DDP Says He Called Cody Rhodes "Young Buck" At An Early Age
Diamond Dallas Page spoke with Wrestling Inc's Kelsi Schreiber at Starrcast before tonight's "All In" event. Page talked about knowing Cody at a young age thanks to his close relationship with Dusty Rhodes.
"I've known Cody since he was ten," DDP said. "Without Dusty Rhodes there is no Diamond Dallas Page, he took me under his wing and believed in me when nobody did, nobody. ... Back then, I used to always call [Cody], 'young buck.' I've never really told this story until this week, because I've been saving it, because of the Young Bucks and how amazing they are."
DDP continued that when Cody was in high school he decided to stop playing football and focus on amateur wrestling because he wanted to become State Champion. Cody would end up getting to around 33-0 in his junior year and DDP kept checking in on him to see how his year was going. He said Cody was getting tons of attention now from the news about how well he was doing and told DDP it was so crazy that he couldn't even imagine. DDP then had some advice for the excited Rhodes
"I went, 'Woah, well, slow down young buck," DDP laughed. "I think I was a three-time world champion at one time.' He was like 'No! Come on, man!' and I was just busting his chops. I said, 'Listen, young buck, the deal is you've got to keep your feet on the ground because you got a whole big sign on your back. You got a big bulls-eye on that and you gotta keep your feet on the ground, but keep reaching for the stars, bro."
Cody would go 48-0 that year and win the state championship.
DDP also noted that Dusty Rhodes would say he had five friends, and he was among that group for a long time. When Dusty passed away, Cody called up DDP and wanted to reiterate that sentiment to him.
"When he passed, Cody had called me and he said, 'Listen man, you know Dusty would always say he has five friends and I just want you to know right before he passed, he told me that again,'" DDP said. "He said some guys were off and on the list, but Dallas was always on that list. And for him to tell me that – even though I had heard that from Dream – it was super special."
You can check out the full interview in the video above.
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