DDP Recalls The Day He Became A Worker In WCW
In a new episode of the DDP Snake Pit podcast, Diamond Dallas Page recalled what he considered the first big win of his career — a match against Alex Wright in WCW. Calling it the best match of his career at that time, DDP revealed that the match also went overtime, and it was DDP who was responsible, wanting to do the match exactly as he had laid out beforehand.
"This kid, when he came in, he really had talent," DDP said of Wright. "They pushed him really hard too soon because he was so young. So he had some good wins and getting a win off of him was a big deal. I knew I was going over in this match. And Bischoff had to, literally, that was the first thing that he fought for me on and I didn't know it till later. He had to fight for me to go over because they wanted Alex to go over. And you have 'x' amount of time. One of the things I learned is 'you have 10 minutes here, they start sending me home at five. 'Now wait a minute, I got a 10-minute match worked out in my head and I know exactly what it looks like.' And Jake had told me, you need to take control of your own destiny.
"So Charles Robinson looks at me at one point and says 'D, gotta go home' and I go 'okay.' And I just start getting my heat and that's right when he told me to go home, when I start getting my heat. And boom, boom, boom and I get the kid in a hope spot and take him down, and Charles comes over and goes 'D, D, go home.' I go, 'okay, got it got it.' Bing, bang, boom, I get on him, I have him fight back, give him a hope spot, boom, shut him down.
"Now I'm choking him, he's in the corner, laying with his head back. I've got the ropes and I'm pulling on the ropes, choking him out. Charlie walked up to me and he goes 'D! They're screaming in the back! Go home!' I said 'shut the beep up.' I didn't say the f-bomb, I said 'shut the hell up, I'll take the heat.' And I just kept going. Here's Alex, God bless him 'D, D, let's just go home!' I'm like 'no kid, I'll take the heat'. Bing, bang, boom, now we go into the comeback, boom, I hit him, bang, boom, with a Diamond Cutter and I've got a hell of a pop. And I am expecting to just get my a– reemed. But I was waiting for it. I knew this was probably, up till that moment, the best match I've had in my career."
Fortunately for DDP, the chewing out he expected when he came to the back was not to be. Rather, he was praised by both Kevin Sullivan and Eric Bischoff for a job well done.
"Kevin Sullivan throws out his hand and goes 'congratulations, today, you became a worker,'" DDP said. "And I was like 'holy sh-t.' And then Bischoff pulled me aside later, and he goes, 'you made me look like a genius tonight.'"
To quote this article, please credit DDP Snake Pit and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription