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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.
Welcome back to Devon and the Duke, a limited podcast series
hosted by your main man. Duke loves wrestling and of
course, the Hall of Famer himself, one of the most
decorated wrestlers of all time, Devon Dudley.
How you doing that Devon? I'm all right.
I think like we had some technical difficulty 10-15
minutes prior to coming back on here to doing this.
So like I said earlier, I'm just trying to find a nice quiet
place to do this without my kids coming in the room and knocking
on the door going daddy. So you might hear that from time
to time. Well, you know, Devon, now you
got me curious here, man. Is it because you're a
television star? You know someone who's been on
TV over 30 years. People come from far and wide
just to meet you, get your autograph, let you know how much
you mean to them. Is it because you're this?
This star? Is that the reason why the kids
are always so fighting for your attention, so to speak?
No, the the you know, the older you know.
I got 7 kids all together. A lot of people know the 1st 2,
which is Terrence and Terrell. They go by the name of TNT in
the wrestling business. They followed in my footsteps.
They are, you know, they've been used to it their whole lives.
And then I have Matthew because Terence and Jarrell, they'll be
30 February 25th and then you have Matthew who will be 24 this
November 27th. Then you have my 16 year old son
who, you know, he can care less about this wrestling business.
You know, everybody knows when you're a teenager, 16 years old,
you really don't really care about stuff like that.
So I understand he's interested in driving.
He loves basketball. And you know, he's now getting
into that stage where girls are cute.
Oh, help me, God. And then you have, you know,
then me and my wife, we started over where we have a 5 year old,
a four year old and a six month old.
And the five and the four year old, they, the five year old
knows Daddy's on TV with Uncle Bubba and his friends.
But she doesn't really grasp, she doesn't really grasp it.
You know, she's not really like, you know, daddy's on TV and
stuff like that. She just sees me doing my stuff
and that's about it. So I don't think they fully
understand. I don't think they're there yet
to fully understand the magnitude of what I do and how
it touches so many lives. OK, so it's not because Devon
Dudley is a big star. I think mom is the big superstar
in the house. And you know, I think Chris Rock
said it best. You know, dads don't get no
respect. You know, every time you see an
athlete or somebody go, they thinking, mom, you know, I want
to thank my mom. I want to think my mom, what the
hell does daddy get? Daddy don't get shit.
Man, after seven kids, you, you certainly have found that out
the hard way, right? You know, I mean, you know, my
girls are daddy's, daddy's girls, but still, they love
their Mama and ain't nothing wrong with that.
There's no jealousy or pride, you know, on my end.
You know, I just, I'm happy that we're able to give them a family
that is not broken. Wow, that's deep.
That's real deep, man. How important is that to you,
Devon, to to make sure that your family has a stable home, your
children have a stable home? Well, it's, you know, extremely
important. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY Like
I've always said in the project, my mother was pregnant at 15,
had me at 16. My biological father was out
there selling drugs and doing his thing, running the streets
and whatever. And my mother and grandmother
was the foundation of my life. And so growing up with those
morals and stuff like that through my grandmother, you
know, it was one of those things where I take that very, very
seriously. And, you know, I just like to
make sure that my upbringing is not the same, is not going to be
the same as theirs. They're going to have a better
life than I have. My grandmother and mother
provided a very good life for me, but there was struggles
along the way. And but I'm very proud of some
of those struggles and some of the things that I've shouldn't
have seen as a child that I did see.
And it just made me, it made me, you know, grow up faster.
It's powerful to hear you share these sentiments and, you know,
open up about your life story in this manner and at the same time
hear the kids laughing and playing and calling your name in
the background. It just goes to show man, you,
you really have done a great job overall, not just as a father
and and a husband and a provider for your family, like you said,
providing that stability, something that you longed for.
And then you had to deal with all the challenges as you
recount. But just the fact that you are
able to set goals and then achieve them.
And I don't care who you are, that's not easy to do.
And certainly to provide a better life for your family than
what you had growing up, that's a very serious goal to set.
It's a very difficult goal to achieve because life is life.
There's so many twists and turns and challenges that can knock us
off track from what we've always dreamed or hoped we were able to
accomplish. But yet you are someone who's
actually made it work, made it happen, and you have fruits of
your labor to show for it. So, you know, again, kudos to
you, Devon. I just gained a tremendous
amount of respect for you, even more so than ever before now,
because that's, I didn't realize your beginnings were so humble.
And now it makes sense why you're so dedicated to your
family and why you're you're so serious about making sure that
they're all set. And it's interesting that we're
we're talking about this because we're seeing something like this
play out a little bit in the wrestling world right now.
