Former WCW Champion Wanted to Work With The Rock but Ended Up Jobbing to The Undertaker: “That Wasn’t the Way WWE Wanted to Go”
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A last-minute change in the storyline is something Vince McMahon’s WWE is used to pushing ahead. Being in Mr. McMahon’s good books gives any WWE superstar the privilege of being at the top of the mountain. Guess what? WWE Hall of Famer, The Undertaker, has forever been Vince McMahon’s favorite.
Back in the early 2000s, WWE was in a war with the rival wrestling promotion, WCW. During the WCW invasion, The Undertaker was intensely in a feud with the former WCW Champion, Diamond Dallas Page (DDP).
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The Undertaker and DDP were involved in a storyline in which DDP stalked Taker’s ex-wife. The company put Dallas Page and Mark Calaway in a twisted storyline. But the former WCW Champion never wanted to be a part of the storyline, including The Undertaker.
Why did DDP faced The Undertaker instead of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson?
In 2017, WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page sat with Sun Sports for an exclusive interview. During the interview, DDP revealed he had no actual heat with Taker. DDP knew Mark Calaway from WCW before he was ever The Undertaker.
However, when WWE defeated WCW, and Diamond Dallas Page debuted in the company, he wanted to start a feud with Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock.
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DDP said, “I wanted to do people’s champion versus people’s champion. That was the money. If history was different, if Rock would have been there and I’d come there three years later or earlier, that would have been the focus. The angle would have been insane.”
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A lesser-known, just like The Rock, was called People’s Champion in WWE; even Page had the same status in WCW. So, DDP wanted to have a “People’s Champion vs. People’s Champion” match.
Why did WWE put Diamond Dallas Page in a storyline with Taker?
But since the wrestling style of the former WCW Champion and ‘The Phenom’ was different, they never really got along. During the interview, Page revealed how his rivalry with The Undertaker in WWE was done to send a message to the rival company, WCW.
DDP wanted to battle with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. But Mr. McMahon’s company did not let that happen. Instead, WCW’s biggest babyface was turned into a villainous stalker of Taker’s ex-wife.
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“But that wasn’t the way WWE wanted to go because they wanted to send a message. People always say, ‘Winners write the history.’ It didn’t matter if it was me or someone else from WCW facing Taker; we were going to get beat down because they wanted to say, Hey, we won the war,” Page added.
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WWE focussed more on portraying its dominance over the incoming WCW stars. Among those stars was the People’s Champion of WCW, Diamond Dallas Page. But instead of raising the WCW stars with great storylines, Vince McMahon’s company focussed on being the winners of the invasion part.
What do you make of Page’s comments? Let us know in the comments below.
Edited by:
Vibhanshu Kumar