WWE Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley dropped a wild behind-the-scenes story on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, revealing that Batista once legitimately knocked out Randy Orton during a WWE tour – while D-Von was away for his son’s christening. The incident, according to D-Von, happened during one of the company’s international tours in the early 2000s, at a time when Orton was known for being unpredictable and Batista was still gaining his footing in the locker room. D-Von had taken a short break from the road to attend his son Matthew’s christening in New York and had left behind a volatile group of wrestlers with a simple plea: stay out of trouble.
“I’m trying to keep everybody in line,” D-Von recalled. “Think about it: Maven, Randy Orton at his wildest, Batista, Dawn Marie, and I think it might’ve been Rey (Mysterio) at the time. Right before I was supposed to leave, I looked at all of them and said, ‘Guys, I’m not scolding you like I’m your dad, but I’m asking you – please, please do not get in trouble. Do not do anything that you wouldn’t do if I wasn’t here.’”
The crew promised they’d behave. “They were like, ‘No, D-Von, we’re going to be good. We’re good.’” But D-Von had a gut feeling something would go wrong. “I was like, ‘Oh God. This is not good.’”
Sure enough, during the christening, D-Von received a frantic call from Dawn Marie. “She goes, ‘Dave knocked out Randy!’ I go, ‘What?!’ She goes, ‘Yeah, they were in the ring and Randy pi$$ed Dave off, and Dave clotheslined the hell out of him.’”
Stunned, D-Von immediately asked to speak with Batista. “He never called me D-Von,” D-Von said. “He would always call me Rev because of the Reverend D-Von gimmick. He was like, ‘Rev? He kept paintbrushing me in the back of the head.’”
D-Von clarified what that meant: “You know how Scott Hall does the paintbrush? [Batista] was like, ‘Well, he kept doing that to me and I told him to stop and he wouldn’t stop. So I whipped him off and gave him a clothesline.’”
D-Von asked how hard the clothesline was. Batista said, “Well, he flipped inside out, but he got a concussion.” Appalled, D-Von scolded him: “Dave, why would you do that?” Batista simply replied, “Rev, he wouldn’t stop… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
D-Von later followed up with Randy Orton, who brushed off the incident with his trademark cocky confidence. “I said, ‘Randy, are you all right?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I’m fine, D-Von. You know, I’m fine. I’m tough.’ I said, ‘Okay, how’s the concussion?’ He goes, ‘I ain’t worried about that.’ This was when Randy was at his crazy stage.”
Randy even joked about the injury: “He was like, ‘Maybe I’ll ask Dave to do it again.’ I was like, ‘Randy, please don’t do that. Please stop while you’re ahead.’”
The whole incident left D-Von exasperated. “He was like, ‘You should take off more often.’ I go, ‘No, we won’t have a crew if I do that.’”
Batista and Randy Orton went on to become top stars and future WrestleMania main eventers.
Also Read: “I never banged Batista. He’s not my type” – Former WWE Diva