For example, you you have somebody like the young lady
Stephanie Backer. Here's someone who back in 2018,
she had AWWE tryout. Things didn't work out for her.
You know, WWE decided not to go in that direction.
So she had to go back and build her career outside of WWE.
And you know, she's originally from Chile, but she's made a
name for herself down in Mexico, especially for the CMLL
promotion, became the the number one woman's wrestler and really
one of the top wrestlers period in Mexico.
And in fact, recently she's been doing some business with AEW.
She had a match with Mercedes Monet and vignettes and and and
stare downs and promo and all that good stuff leading up to it
doing business with AEW right as as cross promotional partnership
with CMLL. Now something happened.
Something happened where Stephanie Backer was actually
negotiating with both AEW and WWE.
And according to Conan on the Keeping It 100 podcast and shout
out to Conan, Stephanie Vacker was actually left at the airport
by AEW. So this is not a new thing that
we've heard. This has been done before.
In fact, CM Punk himself has complained that this happened to
him before in AEW. But Stephanie Vacker was not
picked up at the airport. She had to figure out how to get
from where she was at the airport to where she needed to
be. And as a result, according to
Conan, she decided, you know, that plus hearing from other
wrestlers, especially Mexican wrestlers and how they're
treated in AAW and how they're treated in WWE, she decided
she's going to go with WWE. So Stephanie Backer left CMLL,
she left negotiating with AEW, signs with WWE, immediately
starts wrestling for WWE. In fact, she did 2 shots with
them down to Mexico back-to-back and it's already been discussed
on WWENXT that she's going to be part of that promotion or sub
promotion within the WWE Universe there.
So this is interesting. This is somebody who made a
decision to do what's best for them and best with for their
family and and go with WWE. AEW had a shot at her.
They had the best shot at her, quite frankly, because she was
already doing business with them and they just couldn't close the
deal. What's your take on that, Devon?
Well, let me just say this, her leaving AEW to go to the WWEI
can understand the two meetings that I had with Tony Kahn, or
three I should say. One was at Universal when they
were there. They did their last couple of
shows at Universal. Then it was in I think December
of that year. It was December of that year and
I basically had it. I don't know, it was a weird
experience. And then I had another one in
January, this coming January I believe it was.
The unorganized stuff that I saw was mind boggling to me because,
you know, it's true. The man has more money than the
WWE, you know, because of his father.
It seems like it's an endless amount of money, but yet there's
no organization. I think that was one of the
biggest things that I heard when I was there.
And again, I wasn't going there because I needed the job.
I was going there because I was told that if I went there, it
was going to help my sons, Terrence and Terrell be able to
get employment there and to be able to get some stability in
the company. And like I said on on a previous
podcast, when I told them, I did not want to wrestle really.
I just wanted to help my sons maybe manage like Jake the Snake
Robbins was doing, like Tully Blanchett was doing.
That's what I wanted to do. I just wanted to manage at the
time because I had the back surgery, I didn't want to mess
up anything. I was told yes, that was the
opportunity that I could, you know, achieve and you know, and
help my boys out in tremendous way.
But every once in a while getting a ring like in a six man
tag or something like that, Would I be opposed to that?
I said well, no, but understand, I'm not trying to relive the
attitude error or even the TNA error.
I just want to help my sons and just leading up to the first, I
thought the first meeting was good, but you know, Tony had me
waiting around like I was some young boy for him.
And I remember telling my agent I said I don't need this.
The only reason why I'm still staying here and dealing with
this is because of my sons. You know, I don't really care to
come to this company and work. When you've worked for the WWE.
To me, there's no other company that's better now.
I know people leaving the company and you know, they
badmouth WWE and they say this and they say that, but when
things are going good for them, they're on the WWE bandwagon.
You know, it's the greatest company in the world.
But the minute things start going South or going in a
different direction, now they want to bury the company.
Me personally, I've never seen so much unorganized stuff going
on in a company like AW. And again, I'm not bad mouthing
the company, but there's certain things.
Even people within the company that had jobs there would shake
their heads and go, you know, this is insane.
Producers are not getting their assignments until, you know,
10-15 minutes prior to their math.
She's supposed to go out. You know, it's, it's, it's not
the most organized place in the world.
And again, I'm not the only one saying that.
There are people within the organizations that have jobs and
are saying it. And so it doesn't surprise me
that this young lady was left at the airport and nobody picked
her up. Again, a lot of stuff is going
on in that company that no one can get a handle on.
But it has to start with Tony Khan.
He has to get control of his company because if he doesn't,
then it's going to wind up being like another WCW.
