The master of the Diamond Cutter, the King of Bada-Bing will be part of the 2017 inductees for the WWE Hall of Fame. Diamond Dallas Page goes in this year with other big names like Kurt Angle and The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, something that was rumored and well-expected but never confirmed until yesterday.
The WWE aired a short Hall of Fame video during last night’s WWE RAW (see above), getting people like Eric Bischoff and Scott Hall to open up about why Page was deserving of the honor.
Diamond Dallas Page is a guy that admits to conning his way into the business, using his personality and voice to force his way into the world of professional wrestling. In several interviews, Page always tells a version of a story that involves making a tape of himself playing the role of a wrestling manager that he would send out to anybody he could. During that time, he was living out in Florida running a nightclub and rubbing elbows with wrestlers like Jake “The Snake” Roberts, but he never had any actual wrestling experience before someone reached out to him about booking “‘DIAMOND’ DALLAS PAGE” for a show.
DDP has always had a great story about how he managed to find success in wrestling even though he started late when compared to everyone else. By the time Sting was thirty-two, he had already been a WCW World Heavyweight Champion. For Page, he was only starting to break in as a manager in the AWA.
For myself, I was caught off guard whenever I was thumbing through old issues of WCW Magazine and realizing just how long Diamond Dallas Page had been an entity in World Championship Wrestling. Whenever I became a weekly WCW viewer, he was a guy I immediately gravitated to due to how I perceived him to be some sort of massive superstar in the company in late 1997. This perception was not specifically due to anything I saw on-air involving DDP, mind you, but specifically over the fact that he was a hidden character in the N64 classic WCW vs nWo: World Tour. I mean, if you have to win a championship belt to unlock Randy Savage, then other unlockable characters in the game like Diamond Dallas Page and Glacier MUST be on that same level in real life! Right??
Regardless, I was there to watch Diamond Dallas Page’s rise into the main event scene on WCW Monday Nitro and cheered him on whenever he eventually won his first world title. Personally, I would’ve loved for him have been the one to end Goldberg’s streak at Halloween Havoc 1998, but it is what it is…
Diamond Dallas Page’s induction to the WWE Hall of Fame is well deserved. Sure, Page has had his share of WrestleCrap moments throughout his career (stealing the Diamond Doll’s bingo winnings, wrestling with Jay Leno, wrestling with David Arquette, stalking Sara Taker in the WWF…), but he survived it all only to restart again as a DDP Yoga guru after wrestling was done. He’s clean. He’s healthy. He’s been a great representative for World Championship Wrestling in numerous WWE documentary and Network projects. Chris Jericho credits DDP for extending his life inside the wrestling ring due to his yoga program. Both Scott Hall and Jake Roberts pointed to “Dally” for being the force responsible for rebuilding their bodies and repairing the broken relationships they had in their lives due to drugs and alcohol abuse.
There’s a reason why Page is so loved and remembered fondly by fans and wrestlers alike:
Manager, performer, master of the Diamond Cutter, Yoga Instructor, good friend of over 25 years & now @WWE Hall of Famer. Congrats @RealDDP! pic.twitter.com/PrY68cedpV
— Triple H (@TripleH) February 20, 2017
https://twitter.com/Goldust/status/833794318288576512
Congrats @RealDDP! So happy for you… for your accomplishments and for all you've done for others…you deserve it! #WWE #HallOfFame pic.twitter.com/5llEOB0EiB
— NattieByNature (@NatbyNature) February 20, 2017
We invented the 3D because I was such a fan of the Diamond Cutter.
CONGRATS to my Jersey Shore brother @RealDDP
Happy for him. #RAW
— Bully Ray (@bullyray5150) February 21, 2017
Congratulations to the one and only @RealDDP! You deserve it! #HOF pic.twitter.com/xSojh6Erag
— Booker T. Huffman (@BookerT5x) February 20, 2017
HUGE congrats to @RealDDP on his #WWEHallOfFame induction! Great career and great guy that helped so many in their pro & personal lives.
— Billy Kidman (@WWEKidman) February 20, 2017
Congrats @RealDDP ??? #WWEHOF pic.twitter.com/f8ABTPlLgR
— Noelle Foley (@NoelleFoley) February 21, 2017
GOOD GAWD yall!!!DDP IN H.O.F. HAD HE STARTED EARLIER IN LIFE HE'D HAVE WON IT 16 OR 17 TIMES. SCRATCH THAT HE WOULDN'T HAVE MULTIPLE LOSSES
— JakeSnakeDDT (@JakeSnakeDDT) February 20, 2017
Congratulations to @RealDDP Joins the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2017. Some of my favorite matches were against DDP! Love ya Bro! pic.twitter.com/fdtS7baWU6
— Marc Mero (@MarcMero) February 20, 2017
Another WCW World Heavyweight Champion into the WWE Hall of Fame! At this point, other rumored names for this year’s class include Rick Rude, Christian, William Regal and Beth Phoenix, but there’s no telling who’ll be confirmed until the WWE leaks the news to their various co-opted media outlets.
I’m still holding out hope for a Steiner Brothers induction one day, but Diamond Dallas Page will do for now.
38-year-old World Championship Wrestling fanatic/collector/hoarder. Safety officer by day, scanner of wrestling magazine by night.
He’s got posters on the wall, his favorite rock group’s KISS.
I’m excited for this.
I’ve debated before and I will continue to argue that DDP was the most popular wrestler in the world in 1997. He was everywhere.
Bout time! I still throw a diamond sign in my pics. #selfhighfive
About time
If there was ever a time for them to play his WCW theme, his induction is it.
Do we know who’s putting him in ?
Dave Grohl?
David Arquette?
Ross says it might be Bischoff.
Great go ddp