Posted on 12/23/125 by Colin Vassallo
Diamond Dallas Page sat down with Chris Van Vliet in
Atlanta, Georgia to discuss how he feels approaching his
70th birthday, his recent hospitalization and what caused
the health scare, the comparisons to his career and LA
Knight’s, fans calling for him to receive another Hall of
Fame induction for helping legends, losing the WCW
Championship to David Arquette, his thoughts on John Cena’s
last match, Cody Rhodes’ Championship run and more!
What did it mean to see Lex Luger inducted into the WWE Hall
of Fame?
“A lot. It should have been Sting, because that’s the real
brotherhood of those two. But the bottom line is, we even
tried to make it so we could both do it, because Sting is
Sting. So being able to do that was strong. People have
heard this story, but don’t realize that down Panama City
Beach, where we built Page’s retreat, when you get off the
bottom floor, there’s four floors. So you would come around
and come out the door, which you can just roll out, and then
you roll right onto my boardwalk that comes around the house
and then goes straight out to the beach. I did that for Lex
so he could roll and get out there and then get up and walk
the rest of the way. We had great footage of him just
putting his hand on my shoulder and walking like 15 feet, 20
feet. We had that, and we were going to rehearse it like
once we get to Vegas. And when Lex went to get out of the
car in Atlanta, the Uber, the guy came around with the
chair, but he didn’t hold on to it. So when Lex went to sit
on it, it slid, boom. He hit that concrete, and he felt so
bad. He’s like, ‘D, I feel so bad I can’t walk, and I want
to do this for you.’ This is about you, and we’re doing a
documentary.”
So there’s going to be a Lex documentary at some point:
“That’s the goal. And it’s got to be when he’s hit that spot
where he feels really comfortable, his physical and mental
action will tell us when that is, and we’re not there yet,
if anything for that hurdle. But he did get up those last,
two steps and he did stand up there, that was really
special. And his bonus son, as I call him, Jonathan, was
right there to roll him out. And it was a special, special,
special moment. It’s long overdue. I love Triple H. He made
all that possible.”
Have you seen the comparisons between your career and LA
Knight’s career?
“I love that kid, man. I love the tenacity of the stick to
it; it took him a long time to get to that character. And he
was good before that, but now he’s great. Hopefully, at some
point, he gets a chance to really get that ball, because he
can run with it, give him that damn ball, because that cat,
he’s got it all. And people who say that he’s mimicking this
character, that character, that’s so wrong. He’s a piece of
all that. He grew up on all of us coming up wanting to do
what we do, and now he’s doing it at its highest level. So I
saw that article actually sent it to him, because it was
really cool the way they [did it]. I thought it was just
going to be a little blurb, but just comparing our careers.”
You know there’s a good chance that Bron Breakker could be a
World Champion in 2026:
“I would love to see that. I haven’t talked to him probably
in about a month or two, but humble, feet on the ground, and
you got to know who you are. You don’t forget that, but you
want to always try to keep your feet on the ground, because
that’s the guys who continue to excel. You don’t want to be
too much of a headache. And we know part of stories about
guys that I won’t mention, that I’ve been a bit ahead of a
headache to work with.”
Were it not for you, do you think Jake Roberts would still
be here?
“Well, Jake would tell you that. It’s pretty unbelievable.
When I think about knowing Jake as long as I have, and as
well as I have that Macho Man, Roddy [Piper], Scott [Hall],
Hulk [Hogan], Jake’s outlived everybody, wow, and been sober
for over 14 years right now. When I see him and Cheryl
together, boy, it’s amazing. Because you would think there
is no way, but yeah, because when you have that real love,
you just have to be in the right set of mind, and Jake is
that guy now.”