And listen, a lot of veterans across the board are saying
this. Again, even people within the
company, you have a lot of great talent there and you know the
stories and all that. I'm sure now I didn't see the
matches between her and Mercedes AKA Sasha Banks, but I'm sure it
was good. But it wasn't good enough for
her to stay and you know, to be disrespected like that.
Tony Khan doesn't realize. I don't care how much money you
got. This is the wrestling business,
my friend. Either you get your head out of
your ass and realize, and nobody really gives a damn too much
about your money. If you're going to disrespect
people, you know you're not going to survive.
He wouldn't do that to people like MJF.
He wouldn't do that to offspring.
He wouldn't do that to Mercedes. He wouldn't do that to Edge.
You know, he does it to people that think that.
I don't, I don't know. I can't explain it, so I'm not
even going to speak on that. I don't know why he does the
things that he does or why the people in his organization
choose to let a young lady like that slip through their fingers
and and do disrespectful stuff like that for for them to come
back and say, Oh, well, we didn't know she was left at the
airport and they never arrived. Well, when you knew she was
coming in, did you bother to have travel, make sure that
everything was taken care of? WWE make sure of that.
They don't leave their people stranded.
That's the one thing I got to say about WWE.
They don't do things like that. So it's not hard pressed for me
to believe that this young lady wanted to leave and go to WWEWWE
is a very well oiled machine. Tony Kahn can say whatever the
hell he wants to say about that company, OK, but they are well
oiled machine. Again, when things start going
South for a person in the company, that's when they start
talking crap or they don't get their way.
But when they're on top of the world and they're doing the
right thing. Oh, the WWE is the greatest
company in the world. And for those that have never
been there and probably went straight to AW before WWE, you
know, they don't know how things are there and how different it
is, especially with Hunter in the mix.
You know, the company now, the powers that be are going to have
their favorites and they're going to have their people that
they're not fond of. So the people that they're not
fond of who's not getting the push or who's not getting what
they want, of course they're going to talk crap and things
like that. They did it during the Vince era
and some are doing it now during the Triple H era.
But again, when the iron is striking there, no, there's
nothing, there's no wrong that WWE can do.
But the minute that you know, they started going to decline,
it's the it's the worst company in the world.
And you know, something else I heard you know about Tony Khan
is that he said Edge's run is better in AEW was in WWE.
I'm sorry, I know he smokes weed because I hear about it from all
the time, but is there some crack or anything involved in
that weed? What?
What planet is this man on for him to even think and say that
he hasn't nearly touched the tip of the iceberg on the stuff that
he did in WWE? Let's not even talk about the
world famous matches with the Dudleys, Hardys and edging
Christian. OK, let's put all the stuff with
the Rated R Superstar, you know, even after me and Bubba and and
the Hardys and and Christian were going, you know, again,
that in itself right there, those matches that we had are
legendary. And we'll go on in history and
people still talk about them 30 years down the road, you know,
after it's all said and done. So don't give me that crap,
Tony. Get your head out of your ass
and realize what the Hell's going on.
You haven't even built Edge to that point yet.
And remember, Edge was a superstar way before he came to
AW, which is why you jumped at the opportunity to get him.
It was WWE that made him, not you.
So don't think that you're, you know, the cat's meow.
You didn't make him, WWE did, Vince did.
And that's the truth. Whether he wants to, like when
he wants to hear it or not, that's the truth.
You hear some of the stuff that people are saying online after
he made this comment, OK, People can get mad all they want and
call me, you know, shut the F up, Devon.
You don't know what the hell you're talking about.
But I do because I'm not the only one that feels that way.
And the thing about it is, I bet you as well as I know Edge, he
don't think that way. But hey, Edge, take that money.
I get it. Take it and enjoy it because
that's exactly what's going on. Tony Khan is is kind of like,
it's Tony Khan is kind of like Ricky Stroder and Silver Spoons.
Silver spoons you. You're telling our age now,
Devon. I am, you know, it's kind of
like that. You know, he had the father with
all the money and then he was the kid that had all the video
games and the train going through and all that.
That's him. You know, he never really had to
work for that money or probably even knew what it was like to
help that money built. But yet he could throw it around
and then feel that he could say what he can say what he has to
say with this. And I remember going back to
what I said earlier about me having those three meetings.
Once the third meeting happened in Orlando, I looked at my age
and I said, you know what? I can't do this.
I, I can't, I, I love my boys to death, but I can't come and work
for an organization like this. It's just number one, too
unorganized and #2 this man is insane.
