DDP Reflects On How Far Goldberg's Promos Evolved From WCW To WWE
On the latest episode of the DDP Snake Pit podcast, DDP, Diamond Dallas Page, talked about some of his more famous moments while working for WCW, including his 1998 Bash at the Beach tag match where he and NBA star Karl Malone wrestled Hollywood Hogan and another NBA star, Dennis Rodman. DDP noted he loved everything he did with Karl, though he did note that the match time they got was probably longer than it needed to be.
"I loved doing stuff with Karl. It was fun," DDP said. "Training him was the most fun, because he actually put work in. And if you look back, Hulk wanted 40 minutes. I'm thinking 'if we take 12, that's perfect.' That's in my head, you know? But no, they laid out 40 minutes with everything. It was way too much for those two guys to even semi-comprehend. But they both did a pretty damn good job. So that was a bigger moment than anything.
"When we shot the angle on the Tonight Show, that was — when I walked on stage with Malone, and Rodman and Hogan are there, and we shoot the angle on the Tonight Show, that was the biggest moment. Because what happened after that with the press conference, it might as well have been the Olympics, or Game 7 of the playoffs, or World Series, or whatever. It was that big of a turnout. And so, that was the biggest moment."
Arguably the biggest match DDP had in WCW that didn't involve Randy Savage was the main event of WCW Halloween Havoc 1998, when he wrestled Goldberg for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Goldberg won the title from Hogan in July of that year, and while DDP loved working with Goldberg, he noted that if he could go back, he would've waited on giving Goldberg his big push at the time, saving it for when he was more comfortable on the mic.
"If I can go back and rebook that whole thing, I would've waited on Bill on that," DDP said. "I had real stuff, angles with Hogan going into that. Billy was so hot and so was Stone Cold Steve Austin. He was getting hotter and hotter and hotter, so they just kind of pushed Goldy up against Stone Cole. 'Let's put the title on him.' And it was a great moment for Bill, and I'm not taking anything away from him. It was a great, great run. In retrospect, I think it was a little too early for him because he was (still green). If you look at him, anything he's done in the last 5 years for WWE, when he grabs that mic, he knows who he is. He's cut some pretty damn good promos. If you could've had that guy just about a year later, it might've been different.
"If Hulk and I would've done the thing, if they would've kept pushing me after Randy and we kept going, I would've been ready for Hulk. And I could've, cause we already had the built-in thing. He went at me with the cane. There was a bunch of stuff that we did that would've been perfect, and then I could've tagged it right off to Bill. And I think all he needed was another six months to get comfortable. Billy was maybe two years, not even two years in when he beat Hogan. As good as he was in the ring and he was unbelievable for a guy who was eight months in, I think it was so hard for him to catch up on the verbal lane. Because 'who's next?' Yeah, that works, until you get to 'well, now you've got to talk.'
"And again, what Bill's done in the last five years, he can cut promos because he knows who Bill Goldberg is as that athlete. He put in all that time, and I thought he did a hell of a job. He could really deliver the goods verbally. He needed another six months. 'Let that guy get comfortable. He ain't going anywhere. He's a juggernaut.'"
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