D-Von Dudley Reveals Why He Handed His Boots to The Hardys

D-Von Dudley didn’t just quietly walk away from wrestling—he went out with purpose, emotion, and one last unforgettable moment.

During a conversation with Denise Salcedo during Wrestleverse, the WWE Hall of Famer confirmed that his final match at Bound For Glory wasn’t just a sendoff—it was the sendoff he always envisioned.

The tag team legend admitted that his appearance during TNA’s 1000th episode left him feeling unsatisfied. But it was Bully Ray who came to him years later with a simple pitch: run it back one last time with Matt and Jeff Hardy.

“When Bubba came back to me and told me about three years later, ‘I have an idea to do the Hardys and the Dudleys one last time,’ I jumped on it,” D-Von explained. “At that particular point in time, my body felt good.”

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D-Von didn’t take the opportunity lightly. He threw himself into a six-month grind of DDP Yoga, boxing training, weight lifting, and cold plunges to make sure his body was ready for one final performance.

“I didn’t get tired. I didn’t blow up in the ring or nothing,” he said. “All eyes were on me… people were wondering, should I be back in the ring? Was I ever going to be the old D-Von again?”

He answered those questions in the ring—but once the match was over, he knew it was the end.

“That was it. I don’t feel like I can go on and do another match that will top what we did at Bound for Glory,” he said. “I’m not going to get any better than that.”

Then came a moment no one saw coming—especially not Matt and Jeff Hardy.

“No one had ever done that before… when we did that, you could hear the ‘oh’ in the audience,” D-Von said, recalling how he and Bubba removed their boots and handed them directly to the Hardys. “Even seeing Jeff start to tear up because they had no idea we were going to do that.”

Originally, the plan was just to leave the boots in the ring. But Bubba Ray had another idea.

“I saw Bubba later on that day and he goes, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do the taking off the boots.’ I was like, ‘All right, great.’ And then he goes, ‘But D-Von, we’re going to hand them to the Hardys.’ I went, ‘Wow.’ I said, ‘That’s big. We definitely got to do that.’”

Now officially retired, D-Von has shifted his focus to being a full-time dad after over three decades in the business.

“I don’t want to sacrifice myself anymore,” he said. “My kids come first.”

D-Von Dudley didn’t just go out on his terms—he left the boots behind with a message the whole arena felt. No runbacks. No regrets.

Do you think D-Von and Bubba’s final match was the right way to go out? Should more legends retire this way? Drop your thoughts below and let us know what that Bound for Glory moment meant to you.