D-Von Dudley says Hulk Hogan wasn’t the only major wrestling name throwing around racial slurs—and some of the others may shock the hell out of fans. The WWE Hall of Famer claims several prominent figures with legendary matches and massive reputations used the N-word behind closed doors but never got caught.
The bombshell came during the D-Von and the Duke podcast after Duke claimed he had legitimate old tweets showing MJF using the slur. D-Von said that was news to him, but he wasn’t surprised by the bigger accusation because he has personally heard racist language inside the wrestling business. D-Von said Hogan was rightfully hammered after his racist comments became public, but warned fans that Hogan was nowhere near alone.
“I didn’t know that either about the N-word. I didn’t know about that. Everybody got on Hogan for saying what he said and, you know, ‘He’s a racist,’ and things like that. Yes, it was wrong. But believe me when I say it: He’s not the only one. Neither one of them are the only ones who use that word on a regular basis or have said things that were inappropriate when it came to other races of people.”
Then D-Von dropped the real kicker: He says some of the people guilty of using that language are still prominent figures in wrestling today. This wasn’t something he heard from somebody else, either. D-Von said he witnessed it himself.
“There are a lot of people in the wrestling business who have said things, and I’ve heard it personally. I’m not exposing anything, but there are a lot more people—people who are very prominent figures in professional wrestling today—who have said that. They said it back in the ’80s and ’90s and even the 2000s. They’ve said it, and they used it frequently because they didn’t think they were going to get caught.”
D-Von pointed to wrestlers whose old social media posts came roaring back years later. Some believed they had erased the evidence, only to watch it surface and wreck their careers.
“Look at how many people, about 10 years ago, had stuff resurface—things they put on their Twitter, Facebook or even Instagram accounts using racial slurs—and they got in trouble. How many people were in NXT who thought that stuff was erased, and it wasn’t? It came up to bite them in the behind, and a lot of them got let go for it.”
According to D-Von, other people stayed quiet, watched those careers collapse and then tried to protect themselves by publicly hanging around black people and other minorities.
“If you’re going to get on one person, get on them all. You’ll hear, ‘Well, I don’t know those other ones.’ You’re right—you don’t, because they kept it quiet. Now that they’ve seen the fall of so many people who came before or after them saying that, they want to sweep it underneath the rug and start hanging out with black people or other minorities.”
“That way, they can say, ‘Well, no, I’ve got black friends. We’re good. I’m good with you, right?’ That’s just the way it is nowadays.”
D-Von didn’t name names, but he made it clear some of the people he was talking about are wrestling heroes with matches fans still rave about.
“A lot of them have said it. A lot of people you look up to, who have had unbelievable matches, have said it and done it. It’s not right. It’s not right at all. But don’t harp on one person who said it because it was on video and then not look at other people.”
This wasn’t just locker-room talk to D-Von. He grew up hearing stories from family members who left the South for New York, and he said the ugliness of the Jim Crow era was still fresh when he entered wrestling.
“I remember growing up, and I remember hearing about the South and all the things that went on. Even though I was born and raised in Brooklyn, my grandmother—my mother’s mother—and her mom picked up the family, left the South and moved to New York.”
“I never lived in the South personally, but I used to hear the horror stories of all the racial slurs and things that were done. Remember, when I started in the business, the Jim Crow laws and all of that happened in the ’50s and ’60s. It wasn’t even over 40 or 50 years ago when I started, so that stuff was still fresh. A lot of these people thought they could still get away with it back then. Now they’re seeing that it’s coming back to bite them. What was once in the dark has come to the light.”
D-Von is keeping the names locked up for now, but he left wrestling fans with one hell of a warning: Some beloved figures may have escaped the same public reckoning that destroyed Hogan’s reputation—not because they were innocent, but because nobody caught them.
Which prominent wrestling figures do you think D-Von Dudley was talking about, and should he reveal the names? Sound off and leave your feedback in the comments.
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