WWE legend Brian ‘Road Dogg’ James has detailed what he thinks can be attributed to the mammoth success of D-Generation X.
Speaking with Inside The Ropes’ Liam Alexander-Stewart, Road Dogg wasted no time in revealing what he believes is the reason for the success of D-Generation X. The real-life Brian James has claimed WWE were tolerant enough to allow the group to succeed just by being themselves.
The multi-time WWE Tag Team Champion claims the company were quite lenient in terms of allowing the Hall of Fame faction to do as they pleased, though there times were they received a stern telling off from the higher powers:
“I actually think, truth be told, I think it was tolerance on their [WWE’s] behalf, on the office’s behalf. They really let us do whatever we wanted to do and just tell us to kind of not take it too far. Several times we did [take it too far] and we were told about it and scolded about it. But they really let us go. So I guess leniency or, you know, they trusted us to not take it too far and we spoiled that trust several times.”
Road Dogg continued, confirming that there was nothing pitched by DX that was instantly shut down by WWE management, but skits pitched by WWE’s writing them – then helmed by Vince Russo – would take on a DX-inspired tone when on-air:
“No [nothing was shut down]. Everything we wanted to do, we did. They took a lot of the scenarios they wrote us into when it was Russo writing, and then they would kind of let us act our way out of them, you know what I mean? So we would know what the skit was about or we would know who we’re supposed to be talking about, the bullet points and then they roll cameras.
Look, you said you had individual talents and stuff. I think it was just the classic ‘the sum is greater than the individual’ and I felt that way. I know Hunter kind of outgrew DX and became his own entity and his own brand within himself and that’s cool. But at that time, I felt like it was for young, hungry guys that wanted the ball and Vince was giving it to us.”
First aligning with Billy Gunn in The New Age Outlaws, Road Dogg, alongside ‘The Bad Ass’, would join D-Generation X on the Raw following WrestleMania XIV. He’d remain there essentially for the remainder of his WWE career, later teaming with both X-Pac and K-Kwik before his WWE release in January 2001.
Alongside runs in the then-Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and on the independent circuit, Road Dogg would return to WWE in 2011 as a producer, soon working his way up to become a lead writer for SmackDown and helping at the WWE Performance Center. Road Dogg was released from the company again in January 2022.
Many thanks to Podcast Heat for facilitating our chat with the WWE Hall of Famer.
Road Dogg co-hosts the phenomenal Oh…You Didn’t Know podcast alongside Ryan Katz via Podcast Heat – their latest episode, focusing on a tag team Mount Rushmore, is available to watch on YouTube or to listen to via iTunes, Spotify, and all good podcast providers.
If you use any quotes from this interview please provide a link back and h/t to Liam Alexander-Stewart of Inside the Ropes.