I'm so not No, if, if, if everything would have went well
and I started working for that company, I think I would have
had to lose my mind. And I don't think I would have
been in the right place mentally to be able to.
I don't care how much money he threw.
It's just I just saw so much stuff that it was like, what the
hell is going on here? And for people within the
organization to say that to me that I knew, you know, very good
friends of mine, they were like, Yvonne, this place is so
unorganized. It's probably the worst that
I've ever seen of any other place that I've ever been to.
And I had to agree with them. Some of the things I was hearing
and sitting and seeing, I just couldn't believe it.
I hope that he can get a grip on things like this so these things
can stop being said about the company.
Tony, you have a phenomenal company.
Take charge. Start doing the right thing.
Get people behind you that know what the hell they're doing.
Insane. Not these yay OS who freaking
get a podcast or they're dirt sheet riders and you have them
by your side. Go to hell with those guys, man.
Screw you guys. What the hell have you ever
done? What bumps have you ever taken?
When did you ever control a crowd in the palm of your hands?
You know, when did you ever do anything meaningful in this
business? But yet these are the people
that he brings in his inner circle because they're yes
people. They're yes men.
At least when Vince McMahon had yes men, they these were guys
that actually did something in the business or knew the
business, not these dirt sheet writers that he has by his side.
You know, the, the interesting part about this is it's not just
AEW itself that is having these challenges.
When you look at folks who have partnered with them, it hasn't
been a pretty picture. You have TNA, who you know, at
the time they were Impact Wrestling, what have you, would
they partnered with AW was a disaster and they lost a good
chunk of their audience for a while and their TV ratings were
in the toilet. By the time that was done,
allowing Tony Kahn and and Shivani and and also Omega and
those guys to bury Impact Wrestling on their own
television programming week after week for months at a time.
It was just, it was ridiculous. It really hurt them.
And they're only now starting to
turn the corner on making that type of big mistake.
And certainly pairing up with WWE doesn't hurt, especially
considering they're being treated with far more respect.
So shout out to TNA. But you have a situation where
today Bushi wrote the parent company of New Japan Pro
Wrestling. They revealed some of their
financials. They're a publicly traded
company, so they have to do that.
And to make a Long story short, they're down about 7% year over
year. And New Japan Pro Wrestling is
just, you know, for lack of a better term, they're in a
toilet. Now.
This coincides with New Japan Pro Wrestling's relationship
with AEW and it it expanding. I mean, you even have a Jon
Moxley being IWGP world champion.
And clearly that hasn't done anything in terms of a net
positive for New Japan Pro Wrestling at all.
In fact, they they just are in a downturn period.
It's clear that they don't have enough stars.
It's clear that they're leaning on AE W and AE WS, quote UN
quote. Stars are not big enough to help
New Japan and in fact, AE WS just really taking from them.
What's your take on that, Devon? Just the fact that even Tony
Khan's influences is having a net negative reaction on their
business partners, let. Me ask you a question.
When you look at TNA and WWE, when they're merging together
using talent, they put in correct storylines with these
matches with a Jordan Grayson, what what they're doing with her
and NXT champion what what how they brought her into the Rumble
and they're doing storylines that people can invest in and
feel what is AW doing with that? Nobody's feeling it the way he
thinks that they're feeling it. Because if that was the case,
the numbers would be up. People will be talking about it
and the whole 9. The difference is you have
somebody who Triple H, who knows the game, you know, who knows
how to do things like this and is working together with great
wrestling minds that can, you know, put a match together or
put a match on that makes sense to the people so they can invest
in emotional investment. People want to see it.
People are dying to see it. That's the difference between
those two companies working together and AW and Japan.
There is no structure with that company.
That's the problem. There is no, it seems like
there's no leadership or what have you.
It's like the blind leading the blind in a sense.
And I hate to say this because, you know, both organizations are
really, really good and have great talent.
And I can't stress that enough. I don't want these people to
think that I'm burying the company because I'm not.
But if Tony doesn't get a control of it again, it's going
to become like another WCW. God damn it.
Wake up. Shit.
Enough's enough. Listen to the wrestling minds.
Listen. You always talk about you like
to, you know, listen to the people and let and give the
people what they want. But you're not because if you
did, your arenas will be full and stop trying to go after WWE
and talking about them or how bad they are or how you took
somebody from their organization and made them bigger stars than
they were in WWE here. The bottom line is this.
The only reason why you have them is because you're throwing
a boatload of money at them. That's the only reason why.
