After finding incredible success as one half of The Dudley Boyz, following the first-ever WWE Draft in 2002, D-Von was sent to SmackDown away from his tag team partner.
Once on the blue brand, the star became known as Revered D-Von and took on the role of a villainous spiritual advisor. The new gimmick also came complete with a new bodyguard, Deacon Batista. The hulking guardian of the collection box would eventually become known as Batista and conquer Hollywood as well as WWE.
However, in 2002 he was fresh out of developmental, in this case, OVW, and was short on experience, to say the least.
During an appearance on the Insight podcast with Chris Van Vliet, D-Von recalled this period working with the would-be megastar. The veteran broke down one incident where he had to teach Batista how to do a simple Clothesline spot as he had no idea what he was doing.
“Dave [Batista] didn’t really know anything. You know, for instance, we did a spot in the match with myself and Triple H, where I would throw Triple H on the outside, take the referee, and Hunter would be getting up, leaning up against the post. Batista sees him, does the sign of the cross, goes to clothesline him, but Hunter gets out of the way and Batista hits the post and goes down.
I remember, Batista came to me and said, ‘Rev I gotta ask you a question.’ I said ‘What’s up?’ He goes, ‘How do I do this? I go, ‘How do you do what?’ He goes ‘with Hunter?’ I go ‘Batista what are you talking about?’
‘How do I clothesline him when he moves out the way and then hit the post?’ I go ‘You messing with me, right?’ He goes, ‘No, I’m not.’ I said ‘Wait a minute. You’ve never done anything like this?’ He goes, ‘No, in OVW, All they had me do was come in and do run-ins. Because I was so massive and big they never really worked with me the way they did with Brock and Randy and Cena. I was just the guy that came in and nailed people. And that was it.'”
D-Von added that he felt he already had enough on his plate trying to find success as a singles star, but the partnership worked out well.
“I was like oh my God, I go, you got to be kidding me. Okay, so I’m trying to get a character over, Reverend D-Von, after being in a tag team match for almost 12 years at that time. Now you putting me in singles, and you putting me with a guy who’s green as sh*t. And now I gotta help him get along and help him get over, as well as myself. How the hell am I gonna do this?
I’m already scared to death about going on my own. It worked though, it worked for the little time that we did it. Then they went out and then somebody pulled the plug on it.”
D-Von Dudley Has No Desire To Return To WWE
In more recent years D-Von Dudley has worked backstage in WWE as a producer, however, he left that role in January. Elsewhere in the interview, the WWE Hall of Famer admitted that he has no plans to return to the company as he feels he’s achieved all there is for him to do.
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