D-Generation X got away with some wild material during the Attitude Era, but Billy Gunn knows one infamous segment would be dead on arrival in today’s WWE.
During a conversation with Denise Salcedo, Gunn addressed the controversial DX parody of the Nation of Domination. The segment featured members of DX dressing up and impersonating The Rock, Mark Henry, D’Lo Brown, The Godfather and Owen Hart.
Gunn did not try to pretend the segment would survive modern television standards. He flat-out said there is no chance WWE could produce the same parody today.
“Nowadays, there is not a chance in hell you could ever get away with it. Back then, it was a different time. We were asked to do it, and nobody we imitated had a problem with it because everybody we imitated had a hand in helping us dress up like them.”
Gunn explained that the members of the Nation were involved in putting the segment together and knew exactly what DX planned to do. According to Gunn, the parody would have been dropped immediately if anyone involved had objected.
“If any one of them had a problem with it, we wouldn’t have done it. Nobody did because it was all done in fun. But nowadays? No, I wouldn’t touch that.”
The segment aired during a completely different period in wrestling television, when WWE regularly pushed boundaries and relied on material designed to shock the audience.
That does not mean every Attitude Era segment aged well. The DX parody continues to be debated decades later, and Gunn made it clear that even he would refuse to revisit the idea now.
Gunn’s position is simple: the people involved accepted the segment at the time, but the wrestling business and the audience have changed too much for anything similar to happen again.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
How do you view DX’s Nation of Domination parody today—harmless Attitude Era comedy or a segment WWE should leave buried in the past? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