The other reason, you know, could be also is that the people
that you're grabbing from that company and bringing them over,
they're a little frustrated, they're fed up or they know
things are not going the way they want, so they're going to
want going to go over here. I think it's, you know, and it's
better over on the other side. But we all know the grass isn't
necessarily greener on the other side, especially when you get
there, you know? So again, all these people you
know, that are talking, you know, crap, you know, about the
WWE company when they were there and they were on top of, they
were doing well, you know, you weren't talking crap then, but
now you are BS. So to go back, in order for
things to work, you have to have a mind that knows how to do
that. Tony is that doesn't have a mind
for the wrestling business. You know, he's a great guy, yes,
he's a nice guy, but he doesn't know.
It's almost like having Dixie Carter run the show in TNA.
The minute that happened, TNA's downfall, she was a mock for the
business. She knew nothing about this
business. And I feel somewhat that's Tony
Todd. He knows it from a fan's point
of view, but not from a business point of view.
I think that's the difference. Well, Speaking of difference, or
rather difference makers, breaking news, she's back.
That's right. Ria Ripley, AKA Mommy has
returned. She's ready to stick it to Liv
Morgan. She's ready to reclaim her dumb,
dumb. In fact, Dominic Mysterio said
to Ria Ripley, you're my girl. And she says no, I'm not yours,
you're mine. So, Deepa, what do you think of
all that? Well, if mommy said that to me,
I'd be like yes, Mommy, I belong to you.
You right about that. I mean, there's no question.
I mean we Ripley is fine as hell.
Yes, Dirk, she right as I said that she's fine as hell.
And you know, just her coming back, the suspense, the build up
of this, the WWE, this is what I'm saying.
They did it so good. They did it so right where you
saw Liv Morgan trying to infiltrate the Judgement Day and
their crew, and she did a damn good job at it.
She caused the seat or what have you.
And then after taking the title, now the next step was taking Dom
away. And that's exactly what she did.
And the build up to that was phenomenal.
Now all of a sudden the kiss happens and they're tagging
together and all of that. And then all of a sudden here
comes Mommy. That place just exploded.
Rio Ripley came down with a with just this.
The look on her face, how she came down and the expression on
both Dom and Liv Morgan was priceless.
It was like they saw, they saw 10,000 ghosts coming towards the
ring to get them. I mean, it was freaking.
It was great storytelling, it really was.
I enjoyed it to the fullest and I've been enjoying it as they've
been projecting it on TV. It's one of those things where
my God, mommy's doing. I mean, I would have never
thought in a million years, and there's nothing against her but
that this type of deal would have been going on with Liv Dom
and and and Ria Ripley. But that just goes to show you
how damn good Triple H and whoever else is with him in his
corner is, is how they doing things.
They're getting you emotionally invested in their storylines and
that is what you have to do in order to get the people to care.
You got to get them emotionally invested into it and they're
doing a damn good job of it. And like I said, mommy is
mommy's mommy because. She sure is.
There's only one mommy and you know, if, if her and I were
dating, she'd be mommy every day.
JJ also better be careful because I don't know, he might
be barking up the wrong tree trying to get a date with mommy.
He might be saying ye. What?
What does he say ye?
Yes, Sir, he he says ye. That all day long, I'm telling
you, she'll put a hurt on him. He better be careful.
He she'll put a hurt on him. Sometimes the old school sees
what the new school is bringing to the table and she's bringing
a lot to the table. So you better be careful.
Jay USOI, hope you're listening, brother.
Old school over here. Devon Dudley's try to pull your
coat to something. Shout out to Mobbie, Shout out
to Dom. Shout out to live.
Fantastic program they have going on there.
Everyone's intrigued, Everyone's tuning in.
It's it's interesting. It's very interesting and it's
fun, refreshing something different.
And that's OK. That's OK.
Speaking of, OK, I mean, you saw it, Devon smack down.
Cody Rhodes was being held back while the Bloodline dismantled
Randy Orton and Cody taken a page out of his father's book,
The American Dream. Dusty Rhodes, Cody Rhodes
screaming take me, don't take him, take me as he watched Randy
Orton just get decimated. I mean goodness gracious Jacob
fought 2 with the Super kicks over and over and over again.
Randy was worse for wear. What's your take on what the
bloodline is doing? And now that they've claimed
another victim, this time Randy Orton.
Again, perfect storyline. Perfect storyline where the
people got invested and the emotion was so real.
I again, I can't put into words again, I'm going to repeat
myself because it's exactly what it is.
You're putting you're making people invest in a storyline
that you're telling that you're doing that is going very well
and people are reacting to it. And that's the thing.
So, you know, my take on it is this.
