D-Von Dudley has competed in a number of high-risk matches in his career, but he once battled a fear of heights.
The former WWF Tag Team Champion specialized in intense stipulations throughout in his career. Enduring bouts with ladders, tables, and the famous TLC (tables, ladders, and chairs), D-Von seemed fearless in it all. In reality though, he actually battled a fear of heights. During a recent appearance on the A2theK Wrestling Show, Dudley opened up about the rumor.
“That was no rumor,” he confessed. “I admitted it right off the bat. I said it in countless interviews. I’ve said it during the WWE documentaries of it. I was scared of heights. Even doing the Wassup [move] in ECW, if you go back and look, when we did do the Wassup, I did it on the second rope. I never went to the top.”
“Then a couple of times we did it in WWE and Bubba pulled me aside and said, ‘D-Von, I know you don’t like heights, but I think you might have to go to the top rope for this one because of where we are.” It’s not getting the pop that we wanted to get after doing that move in WWE. So it was kind of like, ‘okay, well now I’ve got to get used to going to the top rope.’ And of course I tried my hand at the live events as opposed to on TV first. A couple of times I almost lost my balance, fell backwards because I was scared. I was trembling. I didn’t want to go up on the top rope.”
Through much trial and error, D-Von eventually mastered the top rope.” Over time, I learned and learned,” he explained. “Next thing you know, I got comfortable with the rope and being on that top turnbuckle. I was flying from there.”
In regard to the Wassup move utilized by the Dudley Boyz, D-Von couldn’t pinpoint if he or Bubba Ray came up with the move. However, he recalled the unique intrigue it garnered after displaying it in ECW. “I just know that the first couple of times we did it in ECW because it had never been seen before, a deliberate headbutt to somebody’s balls like, ‘Oh my God, that has to hurt.’ Because again, it had never been done before,” he remembered.
D-Von continued on to compare creativity and defiance of the Attitude Era, to rock icon, Ozzy Osbourne. “The Attitude Era got over because we were doing things that nobody had ever done before,” he declared. “It’s like watching Ozzy Osbourne when he had the reality show on MTV. When he first had that reality show, it was huge because of the fact Ozzy was doing crazy shit that nobody had ever seen before.”
“There was a line you didn’t cross regardless to who you were when you were on TV, because TV had that rulebook. ‘Don’t do this. You can do that. Don’t do this. You can do that. Don’t say that, but you can say this.’ Ozzy took that rulebook and pissed all over it and threw it out the window. Thus, the Osbournes were born. It was making such huge rounds, that everybody started watching it and everybody was wondering what Ozzy was going to say or do next. You know, ‘was he going to pee in the pool? Was Sharon going to let him do it? Was his daughter going to curse him out?'”
“I mean, it was all sorts of things. It was the first time ever. So I think that’s why the Attitude Era got over so well, because we were doing things that you shouldn’t do and you couldn’t do. That’s why we were getting picketed and protest against every time we got to the arenas. It was a wild time back then. I like to tell people it was like Sodom and Gomorrah. If you know your Bible, it was like Sodom and Gomorrah. I mean, again, drugs, sex and rock and roll. That’s what it was all about back in the Attitude Era.”
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