Bubba Ray Dudley has pretty much done it all in the pro wrestling business and now adds coach along with fellow legends Mickie James, Booker T and the Undertaker on “WWE LFG: Legends and Future Greats”
The show, which will premiere Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. on A&E, pits 16 WWE hopefuls with varying time spent in the company’s Performance Center as a male winner and a female winner walking away with an NXT contract.
Before the debut of LFG, the WWE Hall of Famer took time for some Q&A with Post pro wrestling columnist Joseph Staszewski.
(Edited for clarity and length)
Q: What do you think will set this show apart from some of the other competition shows? It feels like there’s some mix of ‘Tough Enough’, some almost like ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ elements to it.
A: It’s going to give you a very real look behind the scenes of what goes on in the WWE when it comes to cultivating younger talent, developing younger talent from basically Day 1. I mean there are some talents on LFG that were part of this (WWE) program for two weeks before they even met myself or Booker or Mickie or Taker.
I think the honesty of the show is going to be it’s a charm. Nothing about this show, when it comes to my personality or any of the other legends’, is contrived or panned or not as genuine as we can be in the moment. All the stories you’ve heard about Bubba, you’re getting Bubba.
Q: What do you look for when you watch a talent for the first time?
A: What I’m looking for is for them to do something, anything that makes me look twice, that makes me want to listen, that captures and commands my attention. I’ve had so many talents come before me throughout my career and it’s like OK,OK,OK. But then you get one that goes bang, right there. There’s something.
We have a girl on LFG who day one everybody wrote off. A girl named Zena. Every single person, including the Undertaker, Mickie James, Booker T and all of her fellow future greats completely wrote her off. They judged the book by its cover, and then she grabbed the side headlock. And when she grabbed that side headlock, I said to myself, ‘Wow, she reminds me of Randy Orton.’ And no higher praise can be paid.
It’s gonna be an eye-opening show into the entire process and more behind the scenes than I think the WWE has ever allowed anybody.
Q: Someone people will obviously be interested in is Elijah Holyfield because of who his dad (Evander) is. What were your first impressions of him?
A: Elijah Holyfield is a good dude, very quiet. I still don’t know very much about him. He’s not a guy that has really stood out to me. There are a lot of talents who have really popped here. Elijah has definitely taken steps forward, but I don’t think he’s taken as many steps forward as some of the other future greats.
Just recently I did see Elijah perform, and I said to him, ‘Man, you got this Clubber Lang thing going on.’ And like his eyes lit up because that’s what I saw and Clubber Lang is one hell of a character to be able to sink your teeth into. Hopefully, he can do some more with it.
Q: How competitive the things get between the coaches and what was it like seeing Taker in that environment, having to, like you said, maybe be that raw, real self that we don’t always see from him?
A: The competition amongst the coaches is definitely there. And the part of this show that I personally found very interesting is how Undertaker was gonna to be on the show. We haven’t seen very much of Mark Calaway. So this is the first opportunity we get to see him really interact with younger talent, very, very young talent. We get to see him on a weekly basis, his natural demeanor.
I love the documentary that the WWE did with him. And I’ve told this to his face. I told him in private conversations. I told it to him on ‘Busted Open: After Dark’, ‘I said, boss, I never need to see your (Undertaker) entrance again. I’m so much more invested in Mark Calaway these days than I am the Undertaker, and that’s what you’re getting from him. You’re getting a very genuine side of him that I think people are gonna be shocked by.
Q: You have a long history in TNA. What’s it like seeing these two companies work together? And what do you think the long-term benefits of this relationship can be?
A: I think it’s great that TNA and the WWE, mostly NXT, are working together. It’s a win-win for both companies. For (TNA), it’s obvious they get to put their talent on the bigger stage. We saw Jordynna Grace at the Royal Rumble, and since then, Jordynne Grace has gone on to sign with the WWE. We saw the current TNA men’s champion Joe Hendry at the Royal Rumble, had a nice little showing, and oh, by the way, he got eliminated by Roman Reigns. If you’re going to get thrown over the top rope in the Royal Rumble, you probably want to get eliminated by Roman Reigns. And he did.
Also, there’s a lot of talent in the WWE that have had very successful careers in TNA. Some of AJ Styles’ best work was done in TNA and if the WWE ever wanted to do a documentary or a special or a feature on AJ Styles, 12 to 15 years of his career (are in TNA). I’m sure WWE would have access to all of that stuff, now.
There’s a tag team out there named The Dudley Boyz. When the Dudley Boyz went to TNA, they changed your name to Team 3D. Lots of myself and D-Von’s best stuff happened over there. If WWE needed access to it, they could probably get it. The list goes on and on.
I think this relationship is going to work out very well. I’ve said on Busted Open, I want to see creatively TNA be allowed to do what they want to do. I don’t want to see the WWE kind of looming over their shoulder with their day to day, with their talent. When the talents are crossing over, obviously it has to be 50-50, and it has to work out for both companies. I want TNA to do the TNA thing moving forward without the worry of anybody you know looking over their shoulder.
Q: Is there someone in NXT right now that maybe hasn’t hit the top of their card that you see that it factor, who could maybe be that next person coming up there?
A: I don’t like the guy very much, but Ethan Page sure has got something to him. The Rock decided to walk in on Ethan Page’s promo while Ethan was talking to Ava. He could sit back and he could say that he was going to visit his daughter, but he also had a significant amount of interaction with Ethan Page. Rock could have interacted with anybody he wanted that night on NXT. He chose Ethan Page. I think Ethan, given the right amount of time, can definitely be something for the WWE.
Roxanne (Perez) is going to be that undersized heel that you just want to shut up by smacking her in the mouth, like in the cartoons, you know, the big bulldog and the little bulldog. ‘Hey Spike! Hey Spike! ‘Hey Spike! Roxanne reminds me of the little bulldog or maybe Dino from the Flintstones. He’s always going a mile a minute. And when you get somebody like (that), I just want to see them get shut up. I think Roxanne is going to do well. I think Giulia is going to do well. I think Stephanie (Vaquer) is going to do well.
Q: WWE released a couple of clips of Gunther showing up and interacting with some of the contestants on the show. Punk was there. What was it like watching Punk interact with the younger talent?
A: The day that Punk showed up was a really strong day here in NXT and for the future greats of LFG. What really stood out to me that day was after Punk talked to the future greats, he challenged them. He basically dangled the microphone, dangled the pipe bomb in front of them and said, ‘Alright, who wants to give this a try?’
Before he could even get the words out of his mouth, two people were standing up Zena Sterling and Jasper Troy, two complete opposites. I was so impressed by the both of them wanting to be the first ones to grab that microphone and cut that promo.
And Castor was able to get to the microphone first. And he said things on that microphone that floored everyone. It was so real. It was so emotional. And I looked at him when he was done and I said, ‘I applaud you for taking the bull by the horns. And you know, being the first one I go, but you’ve been waiting to cut that promo your entire life, haven’t you?’And he’s like, ‘Absolutely I have.’
He went after Punk. To have the guts to go first is one thing. To go after Punk, and that’s why that’s a can’t-miss episode. This future great, who has been around for a cup of coffee and a biscuit went after CM Punk.