WWE keeps hitting it out the park every single time, and I'm
loving it because if it's not the mommy and Dom thing, it's
this. It's the Cody Rose and you know
the one. Like, again, they're investing
in the storylines and really, really telling the story and
they're keeping you going. It's no different than the
attitude error. This is exactly what they were
doing in the attitude error. Why?
Which is why everybody from the opening match to the main event
was over. Why everybody was over during
that time. People did not want to turn the
TV when the commercial came on during the Attitude Era because
they were afraid that they were going to miss whatever it was
when they came back. So again, kudos to the WWE,
Triple H, and I've got to say, Paul Heyman has got to be
helping out with this these storylines because it has Paul
Heyman written all over it to take a page out of Dusty Rose.
Well, you know, take me instead. Take me.
But the bloodlines like, Nah, we're going to kill him because
we know that means more to you than it would be beating your
ass. And it showed.
Kudos to everybody involved in that segment.
Again, my hat goes off to the WWE with that.
Well said, Well said, Devon. This past weekend you were at
the 90s con. So how was that?
How was the 90s wrestling con? It was OK, you know, it wasn't
really advertised or promoted the right way, but it was OK.
I still met some great fans and had a good time, some good
talks, but it could have been better.
Right now, promoters, come on now you, you have these, these
megastars, these folks from yesterday, some folks from
today, even few folks mixed in from for tomorrow.
The whole idea at these conventions is that you got to
get the word out. You know, if you get the word
out, people going to show up. But if you're not utilizing not
just newspapers and billboards, not just TV and radio, you got
to utilize these these podcasts, man.
You know, you get the word out on these podcasts and hey, it's
a whole different ball game. I mean, here on Devon and the
Duke and also on Duke Loves Wrestling.
You hear it promoted the River City Wrestling Con and made sure
that we did it within a ample amount of time, you know, months
and months and months. In fact, most of this year is
promoting that convention and it in turn, it was the most
successful pro wrestling convention in the history of the
state of Florida and per capita is one of the most successful
wrestling conventions this year in the world.
There's a reason for that, folks.
So these podcasts that actually have an audience that is
captivated and and interested, they spend money and they want
to meet their heroes, They want to bring the family out and what
have you. That can't happen if you're not
tapping into all of the different mediums you can tap
into. So you know, no disrespect to
anybody and we know that it's not the easiest business in the
world to be a promoter, but if you're going to bring these
folks out, these legends, you better make sure you're
promoting it properly so that everyone can walk away with a
great experience, especially the fans.
How, how crazy is it that you would have something and the
word didn't get out well enough. People who wanted to be there
weren't there because they didn't know if a, if a tree
falls in the woods and there's no one to hear it, did it really
happen? They don't know.
So just some advice out there. Anyway, Devon, for all the
serious promoters out there and the wonderful fans or what have
you, what's the best way that everyone can keep up with you
all? Right.
Well, you can follow me at Testify Devon on Instagram.
I'm on there a lot. You can also follow me on
Testify Devon on Twitter, but I'm mostly on Instagram and I do
answer a lot of the messages that are written to me.
Even the fans that think they know everything and want to try
to tell me off, I don't really get too invested in them, but I
say a couple of words here and there, then I block them.
So. But yeah, you can find me there.
And I mean again, you also find me at Devon Dudley Academy,
which is my wrestling school in Winter Park, FL.
You know, give us a call. Look it up at
www.devondudleyacademy.com. If you think that you want to
take your wrestling ability to the next level and you're tired
of the school that you're in wasting your time or you just
want to start off in a good school, give us a call.
All the information is on the website and would love to take
you. Great stuff there.
And of course, folks, hey, reach out.
You just heard it from the man himself, Devon Dudley.
He personally will be responding to you.
So that's not a bad deal there. Of course, Duke loves wrestling
on Facebook, on Twitter, Duke loves wrestling@gmail.com.
Let me know what you think. You got birthday shout outs.
You have questions for Devon. You know, you, you want to hear
us talk about anything? Certainly send in those
suggestions, those questions, those comments, we will actually
shout you out. We've done the birthday shout
outs and all that good stuff there.
You've heard that before. That's what we're here to do.
You know, just have a good time for sure before I get out of
here And, and Devon, I appreciate you letting me have
an open mic to wrap this up here.
I just want to say something because I, I have been receiving
some feedback from folks who are so shaken up and, and, and upset
and what have you over the fact that Devon would have the
audacity to criticize AEW. And you know, me, I've been
doing this since day one that, that company's been around.
I've been calling out some of the challenges that I see there
and, and really some of the, the marketing mistakes that Tony
Kahn has made. And I've told him personally
and, and Tony has responded to me and we've had some
interesting back and forth which, you know, I, I have not
been shy about it made that public.
