WWE Hall Of Famer Admits Vince McMahon Hated Character Change

Vince McMahon just did not like this WWE Hall of Famer’s major gimmick change.

Under Vince McMahon, WWE stars had to work hard to impress the boss, even if they felt that they didn’t always get a fair chance to do so.

When WWE introduced a draft lottery and brand split in 2002, Vince McMahon shook things up in a big way. One notable thing from that first lottery was that long-time tag team The Dudley Boyz were split up, with Bubba Ray going to Raw and D-Von heading to SmackDown.

While Bubba Ray’s character stayed the same, D-Von morphed into the Revered D-Von – a character most notable for introducing Batista onto WWE television. Ultimately, that character was abandoned after eight months, with The Dudley Boyz reuniting at the 2002 Survivor Series.

Vince McMahon Not Impressed By Rev. D-Von

Speaking with Pro Wrestling Culture, D-Von Dudley compared his singles run in TNA, which was successful, to his one in WWE, and admits he simply couldn’t do enough to impress Vince McMahon:

I had a lot of fun in TNA with being a singles wrestler. The one thing I’m most proud of is that me and Bubba went to a different territory and helped revamp that tag team division. Not many people can say they can do that, but we did that. I was very happy that we accomplished that.

TNA, that run with the television title was great. They allowed me to be able to be me and do what I felt that I needed to do to get over.

WWE, different story. Vince had his own way of doing things over there at the time, and, you know, he basically, he invented the Reverend D-Von character, but didn’t let me do what I wanted to do to get the character over.

I can’t be in a tag team for 10 years and then all of a sudden go, ‘okay, you’re a singles now.’ Let me get used to being a singles wrestler from being in a tag team for so long. He didn’t have the patience, and he didn’t see good things coming out of it. My singles career at WWE didn’t go as well.

But again, everybody still talks about the Reverend D-Von character. They say how much they enjoyed it and liked it. But the man that pays the bills is the only one that you have to impress. Apparently, I didn’t impress him enough for him to keep the character going on. [h/t Fightful]