The WWE sent out an announcement on Monday that Diamond Dallas Page is their fourth announced inductee into the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame. Page joins gold medalist Kurt Angle, NWA tag team icons The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express, and former referee, manager, and authority figure Teddy Long as members of this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class. Rolling Stone magazine spoke to Diamond Dallas Page about his induction .
Dallas said that Triple H called him while he was shooting the documentary for his upcoming WWE DVD set Positively Living . He thought it was a return call, but it turned into a lot more than that.
“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.’”
Diamond Dallas Page had a small amount of success in the WWE, but he had a huge impact in other areas of his career. He did hold the WWE European Championship and was a former tag team champion with the late Chris Kanyon, but fans know him best from his days in WCW.
While wrestling in WCW, most people talk today about the nWo, Sting, and Bill Goldberg. When looking at the biggest names from WCW history, names like Lex Luger, Ric Flair, and the Steiner Brothers come up. However, during the days of the nWo, Diamond Dallas Page was easily one of the most popular stars in the company.
Whenever his theme song hit, with “Self High Five” blaring out, the arena would get as loud as when anyone came out. Even with Bill Goldberg being so popular, a match between Goldberg and Diamond Dallas Page had just as many fans cheering for Dallas as they were cheering for Goldberg. That was also arguably the best match of Bill Goldberg’s entire career.
Diamond Dallas Page started out in the AWA thanks to a friendship with his neighbor Eric Bischoff. He was a manager and moved on to WCW where he managed wrestlers like Scott Hall when Hall was known as the Diamond Studd.
Diamond Dallas Page started wrestling and worked hard to improve his in-ring skills over the years. It all paid off when he won the Pro Wrestling Illustrated most improved wrestler in 1996 and then was named the fourth best wrestler in the world for 1997 and 1998 by the same magazine.
The popularity of Diamond Dallas Page was seen outside of the ring. Football players began doing his Diamond Cutter hand gesture when they scored touchdowns. While people considered Sting the leader in the WCW feud with the nWo, it was Page that really led the way for many fans inside the ring.
During his time in WCW, Diamond Dallas Page won the world title three times, the world tag team titles four times, the U.S. title twice, and the TV title once. His most famous feud at the time came against “Macho Man” Randy Savage.
However, while his WCW career was Hall of Fame worthy, Diamond Dallas Page cemented his legacy in the industry thanks to DDP Yoga . Page started the workout program when he was out injured and decided to mix his wife’s yoga routines with resistance training.
Wrestlers like Chris Jericho and Goldust have used DDP Yoga to not only extend their careers but help them improve well into their 40s by using it. Jericho told WWE.com that he was in pain all the time before he started DDP Yoga.
“[In 2012,] I was in such excruciating pain and was willing to try anything. I had never done yoga in my life, but after about five or six weeks, the pain started to go away. After two months it was gone… The program has helped immensely; had I not started doing DDP Yoga, I would not have been able to return to WWE”
Diamond Dallas Page and DDP Yoga were also influential in saving the lives of men like Scott Hall and Jake “The Snake” Roberts, two men who had fallen on hard times thanks to alcohol and drug addictions. DDP Yoga and Diamond Dallas Page gave both men something to focus their attention to, and it helped them both physically and mentally. Jake Roberts put it bluntly.
“If it wasn’t for DDP, if I wouldn’t be dead right now, I’d be asking to die.”
The rumors that Diamond Dallas Page would be the next entrant to the WWE Hall of Fame have been rampant for months. The minute that the Positively Living DVD release date was set up at the same time as WrestleMania , many people expected it was his time.
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Diamond Dallas Page said that his Hall of Fame induction , along with that of Sting and the Four Horsemen before him, as well as the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express this year, proves the legitimacy of WCW. For many fans of WCW, this is an induction that has been a very long time coming.
The WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place in Orlando on March 31, 2017.
[Featured Image by WWE]