But I want to make something clear, and I know Devon has said
it before, but I want to really hammer this point home, folks.
There is no way on God's green earth that we want AEW to fail.
That's not what's going on here. Congratulations on Dynamite
hitting that 250th episode and all that good stuff.
We don't want this to fail, folks.
If any of you have listened to Duke Loves Wrestling, you have
heard from people who are in AEW.
You have heard Tony Shivani, who's a great man in a legend,
Thunderosa, Shane Taylor, the Renegade Twins.
Do I, you know, Con? I can go on and on and on and
on. Layla Gray, We've had some
fantastic folks who are actively under contract in AEW and we
care about them. Devon has trained folks who are
in AEW, he cares about them. Devon has worked with folks who
are in AEW, he cares about them. So this isn't a situation where
we're we're praying for their demise or anything of the sort.
And anyone who is interpreting it that way, it's unfortunate
because that's not the case here.
Here's the reality of the situation.
In order for this company to continue to be a valuable place
where wrestlers and people who work behind the scenes have
another option, where they can make a great living for
themselves and their families, where they can still be seen on
television, where they can still be top stars.
In order for this thing to work, Tony Kahn has to foreclose on
whoever he was previously in terms of how he's been running
this company. He's got to shut that down.
Got to start from scratch here in the sense that it's time to
utilize the great wrestling minds that are around you
because there's plenty of them in that company.
It's time to loosen up the reins a little bit and get some
professionals who actually know how to run a business
successfully and not just be a trust fund baby, but actually
know how to run a business successfully.
It's time to bring these folks in, and I think piece by piece,
Tony is starting to do that a little bit, but it's time to
ramp that up. You got to show these television
partners, whether it be WBD or anybody else, that you're a
serious company with serious plans to last beyond 2024.
And you can't do that when you're doing goofy nonsense all
the damn time. You certainly can't do that with
Tony Khan being the spokesperson of the company because he just
really doesn't do a good job of that.
So again, this is this is like tough love here.
We love pro wrestling. We love the pro wrestlers.
We love the people who work in wrestling.
We love the fact that no matter what happens, you're generating
content that we can discuss. And of course, our listeners,
they love it because they want to hear perspective about
things. Hearing from a Hall of Famer
like Devon, who knows all the players, and then hearing from a
fan like myself who's been fortunate enough to interview a
lot of folks but is a lifelong fan.
And I can speak from the perspective of a consumer of
someone who they're trying to market to.
It's a nice 1-2 punch. So certainly it's great content
for us, but it's not great content for us.
If you go away, I don't want you to go away.
And I don't think anyone, for the most part, commenting on
this stuff wants AEW to fail. But it's disturbing, quite
frankly, that WWE was able to pivot and, you know, clean up a
lot of their mistakes and provide a product that we were
hoping AEW was going to be. That's disturbing.
All AEW had to do was just be what you said you were going to
be. Unfortunately, you just have not
hit the mark, Tony. So while we celebrate the fact
that you've lasted this long, there is a deep and serious
concern that come 2025, you may not be here anymore.
And if you are, it's not going to be anywhere on the scale that
you are right now. We don't want that to be people
we care about are going to be affected by that.
We don't want that, brother. So it's imperative that change
gets ushered in like yesterday right away.
This whole nonsense about, well, there's still a young company,
Give them time, Give them time. Time is up, man.
Time is up. You you should not be a modern
company and you need to be given time to do the most basic stuff
such as treating women fairly. There is no reason why AEW
should still average only one women's match per television
episode. It doesn't make sense.
And for those of you out there who want to say well they just
had two matches, two women's matches on collision the other
night and and two weeks ago they they had two women's matches on
Dynamite and will. Will they have nice segments?
No, Look at the yearly average. What does it amount to?
The same thing it's amounted to all along for the whole history
of the company. That is not acceptable.
There's something wrong with that now.
Thank goodness you finally had some people of color become
world champion back-to-back here.
You have some old Joe. Now you have Swerve.
But the way Swerve has been treated as ridiculous, Swerve
has not been presented as the face of the company.
Swerve has been presented as another guy in the company.
When do we correct that problem? I heard people saying, whoa, it
was such a big deal, it's a big win that he defeated Will
Osprey. Is it?
The last time I checked, Will Osprey was never WWE World
Champion and he's never been AEW Champion and he's never even
been TNA Champion. How is it a big deal that Swerve
defeated Will Osprey, a guy that he's defeated previously in his
career, in both their careers? That's not a big deal.
