code
407-790-7800. Brothers and sisters, I want to
thank you for joining us for another episode of Devon and the
Duke. And until next time Devon take
us home. Do unto others as you would want
others to do unto you. That's the quote that I live by
and that's the quote that I love, Mr. Kelly Shivani and
we're definitely out of time on Duke Love Wrestling.