Legitimizing the WCW Legacy? DDP Talks Hall of Fame Induction

Diamond Dallas Page’s induction into the WWE Hall of Fame has been long overdue. You can quibble about whether his career justifies his going in ahead of many other deserving stars, but there’s no argument that his role behind-the-scenes in turning around the lives of past legends like Jake the Snake and Scott Hall makes him more than worthy of WWE’s top honor.

WWE broke the news through Rolling Stone earlier today, and the venerable magazine featured an interview with the honoree. When asked about how he received the call, DDP’s humble enthusiasm was on full display.

“We were filming Positively Living, the Diamond Dallas Page three-DVD set. I’m a Jersey boy, so I was on the Jersey Shore in my hometown, and it was the end of the day and we were filming one more thing. They handed me the phone and said, “Boss wants to talk to you.” It’s HHH. I called him a couple weeks earlier and he hadn’t gotten back to me yet, so I thought this was that return call. So we’re talking about casual stuff, and then I start to hear him talk about my career and where I’ve been and how I got here, and then it hits me – is this that call? I’m not a guy who has trouble talking, but I couldn’t talk. Tears are running down the sides of my cheeks and I just said, ‘Bro, I love you man.'”

There’s no question that DDP’s best days were in WCW, and while he’s had several appearances in WWE, his career with the former juggernaut forms the bulk of what he’s known for. So with both himself and Sting in WWE’s Hall of Fame, does DDP think the legacy of WCW has been legitimized?

“I think absolutely. Nature Boy [Ric Flair]’s been in every federation, so the Four Horsemen going in I thought was the beginning of that. But then when Stinger went in, I thought OK, this is huge. And now that I’m in, wow. And Rock ‘n’ Roll Express too. People don’t realize how over they really were. They were like the Beatles man, and they’re out there wrestling the Road Warriors. Before the Midnight Rockers, they were the guys. It’s just gonna be a great night for all of us, and more than anything the fans.”