Former WCW World Heavyweight Champion Diamond Dallas Page has opened up about his struggles during his WWE career.
While appearing on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Diamond Dallas Page spoke about a plethora of subjects, including Dominik Mysterio, the superplex from Hardcore Holly that ended his career, and MJF.
During the interview, Diamond Dallas Page mentioned that he was never thrilled with what WWE did with him. When interviewer Chris Van Vliet mentioned his feeling that WWE just didn’t want WCW talent to be successful in their promotion, DDP said the following;
“I did take it personally in the beginning, but I realised later, it wasn’t about me. It didn’t matter if Booker [T] was the only guy there, would have been him. If any other guy would have come in who was the top guy, it would have been them. They wanted it to be me because I was one of the biggest faces. I was the only guy besides Goldberg that WCW ever made, at that level, you know, and they wanted it to be that character.”
Diamond Dallas Page won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on three separate occasions, and also held the WCW Tag Team Championships on four occasions. He never did see Main Event-level championship glory in WWE, though he does have reigns of the European, Tag Team and Hardcore Championships to add to his trophy cabinet.
How Did Diamond Dallas Page’s WWE Career End?
While wrestling Hardcore Holly on the 18th of April, 2002 edition of SmackDown, DDP was running at Hardcore Holly while Holly laid in the corner of the ring. Holly got his foot up to stop the attack, but the resulting blow unintentionally tweaked DDP’s neck. Page then followed up with a superplex, which only furthered the damage, leading to him suffering a severe neck injury.
This sequence ended Diamond Dallas Page’s WWE career, but he would continue to wrestle for other promotions after recovering. Most recently, he teamed with Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall on the 1st of January, 2020 edition of AEW Dynamite. His team would ultimately lose the match to the trio of MJF, the Butcher and the Blade.