Revisionist history is a part of wrestling. With WWE now leading the charge unchallenged, sometimes that happens as it pertains to WCW.
In The Rise And Fall of WCW documentary released several years ago, WCW's ability to create new stars was put into question. Goldberg was pointed at as the only star that the company was able to make during their lucrative run on top of the wrestling industry.
During a recent Reddit AMA, Diamond Dallas Page addressed the comments, and how he was used during his time with WWE.
I think that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It didn't matter who that first person was, that came from WCW... they were going to get beat down. There was a lot of heat between the two companies. But, I didn't take it like that, not after I left. I took it as, 'I made that decision, not a good one!'
It taught me not to walk away from the table. I knew I was going to do People's Champion vs. People's Champion two years before I walked into Vince's office, and it's the first time ever I've let a goal go that I've seen so clearly. And it taught me to never do that again.
Where it paid off for me was during Shark Tank. They wanted us to sign a contract that allowed them to own me basically after five interviews; I had my president send them an email back saying we love the show and thanks for the opportunity but we're going to pass. 90 seconds later they called us back asking how to fix it, and it was the best move we've made for our company, and it had to do with us having total control.
That's what I take away from what happened. Now, five years later, I am doing the Best of Nitro, they're building WCW back up, doing the Old School Raw with Jake... that shut our DDP Yoga Website down! Again, best thing that ever happened to us. When we were on shark tank, we had to have 25 servers going.
Everything happens for a reason. You get to decide if this is the worst thing that's ever happened - I blew my back out and was told I'd never wrestle again which led to the best thing I'd ever done, developing DDP Yoga.
In retrospect, at 59, showing up at the Rumble, hitting nothing but Diamond Cutters and blowing the roof off... being invited back to be in the ring in front of 100,000 people and aside from Show and Shaq, I was the only one to have my own music that night.
Long answer, but hopefully it says it all.
DDP has made several appearances for WWE after his in-ring run ended in 2002 -- notably at Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.
You can see several exclusives with Diamond Dallas Page from Fightful.com at this link.
