In one of the few black eye type of stories to come out about Triple H since he took over control of WWE Creative, it’s been reported that he threatened to fire Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley if he took part in a match with Bubba Ray Dudley
D-Von was scheduled to appear at the Battleground Championship Wrestling even on December 17 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA.
He was going to team with long time partner and fellow Hall of Famer Bubba Ray Dudley for the Tribute to the Extreme show, but it didn’t work out.
No can do
According to Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE canceled the booking.
Things got dicey when D-Von said he was going to work the event anyway because he gave his word, and Triple H, wearing his Chief Content Officer hat, threatened to fire him if he did.
“(D-Von Dudley) went through John Cone in Talent Relations, who reportedly approved of the booking and he believed based on his contract, since he’s not a wrestler, that he was able to do things like that.
“Bruce Prichard nixed the booking and it ended up on the desk of Paul Levesque.
“(D-Von) has said he was going to do it because he gave his word on it and Levesque didn’t give approval, and he was basically told if he did it, he’d be fired, so he didn’t do it.”
This is a curious twist as we’re accustomed to hearing stories about Vince McMahon threatening to fire people for various offenses, but there could be a reason or language in D-Von’s contract that doesn’t allow this.
Or maybe it’s because it was an homage of sorts to ECW and WWE owns the rights?
Still, given the match and where it was being held, it’s something we think should’ve been allowed.
This is definitely a head scratcher, and we don’t blame D-Von for choosing a regular paycheck over a one time appearance, but could it be leading to more Vince-like decisions?
Lack of outside work
Vince was well known for not liking his talent making money anywhere else unless the WWE got a cut of it.
The WWE’s crusade to shut down their talent’s third party endeavors like Twitch channels and so on a couple of years back and firing Mandy Rose for leaked explicit photos are some of the latest Instances.
Back in the 1980s/early 1990s, King Kong Bundy and Vince had a falling out over this.
Bundy appeared in an ad that became widely popular, but because he didn’t include Vince in it for his share, Bundy claimed Vince buried him for it.
Bundy left the company, but came back in the mid 90s after being told he would be used and not buried, only to be buried again and he never forgave Vince for that.
Could this be showing signs that Vince is coming back to the WWE to some extent or pulling some strings as the majority shareholder? Let us know in the comments below.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-hZ5JNORyQ
