DDP On The Rock Becoming Co-Owner Of The XFL: "The Rock Doesn't Do Anything Half-Assed"
Earlier this week The Rock was a part of a group that purchased the XFL for $15 million. Diamond Dallas Page gave his reaction to finding out about that in real time when he joined The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast.
"Woooooow. I have a ridiculous amount of respect for The Rock on so many different levels. More than anything, if you've ever watched The Rock's stuff like I watched him do a motivational talk off the top of his head to the LA Lakers. He's a juggernaut to me. When I see something, I envision it and manifest it. He has that same ability times whatever. He's the biggest star in the world and he's one of us," said DDP. "To me, nothing surprises me. You think the XFL was dead? You watch Ballers? One of the big things was the fact that he's trying to buy a franchise in the NFL and they're trying to keep him out. So, f*** with buy in and there's no question in my mind if he actually did that? Wooooooow!"
He added that The Rock is the face and the kind of guy who can make the league work.
"The Rock doesn't do anything half-assed. If he came in there, they know the numbers. The way I look at that, when AEW came out that was really awesome for the boys and the girls because it gave you another place to go," DDP said before talking about one of his employees creating another place to go for indie wrestlers.
"One of the guys who works for me, Dylan, has a promotion here in Georgia. Anything you see that's vignettes that are kick ass and different on AEW, that's Dylan doing that. His promotion he started 2-3 years ago and this last year he got Promoter of the Year and swept everything in Georgia because their stuff is amazing. They really built up and the average attendance is 500-600. For an indie that goes once a month, those are big numbers and the crowd was white-hot.
"When guys can be indie wrestlers and make a living, that's super special. What's happening with AEW is super special. And ROH. And NXT. It's a lot of places for the boys and girls ? who are amazing athletes ? to go. And now for football? If not the NFL then Canada or European leagues, but there's not a lot of places to go. So it will be really interesting."
AEW recently announced the signing of Eddie Kingston who has primarily been performing on the indies for 18 years. Host Nick Hausman asked Dallas what he makes of these kinds of talents finally finding big success in AEW.
"They've been spending all that time doing something they love. Before there was any explosion ? the UK got really big and of course Mexico and Japan ? but when the UK was taking off I was like, 'Wow this is really good. Will it ever hit the States?' And then it did. Chicago has 6 or 8 different promotions and that's why Cody and The Young Bucks picked Chicago. It's the best entertainment capital of the world when it comes to wrestling because in Chicago, they appreciate it," stated DDP.
"Of all places, my favorite place was the United Center. I didn't have to do anything and I'd have people in the palm of my hand. It was so much fun."
DDP can be found on Twitter @RealDDP. DDP's full interview aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.