Devon Reveals Whose Idea It Was For Team 3-D Breakup, Talks Breaking Team Up In TNA Vs. WWE
TNA Television Champion Devon was a guest this past week on The LAW promoting Slammiversary this Sunday night and Impact Wrestling's move to 8pm EST on Thursday nights.
To download the entire interview with Devon, click here. Here are some highlights from the interview:
On TNA's failed move to Monday nights in 2010: "I know a lot of people would consider it taking a step back, because we did it for a little bit of time, and then we went back to being taped. I look at it as getting our feet wet, and experimenting with it like any other thing that you would try for the first time. You go back to the drawing board, and you see what worked and what didn't work, so when you're ready to come back to live TV, you know exactly what to expect, you know exactly what to look for. I think that's what the whole thing behind us going into live TV the first time a year back, I think that's why we did what we did. It wasn't necessarily taking a step back, but just getting our feet wet and seeing what we were dealing with."
Breaking up Team 3-D in TNA compared to WWE: "One of the things I love about this is that we're able to get the opportunity to come out here and showcase our skills individually as opposed to being together. We know what we've got together, but what can we do individually? I think back in 2002, when we did separate for the first time in the other company, again, to me, testing the waters to see how it goes. I think we both learned a lot from that breakup. I think the fans take it in a little different light; 'Team 3D, the Dudley Boyz, they didn't make it, that's a bad idea.' No, it wasn't a bad idea. Nothing's bad. The fans have got to understand, nothing's really bad when you do things like that, because if it doesn't work the first time, you go back, you regroup, you do what works, and then you maybe come back to it. That's exactly what we did. I think a lot of the fans have to understand that when we were approached with the idea, we felt strongly about it, because we have done everything there was to do.
"In every federation we've ever been in, we've conquered the tag team division, and there was nothing really left for us to do. We went to Japan, we conquered Japan. We went all around the world. There was nothing left for us to do. I know the fans live off of what we did yesterday, but the fans gotta understand, we wanted to be selfish in a sense right now. We understand what they wanted, which was us being together, but we wanted to take the limelight individually, as opposed to sharing it. I think that was a little bit of a hard pill for some fans who are very dedicated and loyal to us to swallow. What a lot of fans don't realize, and I'm going to go on record in saying, was that it was more me than Bubba that really wanted to break up. I've always wanted to do singles; I've always wanted to test the waters. Whether I failed or succeeded, I needed to know at the end of the career if that was going to work, and I think right now in both of our favor, it's working very well. For those fans that it was a hard pill to swallow, I think it's gradually going down little by little."
On his weight loss and overall condition: "I'll be honest with you, and I've told him this personally, it's been a running joke but I'm being serious, and we laugh about it everytime we go out to eat, but I'm training for Kurt Angle. I want Kurt. I love Kurt to death; we've been in that ring together and done things tremendously, but I've always said that guys like Kurt, you can really test your how good your endurance and how good you are in the that ring by getting in there with someone like Kurt Angle and being able to survive, being able to match wrestling ability with him, and it's not just being able to hang in there. So I told Kurt when I started dropping that weight in January of 2011, I said, 'All of this, Kurt, happens to be for you. I'm getting ready for you. When that time comes, I'm gonna beat you.'"