D-Von Dudley wants absolutely nothing to do with Power Slap, and this isn’t just him watching clips online and thinking the whole thing looks insane. The WWE Hall of Famer revealed that one of his own wrestling students competed months ago and still hasn’t been cleared to return.
During D-Von and The Duke, the conversation turned to Power Slap after Jake Hager’s recent detached retina surgery was brought up. When D-Von was asked whether he’d ever consider competing himself, that was an immediate hell no.
“Hold on. Why would I want to sit there and let somebody slap the s***out of me and then think I can stand up? It’s bad enough that I go in professional wrestling and got to know that they’re going to slam me and do all of that. Now, I’m just supposed to sit there and let somebody slap me? F*** no. You asking to be embarrassed. No way whatsoever.”
D-Von admitted he doesn’t know exactly how competitors train to take those shots, but nothing he’s seen makes him think he’d be able to stand there and repeatedly eat them without eventually getting knocked out.
“I don’t think so. I’ve never seen the training on that, so I don’t know if the training is legit. But all I know is that it’s brutal. I see some of this stuff and I’m just like, no freaking way. Cuz I’m telling you right now, I’m going to get—I don’t have a glass jaw, but I’m going to get knocked out cuz there’s no way you can continue to do stuff like that and think that you’re not going to get knocked out.”
He then compared it to boxing, where fighters are at least actively trying to block and avoid shots. D-Von pointed to several legendary boxers while arguing that years of taking blows can still come with consequences even when someone is defending themselves. That’s why the idea of standing there without putting your hands up makes even less sense to him.
“And listen, if the boxers who are bobbing and weaving in and out and they’re doing their thing to prevent from getting hit, and yet when they do get hit, it still rattles the brain. So guess what? Look at them now. Look at Tommy Hearns. Look at the way he is now. Look at how he talks. Look at Larry Holmes. Look at Muhammad Ali. Look at Roberto Duran. Look at all of the greats that have come before. Look at how they talk now, and they were good boxers where they were blocking and bobbing and weaving and doing all of that, and now, you know, they could barely talk. You cannot tell me that something is not going to happen in the end of all of that.
There’s not going to be some major repercussion, some damage. I’m sorry. I just can’t believe that. There’s nothing you can do that can convince me because if the boxers are getting the crap beat out of them and they’re blocking and all of that, you know, what makes you think that, you know, you getting slapped in the face as hard as somebody can to try to put you down and you’re not blocking it? You’re not blocking it. Your hands are not up. So again, please tell me how that even makes sense where that’s going—that that should be okay. I’m sorry. No way.”
Then D-Von revealed why this subject hits a little closer to home. One of his wrestling students trained for Power Slap while continuing to attend wrestling school and eventually competed. The student technically won through a disqualification, but according to D-Von, he hasn’t been able to return to wrestling since.
“I have a student of mine—an ex-student of mine who—no, he’s not ex. He’s still a student. He decided that he wanted to go and do it. He was training for it and everything and still coming to the wrestling school and doing his thing. He did his thing. He won, but it was a disqualification. The guy, I guess, hit with the wrong side of the hand or something like that. And he—he’s—that was, what, about almost six months ago. He’s still out. He still can’t come back. He’s still not cleared.”
D-Von didn’t reveal what injury the student suffered, but being unable to get cleared nearly six months later clearly left an impression on him. His final assessment of what happens in Power Slap was pretty simple.
“I mean, it’s bad, man. These guys are beating the living hell out of each other.”
D-Von spent decades getting put through tables and taking some ridiculous punishment himself, but apparently even he has a line — and standing still while somebody slaps him as hard as possible is way past it.
What do you make of D-Von Dudley revealing that his student still hasn’t been cleared nearly six months after competing in Power Slap? Let us know what you think in the comments.
