D-Von Dudley On Where Final Match Ranks In His Career, Why He Wouldn’t Have Done It In AEW

D-Von Dudley worked his last match at TNA Bound For Glory, and he says it ranks high among his career moments. The Dudleys battled The Hardys at the PPV earlier this month, with The Hardys coming out on top. D-Von spoke with Video Gamer for an interview about the match and more. You can see highlights about the match, including why he wouldn’t have done it in AEW, below:

On How He’s Feeling After the Match:

“Oh, I feel great. I’m sore, yes. But that’s expected when you haven’t been in the ring in three years. And then prior to the 1000th episode of Impact Wrestling, it was seven years. I started the training six months prior to the match last Sunday. And I was happy to do that. I started taking boxing lessons, not to become a boxer, but I did it because it was helping with my footwork. Things like moving side to side, moving forward and back. Trying to get quick in that aspect.

“We did tangle with the gloves a little bit and I enjoyed it. It was great cardio. I was salivating at the mouth, drool coming out of my mouth, snot coming out of my nose, but doing rounds of boxing was one of the ways I’ve been keeping my cardio up. Flipping tires, doing the ropes, things like that. So it was a grueling six months when I put my body through just to do what we did. But it was all worth it. I hadn’t done it in years and I was happy to have started doing that. I felt like the old D-Von and I’m just glad it’s over.”

On It Being His Retirement Match:

“You don’t take off your boots in the middle of the ring and then decide to come back. That’s disrespectful in my opinion. So there’s your answer.”

On How Long It Was Planned:

“I think talks started in January. I got the phone call from Bubba sometime in February and he asked me if I could still go. And that was the thing. He said, ‘can you still go?’ Of course I can still go.

“When he said he wanted one last match with the Hardys, I said ‘oh, here we go.’ Just for the fact that when you wrestle with the Hardys, you’ve got to come prepared, you’ve got to be ready. And I wanted to make sure that that was gonna be the case if I took this on, which is why I started training as soon as I found out. I knew how long it would take me to get back into shape and to do what I had to do, but it worked and I’m happy about it.”

On Where the Match Ranks In His Career:

“It would rank almost on the same lines as a TLC match. It’s the last match. It was the second table match between the Hardys and the Dudleys, so definitely one of my all time favorites, especially considering mine and Bubba’s age, him 54 and me. Matt being 51 and Jeff being 48, we’re not spring chickens anymore, but yet we went out there and told a great story with some physicality and made the match good.”

On Whether It Was Always His Plan To End His Career That Way In TNA:

“I just wanted to end my career the right way and it had no bearing on where I did it, just as long as it was the right way. I would not have done it for AEW just because I don’t think AEW was ever a fit for the Dudleys. For other people probably, yes, but to me, not the Dudleys. I don’t know if I would’ve felt comfortable. There’s just certain things about the organization. I love the talent. I think the talent is great. There’s no question about that, but there’s a feeling that certain people in the organization that call the shots, I’m not a big fan of them.

“And Tony Khan lets that happen. So I don’t ever think that it would’ve ever been able to take place in AEW. I’ve got nothing against AEW as a company. I’ve got nothing against Tony Khan. I just don’t like the way the organization is run. And that’s about it. Again, I’ve got friends in AEW. I’ve met new people at Autograph signings, like Will Ospreay who is a great guy and a lot of the talent in AEW have the same frustration that I see. They just wish that certain people wouldn’t be calling the shots and that Tony would take more control, but yet give it to somebody that knows what they’re doing.”

On His Past Contact With AEW:

“I was looking to become a producer. I wasn’t looking to become a wrestler. And the only reason why my agent even contacted them was because of the fact that I left WWE and I wanted to still do the agent role. But my sons were there at the time and I was gonna try to do anything I could to help my sons out. I expressed to Tony that I didn’t wanna wrestle. He kept trying to push it. He would have loved me to go out there and do a couple of things, maybe be a manager and maybe even do a six-man tag match. And I told him, I said, ‘if I do a six-man, let me know right now. I’ll be on apron and the boys are gonna do all the work.’

“I told him I don’t wanna wrestle anymore. And he wasn’t taking no for an answer. He couldn’t get that through his head. He was like stringing me along and even though I kept telling him I don’t wanna wrestle, I was literally when we had those meetings really fresh off a back surgery. I really couldn’t do it like that back then. It takes time for your body to heal and to be able to do what you got to do after back surgery.”

“So I basically kept emphasizing that I wanted to be a producer. I did not wanna wrestle. I wanted to work behind the scenes and he kept asking me if I wanted to wrestle and get back in the ring. And I’m like, ‘dude, you’re not getting what I’m saying. I don’t want to wrestle. I just wanna be a producer. I wanna help my sons out. I wanna help get them where they are.’ Like what Billy Gun was doing for his sons, you know? I’ve done everything in my career. I don’t need that. He just wasn’t taking no for an answer. I’ve had three meetings with him and all three were a bust!”

On Having Spike Dudley Appear:

“It was very cool. I speak to Spike every once in a while, but it was very cool to see him with the glasses and the overalls and the tie dye, you know? Anytime my little brother gets a chance to join us, it’s always a good thing. Nothing’s changed. We’re still the same. Myself and Bubba, Spike and Sign Guy Dudley, Joel Gertner were still the same.”

On His Tag Team Mount Rushmore:

“The British Bulldogs, the Hart Foundation, the Road Warriors, the Hardy Boyz and the Dudley Boyz.”