D-Von Dudley recently signed a WWE Legends deal alongside his longtime tag partner Bubba/Bully Ray, and the pair will soon be teaming up at IMPACT 1000.
With the former WWE and IMPACT Tag Team Champions reuniting under such circumstances, D-Von spoke with Good Karma Wrestling on a number of topics, at one point speaking on the success of Black wrestlers despite the prevalence of racism in the business.
“It’s grown a lot. I remember when I first broke into the business in 91, racism was still alive and well. Just like I feel like racism is still alive and well today. I like to say what Malcolm X used to say, ‘A lof the Klan traded in their white sheets for suits,’ walking around and doing what they’re doing. It’s still relevant in the wrestling business, it is, but we have come a long way since then. It’s going to be hard to stop us from doing what we love to do. We watched this sport, we love it, want to be a part of it.
We’re coming in there and doing exactly, not what we want to do in a disrespectful way, but doing what we want to do to pay homage to those who have come before us that we watched and idolized for so long. I’m very proud. Sometimes, I speak to guys like Koko B Ware. When Bad News Brown was alive, we talked anytime we went to Canada, he pulled me aside and gave me tips on how to survive as an African American in this business.
Something Tony Atlas said on Junkyard Dog ‘Dark Side of the Ring’ was ‘a black man in this business has to understand that we can’t do what the white man does and expect to get away with it.’ You still have racism in this business, and if they gave you enough rope to hang yourself, and you hang yourself, there is nothing you can do about it.”
D-Von would go on to recount a prominent figure within WWE during his run, who took umbrage with the one-time Reverend because of his race:
“I do understand that we have come a long way since I broke into the business in 91. I remember coming into certain locker rooms, and there were certain people that didn’t care if it got out how they were treating you. There was a prominent figure in WWE, he was office, who basically told me he didn’t like me because I was black. Two occasions told me. Bubba was there on one of them, and he was there on the second one, along with Paul Heyman, Tommy Dreamer, and Spike [Spike Dudley].
To this day, I have no respect, nor do I like this individual. I’m not going to go put him on blast, but I don’t care for him, so I stay away from him. I just know we have come a long way. I’m not going to sit here and cry over something that might have happened ten years ago. I move on and make the best of it. Look at my career. I have nothing to be sad about or have any remorse about.”
The full interview can be viewed below.
Source: Fightful
