DDP: WWE Hall Of Fame Induction Was The Best Night Of My Life
“It'll be around forever for people to watch and be inspired when I'm long gone.”
Diamond Dallas Page has done it all in wrestling. From being one of the most popular stars in WCW during its peak, through championship wins, and his work with DDP Yoga and the Accountability Crib. But according to DDP himself, his induction to the WWE Hall of Fame was the best night of his life.
Inducted into WWE HOF Class of 2017, Page said the following about his achievement to the Generation of Wrestling podcast:
"You know that was my favourite night ever. Not winning the world title, not wrestling in front of 22,000 people, but being able to thank everyone who helped me get there. And you know the only story in my brain was I'm gonna blow everybody away. I'm gonna make em laugh, I'm gonna make em cry. I'm going to inspire them.”
DDP being DDP, he wanted his speech to have a lasting effect on people, and with the help of a WWE writer, pulled some strings to get his allotted speech time almost doubled:
"And what was funny was two nights before the hall of fame, up walks this guy, he's one of the writers. He was like 'Hey DDP I'll be writing your speech with you' and I'm like 'boss do you not think I'm working on this for last three months? Are you kidding me? I don't need anybody's help' and he 'goes well what is it? Got it down to 15 minutes?' I said 'No. 27 minutes.' He said, 'Oh gee, we can't go that long'. I'm like 'are you f****** kidding me?' You're telling me this now?' So I go up and I spend that whole night re-writing it and the next day he calls me and he goes 'I want to hear the original. Can I come up, will you do it for me?' I said ‘absolutely.'
“He came up, I did it and I had him laughing, I had him getting choked. I mean all the shit that I knew was going to happen in front of crowd, he was doing in my room and he goes 'let me go talk to Kevin Dunn' because Kevin Dunn, he's the guy who runs the show. So he called me up and he said 'Kevin said do it. And you're coming out first, don't go over 30'. That was my finest moment in pro wrestling and it was the best thing I've done. It'll be around forever for people to watch and be inspired when I'm long gone.”
