AEW commentator Jim Ross has addressed the recent comments made by fellow Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley, where allegations have been made that the announcer was racist.
Dudley has gone on record alleging Ross of multiple incidents of racism while making content for his YouTube channel or appearing in interviews. On the latest episode of the Grilling JR podcast, Ross once again stated that he is not and never has been a racist. Ross was also asked if he was interested in connecting with D-Von Dudley to discuss the accusations:
“No problem, Conrad. I’m happy to do it. I’m just not going to put it on tape and make a TV show out of it. How many times have I got to address it to satisfy everybody? I’m not a racist. I’ve never been a racist. Ask some of the African American athletes that I’ve been around and worked with in my 50-year career, they’ll say the same thing.
“Like I said before when you and I first talked about this, I don’t remember the first cross word I had with D-Von. The boisterous one was Bubba, but not in a bad way, he just had no problem expressing himself and Bubba had a lot of ideas. He was a throwback, a main event guy that wanted to be involved in booking his angle, and I love that.”
“I’d have no problem reconnecting with D-Von… I never got mad at him, I was bewildered about how this could happen because, like I said, I don’t remember any negative exchanges with him and what I allegedly said would damn sure be negative.
“I am interested in reconnecting with D-Von, because I like D-Von. When I hired the Dudleys, nobody in my world thought they would become as big as they did because a lot of the decision-makers and the big shots didn’t watch ECW. I did.” [via Cultaholic]
D-Von Dudley Has Recalled Alleged Jim Ross Racist Comments
The allegations began when Dudley previously conducted an interview on his YouTube channel, and said the following about experiencing racism while in WWE:
“No, I didn’t experience it when we were together, because when we got together we were in ECW. In ECW, I did not experience it. I experienced it in WWE. I experienced it when certain top officials, who I don’t really want to go and say any names…I didn’t wear a 10-gallon hat or anything, but when a person comes up to you and says they don’t like you because of the colour of your skin and you’re sitting up there going, ‘Wow, really?’ What, in 1999-2000, and you’re still coming up to me and saying crap like this? There was certain people in that organisation at that time that felt I should not have said anything who had power to basically bury me if need be just because I might have stood up for what I felt was right,”
Former WWE star Maven, who conducted the interview, shouted “Go Sooners” following the comments, a reference to Ross. In a follow-up interview with Devon & The Duke, Dudley confirmed that JR was the one who made the comments:
Was it JR? Yes … I’m not angry at the man today. You know, I know the man is going through some health problems, some health issues. And just to show you the place that I’m in, I pray to God [he] can heal his body. But, was I disappointed with that man when he said those things to me back then? Yes, I was. Now, he can sit there and deny it all he wants. But, again, Bubba was there, and Bubba said that he remembers the incident on my podcast. Paul Heyman was there, Spike Dudley was there, and Tommy Dreamer was there. So you have all these other people that were there who aren’t Black, by the way.
