Back in October, Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley shared an incident where a WWE official told Dudley they disliked him because he’s Black . In that interview, it was pretty clear who D-Von, his longtime tag
partner Bubba/Bully Ray Dudley, and interviewer Maven Huffman were talking about. A short time later, Dudley later confirmed it was talking about who it seemed he was talking about: legendary announcer Jim Ross.
Ross dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and denied them categorically. In a video uploaded to his channel today (Jan. 7), Dudley invited Huffman back on his show to respond to Ross. In doing so, he detailed two incidents in which JR said prejudicial things toward him because of the color of his skin.
The first was at the old WWF New York restaurant in 1999:
“It was at the grand opening of the WWE restaurant. We were mingling with guests, a lot were music artists, and there were some actors and actresses. WWE rolled out the red carpet. Bubba was like, ‘Let’s go downstairs and see what’s going on.’
“It was another private room downstairs in the basement. ‘Let’s chill down here for a second.’ Here comes JR. ‘How you doing, JR?’ ‘Boys, how you guys doing?’ ‘We’re good JR.’ He’s like, ‘You know what boys, you guys are fitting in really good here. You boys are doing really good. I like you boys. I like you boys a lot. D-Von, I’m not too sure, the verdict is still out on him. I’m not sure how I feel about this.’
“I’m like, what does he mean by that? JR said, ‘The verdict is not out yet, but I’m still hesitant with D-Von.’ Bubba knew what he was getting at. Bubba goes, ‘You know something, JR. Regardless to what, D-Von is a hard worker. He never gives the company problems. We go in and do our business, and that’s it. D-Von is a good guy. He takes care of his family and does what he needs to do as an individual.’
“JR goes, ‘I get that, that’s all good, but there is something about him. I’m not sure.’ Finally, that’s when it comes out, ‘He’s Black. I don’t know. That’s my hiccup. I don’t know how to feel about that.’
“I started balling up my fist and Bubba saw that. He grabbed me and goes, ‘You know what, JR. Black, white, purple, brown, it doesn’t matter. He’s a great individual.’
“‘I’m not saying he’s not, I just don’t know. He’s Black and I don’t know about that.’
”At that point, I had to think about it. If I hit him, we’re going to lose our job. If I say something, I could lose my job. At that time, I didn’t think I would be able to fight that. I’m a little fish in a big pond. Mind you, when he said it, he was very drunk. Extremely drunk. Slurring his words. They say when you’re drunk, the truth comes out.“
For the other incident D-Von told Huffman about, Paul Heyman, Spike Dudley, and Tommy Dreamer were said to be there in addition to Bubba:
“The other incident was in Indianapolis, where myself, Dreamer, Bubba, Heyman, and Spike were sitting at a table. We got there early. JR came in to catering. He just got out of a meeting. He comes over and says hello to everybody but me…
”Paul pretty much called him out. ‘Why aren’t you saying hello to D-Von? What’s wrong with D-Von? Because he’s Black?’
“JR went, ‘You’re damn right because he’s Black. You’re damn right.’ I don’t know if he got mad at Paul for calling him out and that’s why he said what he said because his ego got in the way, but that’s what was said.”
D-Von claims there are other instances of Ross making similar comments to others, including R-Truth. Regardless, he says he no hard feelings toward Ross, and denied any agenda behind his decision to share these stories now (with Dynamite in Oklahoma tonight, Ross is scheduled to return to the commentary desk for a bit during his latest health-related layoff). He said the reason he’s detailing these stories is because Ross accused him of lying. D-Von also says he never had similar issues with other WWE executives, specifically mentioning Vince McMahon and Michael Hayes.
You can watch D-Von’s full conversation with Maven here.
