Report: WWE Recently Threatened To Fire D-Von Dudley

WWE recently threatened to fire WWE Hall of Famer and NXT producer D-Von Dudley, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 

Dudley was scheduled to be in Bully Ray's corner for his match with Matt Cardona at Battleground Championship Wrestling's Tribute to the Extreme show on Saturday, December 17. It was announced at the event that D-Von wouldn't be there and BCW later claimed that WWE had pulled Dudley from the show as they were playing off the ECW intellectual property which WWE owns. 

In an update, Meltzer reported that WWE did indeed pull D-Von off the show and the pre-show convention. The WWE Hall of Famer went through John Cone for the indy show as D-Von believed he could take outside bookings as he is not an in-ring talent. The booking was nixed by Bruce Prichard and after the issue went to Triple H, D-Von said he was going to take the booking since he had given his word, at which point Triple H didn't give his approval. D-Von was then told if he went to the show he would be fired. 

WWE sources claimed to Meltzer that D-Von's appearance was scrapped because they "didn't want him in a physical risk." The only thing D-Von was scheduled to do on the show, however, was pull out a table following a video message from Terry Funk. 

Since news of D-Von being pulled from the show broke, Battleground Championship Wrestling's Tim Embler has climbed down on their claim, writing on Facebook: 

"Hey guys. I have a follow up statement to the situation with the WWE that I addressed in the ring this past Saturday. After having several conversations today I now know that everything that went down with D-Von was a misunderstanding. The wwe did not intentionally pull Dvon to hurt our show. I won't get into those details but if I had the information then that I have now I wouldn't have made the comments I made. It felt as if we were under attack and I reacted in the defense of our company. I can't thank everyone enough for the support you showed and the future for The Battleground is limitless! Have an amazing rest of the holiday season and just remember... this March... A Champion Shall Rise!"

Meltzer speculated that the statement was only released so BCW could remain in WWE's good graces as the promotion want to maintain positive relations so legends contracted to WWE can still do their conventions.