D-Von Dudley Recalls Apologizing To John Laurinaitis For Believing He Sabotaged Dudley’s Contract Talks

D-Von Dudley recently recalled an instance where he apologized to John Laurinaitis after tearing him down publicly over the belief he sabotaged the Dudleys’ contract talks. D-Von and Bubba Ray Dudley exited WWE in July 2005 after WWE chose not to renew their contracts. At the time, D-Von believed that Laurinaitis had managed to get a meeting between the team and Vince McMahon cancelled because Laurinaitis was not happy with how the talks had gone.

D-Von spoke about the situation when he was “going down the line” of WWE executives he never had issues with during a video about Jim Ross denying ever saying anything racist toward him. Dudley noted that he realized years after the fact that the meeting in questioned was cancelled in order to fly out and meet with Brock Lesnar. You can see highlights below:

On Laurinaitis:

“You know, a lot of people had issues with Johnny. Nobody liked Johnny. And I even had a problem with Johnny. When we left in 2005, we were negotiating our contract with John Laurinaitis. And I remember going back and forth, because they wanted us to take a pay cut and we said no. But this is when they were getting rid of all of the Attitude Era guys, and bringing in that new era. And I basically pretty much said — we said no, we wouldn’t want taking a pay cut. So we kept going back and forth on numbers.

On Their Conversation With McMahon:

“And then ECW One Night Stand. We get to the building, and this is one of the rare occasions when Vince used to come out to the ring before the doors open to see how talent was putting their matches together. He comes up to me and Bubba and he goes, ‘How’s everything going with the negotiation?’ And we were like, ‘Oh, it’s it’s going good. We’re at a little bit of a standstill, but we would love to have a meeting with you if possible.’

“So at that point after talking a little bit with Vince, Vince said, ‘Let’s have the meeting. Let’s have you come down to the office and do it. Call my secretary. We will set up the date and stuff and bring you guys in, and we’ll discuss everything.’ We were like, ‘Okay, fine. Not a problem. Not an issue.'”

On the Meeting Getting Canceled:

“We got a we got a call from the secretary… We got the phone call after, said the the meeting was cancelled and we were like, ‘What the hell?’ Going into July 5th was when we got that phone call. And that’s when they said, ‘You know, the Dudleys, we’re not going to renegotiate your contract. We’re going to let the contract run out. So, you’ll still be collecting money and all of that up until August 24th. After that, that’s it. We’ll just let the contract run out.’ We were like, ‘Okay.’ And we left.”

On Believing Laurinaitis Was at Fault:

“At that point in time, everybody was saying it was Laurinaitis that basically sabotaged us in the back because we wouldn’t cooperate and take the pay cut. And that wasn’t the case, I come to find out years later. So what happened was, Brock was in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings. Things didn’t work out with him the way he thought, and then he decided to come back to the WWE. They wanted to bring Brock into the office and have a meeting with him. And it just so happened that the day that they were scheduling was the day that me and Bubba was supposed to go in. And that’s when.. he got top billing. Which, completely understand. It’s Brock Lesnar even back then.

“But the thing about it was, I blamed Johnny because of everything that was going on with the negotiation. And it didn’t go well with Johnny which is why we asked to speak with Vince. And then… I went on a show and just buried the hell out of Laurinaitis. I can’t remember what it was, it was some type of radio show I did and I just pretty much buried him. And I was like, ‘F him,’ and this and that. ‘I can’t believe he did this to me, and blah blah blah,’ and so forth and so on.”

On Apologizing To Laurinaitis:

“Now moving forward, come to find out years later, the whole thing with the Brock story came out. And I was like, ‘Oh, okay,’ and then come to realize that it wasn’t Laurinaitis that screwed us. It was the whole Brock coming in to have the meeting where somebody in office says, ‘Let’s bump the Dudleys and let’s meet with Brock.’

“I had to go back and apologize to Laurinaitis. And I told him, ‘Listen, I’m sorry. I should not have said those things I said to you. If you don’t forgive me I completely understand, but I’m humbly apologizing to you.’ And he said, ‘No.’ He was like, “D-Von, you’re fine.’ He said, ‘Let me ask you a question, D-Von. If Vince wanted to meet with you two, do you think there’s anything that I could have said that would have stopped him from meeting with you guys?’ And when he said that, I went, ‘Damn, he’s right.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit D-Von Dudley with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.