Tag: diamond dallas page

Eric Bischoff to induct DDP into WWE Hall of Fame

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Following yesterday’s announcement of Jim Cornette inducting the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express into the Hall of Fame, WWE revealed on Tuesday afternoon that Eric Bischoff would be doing the honors for Diamond Dallas Page.

Bischoff and DDP have been longtime friends, working together in the AWA and again when Bischoff was in control of WCW.

“I’m honored,” Bischoff said about inducting Page. “It puts a smile on my face because I know how much it means to him. This is the Holy Grail for him.”

“His journey [in life] is similar to his journey in the ring,” Bischoff said. “DDP was the common guy, the everyman, a blue-collar guy from New Jersey. He represented something that the average person could believe in, in a way that was a little unique. [People thought] ‘That could be me. If I could just get that break, work a little harder, I could be that guy.’ That’s a very inspirational quality to have.”

WWE hasn’t yet confirmed who will be inducting Beth Phoenix, but all other members of the company’s 2017 Hall of Fame class are accounted for.

John Cena will be doing the honors for Kurt Angle, Cornette will induct Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson, John “Bradshaw” Layfield & Ron Simmons will induct Teddy Long, and Ricky Steamboat will induct Rick Rude at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida on March 31st.

DDP joins 2017 WWE Hall of Fame class

Posted on by Joseph Currier

This Monday brought another addition to the WWE Hall of Fame with the announcement that Diamond Dallas Page would be part of its 2017 class.

Rolling Stone was given the news by WWE and conducted an interview with Page. He is the fifth officially confirmed member of this year’s class, joining Kurt Angle, Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, and Teddy Long.

In the interview with Rolling Stone, Page said he got the call from WWE telling him that he would be inducted into the Hall of Fame all the way back in October.

“They handed me the phone and said, ‘Boss wants to talk to you,'” Page said about finding out the news. “It’s HHH. I called him a couple weeks earlier and he hadn’t gotten back to me yet, so I thought this was that return call. So we’re talking about casual stuff, and then I start to hear him talk about my career and where I’ve been and how I got here, and then it hits me — is this that call? 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.'”

DDP is best known to wrestling audiences for his run as one of the bigger stars in WCW in the late 90s through the closure of the promotion. He also had a brief stay in WWE after WCW went out of business, though he failed to reach the heights that he did during his WCW tenure.

Page didn’t find wrestling stardom until fairly late in his life and has since worked with wrestlers like Jake Roberts and Scott Hall on their physical health and substance abuse issues after developing his DDP Yoga program.