DDP says he should have kept that WCW mentality when he was pitched the infamous “stalker” storyline in WWE.
DDP was a recent guest on The Angle podcast and talked about how he should have turned down his introductory angle in WWE, one that saw him “stalking” The Undertaker’s first wife, Sara. DDP talked about how he thought there was money in a feud with himself and The Rock, but WWE had plans to get a win back after WCW had beaten them for so long. Noting that he was initially upset, Page said he knew it was just business in the end. He explained that Vince McMahon taught him it was OK to walk away from a negotiation, and it’s something he should have done himself in WWE.
“Vince McMahon taught me you can never be afraid to walk away from the table. I had all the coin, I just wouldn’t have done it. [I should have said] I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it until it’s perfectly laid out. I learned you can’t be afraid to walk away from the table,” he said. “What I should’ve done was got up. When Vince said ‘I want you to stalk The Undertaker’s wife’ and he’s looking across from one of the most beautiful women ever—not just professional wrestling, ever, my 1st ex-wife—I was there to be a part of the team.
“In WCW I fought for everything. I fought, fought, fought, fought. If I were in the WCW mindset and Vince said ‘we want you to stalk Undertaker’s wife’, I would’ve looked at him, looked at her, looked back at him, and said, ‘Vince are you looking at my wife? Like, I’m going to stalk some other cat’s wife when everybody knows she’s my wife?’ What I should’ve said, I should’ve done is was shook everyone’s hands and said ‘love the idea, but not for DDP. When you want to do people’s champion vs. people’s champion (DDP vs. The Rock) call me.’ And I wouldn’t have given a shit if I had to put Rock over every night, it would have just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. It would’ve gotten better and better and better,” Page added, “but that’s what I learned.”
DDP also talked about his own WWE Hall Of Fame induction, and how it came to be. He explained that he didn’t know it was coming when it did, but feels like it made sense due to everything he accomplished in the wrestling business. Noting that his story was unique, he said
“Well for starters, I didn’t have any idea. Normally, they let you know either in January or February. Normally they let you know right before, this was in October and I was in my hometown and they were doing a video on me. WWE wanted to bury WCW when we got there. It was business, it wasn’t me personally. I took the brunt of it, but I knew if I just shut my mouth and didn’t complain like so many other guys do on this show or that show, and put down the company. They are going to have to put me in that Hall of Fame or something. How could you not? No one’s ever had my story. When we started kicking [WWE’s] ass is when my career blew up,” DDP explained.
“I’m still tight with everyone there. Triple H and I go way back. When he called me and I was filming in my hometown of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, I was like, ‘hey bro’ because I put a call in to him. I thought he was just calling me back. He started talking about my career,” he explained, “and my work ethic, blah blah blah… and at some point, I started thinking, ‘is this that call?’ And I don’t want to say it is because I don’t know, but they’re filming me and at some point, he says ‘we’re going to put you in.’ Dusty Rhodes said, ‘D, there’s only two things that are real in our business, and one is winning your first world championship title, and two is that Hall Of Fame ring.’”
If you use this transcript, credit The Angle (h/t WrestleZone) and link back to this post.
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