D-Von Dudley says he had three meetings with AEW President Tony Khan and all of them “were a bust”

D-Von Dudley: “I was looking to become a producer. I wasn’t looking to become a wrestler. And the only reason why my agent even contacted them was because of the fact that I left WWE and I wanted to still do the agent role. But my sons were there at the time and I was gonna try to do anything I could to help my sons out. I expressed to Tony that I didn’t wanna wrestle. He kept trying to push it. He would have loved me to go out there and do a couple of things, maybe be a manager and maybe even do a six-man tag match. And I told him, I said, ‘if I do a six-man, let me know right now. I’ll be on apron and the boys are gonna do all the work.’

I told him I don’t wanna wrestle anymore. And he wasn’t taking no for an answer. He couldn’t get that through his head. He was like stringing me along and even though I kept telling him I don’t wanna wrestle, I was literally when we had those meetings really fresh off a back surgery. I really couldn’t do it like that back then. It takes time for your body to heal and to be able to do what you got to do after back surgery.

So I basically kept emphasizing that I wanted to be a producer. I did not wanna wrestle. I wanted to work behind the scenes and he kept asking me if I wanted to wrestle and get back in the ring. And I’m like, ‘dude, you’re not getting what I’m saying. I don’t want to wrestle. I just wanna be a producer. I wanna help my sons out. I wanna help get them where they are.’ Like what Billy Gunn was doing for his sons, you know? I’ve done everything in my career. I don’t need that. He just wasn’t taking no for an answer. I’ve had three meetings with him and all three were a bust!”