It's ridiculous. Will Osprey, hey, might be a
nice guy, all that good stuff. He has not arrived yet.
Let me say that again, Will Osprey has not arrived yet.
Defeating him when you're the world champion is not a big
deal, but you know it would be a big deal.
Swerve defeating Jon Moxley, a guy who's been champion in the
WWEAEW New Japan, yes, that's a victory.
That makes sense. Let's have plenty of that, put
him in a feud and have Swerve defeat Moxley over and over
again. Definitively, that makes sense.
You want to make a face of your company, that's an easy way to
do it. Get MJF in there with Swerve,
put them in a feud. Have Swerve come out on top,
That will do it. Swerve should be beating every
single previous champion in that company.
And I can't beat CM Punk. He's gone, but everybody else
and I know Omega, he's injured, so whatever.
But everyone available Swerve should be defeating them.
And anyone who has not held that title or has not held the WWE
title, they're chopped liver. They're chopped liver.
They have not arrived yet. It's not a big deal to defeat
them. He should be defeating him.
He is your world champion. He's supposed to be the face of
your company. That is not a feather in the
cap. So don't sell me a Bale of goods
and tell me that they're roses when in reality they're manure.
Give me a break. Again, we want the best for AE W
And that's the other part about this.
When you listen to Devon's criticisms, when you listen to
my criticisms, there's always information about how to
improve. It's never just that's wrong and
that's the end of it. It's never just complaining just
to complain. There's always, hey, this is how
you can make that better. There's a reason for that,
folks. We care and many out of you out
there listening care and all of you fragile folks out there who
just enjoy wrestling and, and, and well, does it have to be
tribalism and all this nonsense? I, I'm just going to tell you
flat out Sox versus Yankees in the, in, in Major League
Baseball, the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees.
It's the biggest rivalry in sports, Celtics versus Lakers in
the NBA, the Boston Celtics versus a lot Los Angeles Lakers.
It's one of the biggest rivalries in sports history.
Do I need to keep going in every sport and explain this to you?
Rivalries matter. You see it on an interesting
scale with the WNBA, right? You got Caitlin Clark and and
you have Angel Reese. These two powerhouses coming out
of college now they're in the WNBA, right?
Rivalries. This is healthy for the sport.
Look how it's driven ticket sales and interest in every
other sport. Pro wrestling is sports
entertainment. But the same concept in regard
to rivalries matter. When you pick a company over
another company and you want one to do well and you want them the
best, the other company, that's a rivalry.
WCW and WWE went through that. TV ratings and ticket sales and
making money and all that went through the roof for everybody.
It was fantastic. Fans were engaged like never
before. So for all of you fragile people
out there who can't wrap your head around the concept of a
rivalry and and you know, touch grass, touch grass, well, stay
off the wacky tabacky because clearly it's messing up.
It's clouding your judgement. Don't touch that grass.
Stop touching that grass. It's not helping you.
It's messing you up. It's getting you paranoid.
You're getting that skunk weed. You're not getting the good
stuff, baby. All right, I'm just telling you
right now, Smarten up. Having some type of US versus
them situation is actually a good thing, especially for
people who are emotionally stable enough to be in on it, in
on the joke, the whole Red Sox versus Yankee.
Listen, I've seen people come to blows over that.
That's a little extreme, but you know, I grew up seeing that
happen. But I'll tell you right now,
both of those franchises make money hand over fist because of
that rivalry. It's just the way it is, man.
So why can't we have that with WWE and AEW?
Because I'm going to tell you when you want one company to to
be more successful than the other, when you pick a side or
when you switch sides, you don't want the rivalry to to end.
You want the the the rival to still exist and come back
another day. And hey, you know, quiet as it's
kept. Sometimes you want the the rival
to kick your ass so that you can come back 10 times stronger and
be motivated. It's not a rivalry if it's one
sided all the time. You need some kind of mix up in
there, right? That's the whole concept of 83
weeks, which Eric Bischoff was gracious enough to talk about
that on the show. I digress.
Listen, folks, we want AE W to stick around.
We want that to be a place where people could make some money.
We want the rivalry to exist, but we need you to be healthy
and stable. Stop acting like a bunch of
lunatics out there. Some of you take it easy.
It's OK. You'll make it through this.
I promise. Anyway, on behalf of the Hall of
Famer himself, Devon Dudley, this is the Duke from Duke Loves
Wrestling. Letting you know we appreciate
you and we thank you. Can't wait for you to join us
again for another episode of Devon and the Duke.
Take it away. Tony Shavani, this is Tony
Stevani. And we're desperately out of
time on Duke Love Wrestling.