D-Von Dudley said on his YouTube channel that at a WWE restaurant event, a heavily intoxicated Jim Ross allegedly made racially insensitive remarks about him, creating an uncomfortable situation that D-Von chose not to escalate out of fear of losing his job.
On the Grilling JR podcast, Ross strongly denied the allegations, saying he’s never been racist and that African American athletes he’s worked with would confirm this. He noted he doesn’t recall any negative exchanges with D-Von, described Bubba Ray as outspoken but harmless, and expressed interest in reconnecting with D-Von. Ross also praised The Dudleys’ unexpected success, highlighting his role in hiring them despite others overlooking ECW talent.
“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.”