WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) recently appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show to discuss various topics. One of the subjects he addressed was whether he believes former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon intended to sabotage his career with the stalker storyline in 2001.
In this storyline, DDP was revealed as the person stalking The Undertaker and his then-wife, Sara, after he had given Vince a hug.
DDP said, “I don’t look at it as me personally. [Helwani asks if it’s because he hugged Vince McMahon]. I think that could be part of it. That is the truth. And people would — if I said that. I’m so glad you said that, because people thought it was like, ‘Oh, god, he thinks he hugged Vince. He did. He started doing it.’ No, he did. I would love to ask him because I have — No, I never, I’ve never gotten a real conversation past the beginning with Vince. I don’t really know Vince, but when I got there, we were there. It took so long to get there because of the traffic and everything for me and Kim [Kimberly Page, DDP’s ex-wife]. … Yeah, it took so long to get there that, you know, it was like three hours late. We were two hours or something like that. When I walk in, Vince, of course, sticks out his hand. I go, I’m not shaking your hand, bro. I’ve waited my whole life to meet you. I’m hugging you. … And how many? How many hugs did he do after that? After a while, I really thought it was funny.”
On the plan to always have him as the stalker of Undertaker’s wife:
“You know, they told me they wanted me to stalk Taker’s wife. And Vince is there. Shane’s there. And he Kimberly’s there. If I was in WCW, and they told me that bull*** angle, I’d go, ‘**** you.’ Seriously, I’m gonna be stalking somebody else’s wife?! If I would have thought that that was — actually, you know, I didn’t realize, all right, because I was. So there’s no real reason for me to think that they were gonna, you know, not even give me an opportunity. I just did Take’s [The Undertaker] podcast about five or six months ago. And at some — what a great — I mean, he was so amazing. And we had such a great talk, and I’d spent some time with him on his new show, WWE LFG, because I — they brought me in about finishes. And then we got to the part where we’re gonna talk about WWE, right? And I have no idea where he’s gonna go with it, but I’m gonna just gonna go on the ride because he put me over so huge going into that. And then he said, ‘You know, I can’t,’ I’m paraphrasing, I can’t remember exactly how he said it, but, ‘I’ve been not accused, but I’ve had some fans who are really pissed off at me because they think I was trying to ruin your career.’”
On telling The Undertaker later that they’re fine:
“And we’ve had such an amazing moment up till then, and I could see Mark Calaway [The Undertaker] just going, ‘Don’t they realize this must stop? I’m not the booker. This is not me. This is not me!’ And I just reached across his arm, and I put my hand on him. I said, ‘Take, we’re good bro.’ Let me tell you what good thing. Let me tell you what positive thing that came out of that. And this is how I look at it all the way around. Would I have loved to have had a real run would Taker later? Would have loved that. Would I have loved to have had a real row with People’s Champ [The Rock] versus People’s Champ? Absolutely. But the thing that it taught me was you can’t be afraid to walk away from the table when you have something that you know they want. What I should have done [laughs] when he said that, I should have just done my inner voice, which would have laughed out loud and said, ‘Vince, are you looking at my wife? Seriously?! And of all people, I’m gonna go after Taker’s wife? Like, no!’”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
