DDP On Triple H Calling Him For WWE HOF, What He Thought HHH Was Calling About, Rick Rude In HOF
I recently interviewed former WCW World Heavyweight Champion Diamond Dallas Page, who will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame tonight. During the interview, I asked DDP when he learned about the induction.
"October, and I didn't tell anybody but my wife and business partner," Page said. "I didn't even tell my family until maybe about a month and a half ago. I told my girls first because they have to go and get dresses and time to get their schtick on and made them promise not to say anything. My daughter Brittany, when she heard about it on the internet was saying how proud she was of her dad. My buddy Steve, who is my business partner, Steve called her and said, Brittany, get that down. That's just the internet talking. She said, 'Oh no!' The news was up there for like 3 minutes, and Steve just happened to see it because if she had said it then people would have just assumed that DDP said he was in. You know how they are about that? I'm just happy to be here. Raj, I was just thinking, I'm going to say this in the open, to think... I was at WrestleMania 6 and driving the Pink Cadillac and now 27 years later I am being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Wow!"
DDP also discussed the call from Triple H regarding the induction. Page noted that he thought Triple H was calling him back from a call he made to The Game a month earlier.
"I thought he was calling me back, because when I called him – I called him about a month before this and then I called him a week after that and a week after that because I really wanted to talk to him about something and when they told me that the boss wanted to talk to me, I'm at the end of my shooting day," DDP said. "I'm shooting Positively Living, which will be out April 4th, which is before my 61st birthday. WWE gives me the greatest birthday presents ever! Last year I got to wrestle at WrestleMania, two days from 60, get out there and get that pop in front of 101,000 people. On the one picture that I have that goes from the sides, you can probably see about 15,000 people, 14,000 people have the Diamond Cutter sign up. It is crazy and to get that for my birthday. I saw Stephanie and Triple H, I just thanked the s–t out of them and kept thanking them for this birthday present.
"For this year, when I got the call, I just thought he was calling me back, and I wasn't thinking about the Hall of Fame. While we were talking, and you know how you talk to someone and you think to yourself, gosh, what did I want to say to him? When Triple H makes some time in his insane schedule to call you back, you better remember what you wanted to say to him, and I can't. I'm thinking, God, what was it? I'm trying to rack my brain and just letting him talk, so he's just going on about my career and I'm just like, yeah man, we broke in about the same time. I went from a Manager to a wrestler, he had already come in as a wrestler. He had that one year contract. He was there at the Power Plant every day that I was there. If he wasn't on the road he was at the Power Plant just like me. So, he's talking and said to me, 'here I am at 22 and I'm looking at this guy who is 35+, how does he think he's going to do this? So, he just keeps talking and talking and then I realize, wait a minute, is this 'that call?' As I realize, I'm looking at the guys with the cameras and they're filming me. I'm like, okay, I don't want to think that it is unless he says it because I could be wrong, but once I realized that that was happening it's like a boom to your chest. When you have a passion about this business that I did and do, it means a lot. Like, wow, biggest honor of my life, you know? Anything and everything I have done. This is like the Resurrection of Jake the Snake, it's everything – I mean, I couldn't even talk. He just kept talking and talking and talking and really putting me over, so we get to the end, I thanked him for the talk and told him that I loved him. I didn't have a lot of words and that was how I felt."
Page admitted that he never did remember what he had called Triple H about. I also asked Page how well he knew the late Rick Rude, who is also being inducted tonight.
"Pretty good. I loved him," Page admitted. "Rick was totally his own animal. He was totally his own animal. I really liked him a lot. We spent time on the road together. After Jake [Roberts] left [WCW], he was really intimidated when Jake came in because Jake is Jake. They had some great magic together, and Rick had grown so much since then. I mean, Rick is Rick. He can do anything at that point, but we got to spend time on the road together and really had some fun times. He was a lot of fun to be around.
"I didn't know that he was in. I was talking on some show, and I said that I had heard a rumor that Rick Rude might be inducted, I would love it if it would happen, and people said that they heard that he was from a news site, so I was really happy. What a class. From [Kurt] Angle, and people who don't really know Teddy Long's history, Teddy is a trailblazer. Teddy needs to be in the Hall of Fame man. I am so happy for him. Here's a guy when they started where there wasn't a lot of black guys, and he started as one of the crew guys setting up the ring. Teddy has done everything and it's funny because there is one thing that me and him, I can't remember who I was wrestling, P.N News, I can't remember who my guy was, but we had a match, a tag team match and me and him as Managers were wrestling. I just loved him, I love him and was so happy for him. I'm also super happy for the Rock N Roll Express because a lot of people who are fans don't know how over they were. Oh my God, they weren't just over, they were the f–king Beatles. When they were over, they were over. Ricky Morton... man, he's going to freaking kill it. When he gets up there to talk, I can't imagine him not killing it.
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