D-Von Dudley Recalls The Difference Between Working Under Vince McMahon And Paul Heyman

On the latest episode of Six Feet Under, D-Von Dudley talked about why ECW worked, the importance of Paul Heyman and more. You can check out some highlights below:

D-Von on why ECW worked: “You know, ECW was different. It wasn’t like watching WWE. It wasn’t like watching WCW, or I should saw NWA. It was totally different, very alternative. And you know, at that time the fans wanted that. They wanted something different. And I think every generation does that, where they get so tired of the old way of doing things that they want something new to come in. ECW just happened to be at the right place at the right time. And with Paul Heyman’s creative mind doing what he was doing during that time, it just happened to work. You know, it was like…Nirvana. When the hair bands — Motley Crue, Metallica, all of those bands, Dio — when they came in, they ran rampant through the ’80s. And then all of a sudden Kurt Cobain, with Nirvana came in and just kicked the door and said, ‘Nope, we’re here. We are taking over.’ So you know, ECW just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”

On the difference between working under Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman: “With Dr. Frankenstein himself, Paul Heyman… the one thing I think me and Bubba and even [Tommy] Dreamer like to say that it was kind of a curse. It was good, but it was kind of a curse at the same time. Because ECW with Paul Heyman behind it, Paul let you pretty much do whatever you want to a certain degree. It was kind of like, he let you come up with your own ideas, your own creations. If it didn’t work, you know, we go back to the drawing board and try something else new. Whereas back then in WWE, it was Vince’s way, and that was it, you didn’t do that. So you couldn’t compromise. So by the time Bubba and I came to WWE, it was kind of like that old mentality that we had, ‘Well you know, Paulie let us do this. But we know that we can’t get away with that in WWE, but we’re going to try anyway.’ So it kind of hurt us, in a sense of that way. Of thinking that, ‘Even though this is what Vince had laid out, we could actually change his mind.’ And sometimes, a lot of times it didn’t. I think maybe out of 1000, we probably gave an idea one time, and he said, ‘Okay, go for it.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Six Feet Under an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.