WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) spoke with CasinoBeats.com about various topics, including how he got his first break in wrestling.
DDP said, “I think it was a setup to a match and me being the only one to say no to the NWO. That was my idea, and it came off of me wrestling Eddie Guerrero for like three months and really getting over with the boys at the end of 1996. And I was not supposed to win that match at Halloween Havoc. Eddie came off the top rope to me on the floor and he tore some of the white cartilage in between the ribs and in the middle of the comeback, Eddie stopped me and said, ‘Diamond Cutter!’ I went, ‘what? No!’ He said, ‘Diamond Cutter. Diamond Cutter.’ So now I beat Eddie. That’s a big win, but it didn’t translate that with the booking committee, and I’m still in the same spot. And so I went to Kevin Nash and I told him about the idea. He told me to go see Eric Bischoff. I said, ‘no, I gotta see Scott first.’ And he reminded me, that without me, Scott Hall never has the career he has because I changed his whole look. I got him in front of Dusty and in front of Magnum T.A. because they didn’t think that Big Scott Hall could draw money. Well, the guy who became the Diamond Studd, who became Razor Ramon was one of the smartest guys in the business. He’s Jake Roberts when it came to the psychology of wrestling in general, so for me, when I told Scott the idea, he’s like, ‘I love it. Go tell Bischoff. I said ‘no, we’ll tell Bischoff tonight.’ One of the really cool things, I don’t know if you guys know this, but Nitro would air live from 8pm to 11pm. And because of the three hour time difference going to LA, it would play again from 11pm to 2am. So we got to go to the bar at the hotel we were at and watch the matches. And that’s where I didn’t tell Eric the idea, ‘oh, I wanna drop the two most over guys in professional wrestling right now.’ Like he would’ve looked at me and said, ‘no, you’re not!’ So Kevin Nash said it. Whole different animal. So they set up, which made Randy Savage want to work with me because I couldn’t have said, ‘you know what? I wanna work a story with Randy Savage.’ Not at that point in my career. You know, it had to come from Randy and then we were so hot. I mean the crowds were so hot and that whole thing with me and Randy and Kimberly and defending her honor, and I mean so many people can relate to that. And man, the promos that we cut back and forth and the live energy of the crowd, it was unbelievable. And the night before, the pay-per-view. We were in a town called Florida, South Carolina. No cameras, no phones, and Arn Anderson walked in and said, ‘what do you want to do tonight, Randy?’ Because every night, DDP got left laying or hit a couple of Diamond Cutters and got left laying or hit a diamond cutter on Virgil and escaped through the crowd. But most of the time, a DDP was left laying. Arn Anderson said, ‘so what do you want to do tonight, Mach (Randy Savage)?’ And he’s tying his boots. I’ll never forget it. He looks up at me and he goes, ‘I think I want to take the Diamond Cutter.’ And man, Arn was like, ‘well, I hope you know what this could do for your career.’ I’m like ‘yeah!’ But this is a house show. This ain’t tv. This ain’t a pay-per-view. It’s a house show. Randy was testing the waters and when he heard that pop, when I hit that Diamond Cutter out of nowhere and I’m laying on my face because he just beat the hell outta me, the whole match. And so I’m laying there on my face. He’s laying on his back. About 10 or 15 seconds later, I just laid my arm over him. 1, 2, 3. The place went ballistic and all I could do as loud as it was was hear him say, ‘well, guess we knew what we’re doing for Spring Stampede.’ And I thought to myself, man, if that happens. That will change my life dramatically. And to be honest, Kyle, I had no idea how much that was gonna change my life. It was insane.”
On who sold the Diamond Cutter the best:
“Ah, God. There were so many good ones. But I literally have to say Tank Abbott and Tank Abbott was an MMA fighter who came in, legitimate badass dude, and the Diamond Cutter was a shoot hold. One of your brothers, Stephen Regal, the great Lord Stephen Regal, who was one of the best technical wrestlers maybe ever, but definitely in that top 1%. But there’s a hold that you craft. It’s not like a headlock. It’s reversed and it’s a cravat. And if I put you in that cravat and you don’t go, you are going anyway. And Tank happened. When I went, I don’t think he was ready because I came down, his feet went straight up and he came down flat. I was just happy that he was a tough son of a bitch because that could do some serious damage. And I tell him, if you don’t go, you are going anyway. He was pretty devastating looking.”
On Dominik Mysterio:
“Let me ask you though, did you not feel the crowd when Mysterio went over? Did you not feel the entire crowd turning him babyface? They loved it. I was there in the front row live and they loved it. Like the kid’s gonna be a hell of a babyface when he makes that flip. Hold onto that heel thing as long as you can, because when he flips, I’ll tell you what that’s a kid I’m a big fan of. We both have the same birthday. I love his old man. But I am personally a big fan of how hard he’s worked to get to this spot. I don’t know many young kids who could have come in the way he did with his dad, not really know how to work at all, and has turned himself, man. Whoever was in charge of making that happen, they are a king maker because that kid, he has got it all and some. It was interesting because he’s the biggest heel, and yet at that last WrestleMania, boy you swear to God he was the biggest baby face of the company.”
