DDP recalled getting the call for his WWE Hall of Fame induction and wishing the late Dusty Rhodes could have inducted him.
Diamond Dallas Page was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2017, and on a recent episode of DDP’s Snake Pit, he recalled being on film when he got the call that he would be inducted.
“I was doing a documentary on me called Positively Living. It was the last shot that we were doing and it was in my hometown, outside one of my best friend’s bars called The Broadway in Point Pleasant, and it was a sunset. ‘We wanna film this outside, we wanna film this outside,’ ‘OK, awesome.’ So I walk outside because it’s their business, so they knew. They were showing all different facets of my life, and at some point, he goes, ‘someone wants to talk to you.’”
DDP continued, recalling that it was Triple H who made the call to tell him he was being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame – and he didn’t have any idea that the call was about to come, especially because of the timing of when the call was made.
“I pick up the phone and it’s Triple H, and I’m like, ‘hey bro, what’s up, man?’ And he goes, ‘Hey man, so how’s the shooting going?’ ‘Really great. We’re at the last shot right now.’ We were talking just bullsh*t. And then he says something about, ‘it’s actually crazy when your whole life, and how you came in and when you were thirty-five and a half, and I’m thinking to myself because I’m there as Terra Ryzing, you know, what’s he thinking? Is he out of his mind?
“He’s never going to be able to learn it, he’ll be too old by the time he figures it out. And then you’re down that PowerPlant every damn day.’ And then he starts really putting me over, and then I’m looking and I’m seeing the cameras and they’re filming me. Then I’m like, ‘oh my god, is this that call?’ One thing he told me was that they’ve always wanted to film someone hearing they’re going in [into the WWE Hall of Fame]. Like, how do they react?
“The camera’s there and now you get the call, you’ve got a good idea you’re going in. I had no idea. Mainly because the calls that I’ve always gotten are in, like, maybe in late December, but it’s normally January. This was October. I had no idea.”
One person who believed that Diamond Dallas Page should’ve anticipated the Hall of Fame call was X-Pac, but DDP maintains that he had no idea what was happening.
“I remember X-Pac saying, ‘come on, you had to know.’ ‘Yo bro, it was October, I did not put it together and I’m not going to be like – I wasn’t going to do it,” Dallas said.” I pushed it out of my brain. I’ve always said, when it’s supposed to happen, it’ll happen. For people who are waiting for something that hasn’t happened yet, when it’s supposed to happen, it will happen.”
DDP then went on to reveal that he believes the American Dream Dusty Rhodes should have inducted him if he were still alive, but the legend sadly passed away in 2015. Diamond Dallas Page was instead inducted by former WCW President Eric Bischoff, who made mention of Rhodes in his induction speech.
“And you’ve got to just breathe and keep throwing out into the universe. The law of attraction. When he told me, man, I got really choked up and I started welling up, and then I said, ‘I wish Dusty was here.’ That’s who should have inducted me. The cool thing about Bischoff was he noticed that and he knew that. And that’s something he put in there, that I’m not supposed to be the guy.”
When it comes to highlights in his career, DDP says that his WWE Hall of Fame induction is number one, and detailed why he feels that way.
“It’s number one because it is everything. I got to thank everybody. Past and present, people who weren’t here anymore from Dusty to Jake, to Dusty’s wife Michelle, Cody’s mom. All those calls I made to him in between working in Florida Championship Wrestling with him, coming into the WCW, and being in WWE, he became the polka-dotted guy up there.
“And I’ll say it again, how you turn John Wayne meets Elvis, put him in polka-dots and he still gets it over. You know, that’s the talent. But Michelle was the person that answered the phone, Cody’s mom before Cody was here. She answered the phone and said, ‘I’ll make sure he calls you back, Dallas,’ because she was around me, you know, and she knew how much I cared about Dusty.”
In a February interview, DDP revealed that he spoke to Cody Rhodes ahead of his AEW exit and detailed what was said.
h/t WrestlingInc