Was there ever a good time for DDP in WWE?

[Sephiroth]

Goes without saying he was misused during the InVasion. But a lot of that was just due to the general craziness of the time, and perhaps if he had made the jump beforehand, as he evidently had contemplated more than once, things might have been much different for him. For my part, I actually look back and think that if Vince could have pulled it off, I could totally have seen DDP make the jump to be one of Me McMahon’s chosen champions to try to wrest the title from Austin. Particularly if they had done this right after the Halloween Havkc match with Gok erg, when DDP was at his hottest as a main event star, it would have been an utterly jaw dropping coup to see him suddenly appear on RAW to attack Austin. Don’t know they it would have extended his career by all that much, but arguably he could have achieved more had he made that jump sooner.

[Deleted]

A year earlier would've been interesting. Coulda been an extra nice shot in the arm to WWE going up against the dying WCW. But then, I don't think DDP woulda jumped as long as Bischoff was there (which he wasn't by the end of the summer)

[Kevin Hamilton]

If they'd had the stalker angle be simply "I was doin it to get in your head Dead Man" and then then have a normal feud he'd honestly have been fine. They dicked him around from the get go. But he always could have fit if they'd given even a bit of effort

[Deleted]

The invasion was the perfect time, they just didn't really give a shit about him for whatever reasons. Age maybe. Still one of the most egregious misuses of talent I've seen.

[Deleted]

I almost feel like DDP was DOA simply because he was a WCW A-lister during the MNW.

[arrogantmodel]

Mar 8, 2019 12:25:55 GMT -5 @oldbaby said:

I almost feel like DDP was DOA simply because he was a WCW A-lister during the MNW.

DDP should have been a VIP, but was SOL after the InVasion. However, he was A-OK when a lot of WCW guys went MIA.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

No. People forget that he started training for wrestling when he was in his thirties, once wcw croaked, his injuries were already catching up to him and it was getting to the point that it was getting harder and harder for him to bump.

Six to five years before? Yes he would’ve made it and could’ve been a top guy.

[realist]

I think that he would have been fine in WWE anywhere between 1998 and the start of the Invasion. This window is just after the Randy Savage feud and the Diamond Cutter was the most over finish in wrestling (hell, it still is, just under a different name.) He had a ton of mainstream credibility after being the tag partner of both Karl Malone and Jay Leno. Vince would have signed him in a heartbeat, age be damned. WWE went with youth at that time because they had to because WCW signed all the older guys like Hogan and Savage. As soon as Hogan was willing to come back, even older than he was when they mocked his age, they put the belt on him. Hell, look no further than at their Crown Jewel main event to see how important the youth movement really is to them.

Also, he was and is really good friends with some of WWE's top guys at the time in Mankind and Stone Cold Steve Austin. I have no doubt that both guys would have been willing to work extended programs with him and maybe even put him over. Also, as part of the Invasion guys, he came in with no leverage with WCW closed. I think Vince McMahon thought that he was being fairly charitable by just hiring them. If he had chosen to leave WCW during the Monday Night War, I think Vince would have been more loyal to him a la The Big Show. Another thing is this: one of the reasons that Undertaker squashed him in their feud is because he and a lot of the other WWE guys were insecure about the influx of talent and wanted to show that the new guys were not in their league. If he had come in by himself, maybe The Undertaker would have been more willing to do business. Also, a "people's champ vs. people's champ" program with the least selfish main eventer in WWE history, The Rock, could have made him.

[Deleted]

I get he should have been a main eventer and we got robbed off some classic matches.... But he was gold in that motivational speaker gimmick. He had some good funny bits with Christian.

[Deleted]

I know in separate shoot interviews both DDP and Kimberly tell the story of when DDP met with Vince after WCW went under Vince had him bring Kim(who was done with business)to the meeting and Vince spent much of the meeting pitching her ideas for angles she could do mostly involving Vince banging her she wasn’t interested and she left feeling he was creepy and a bad person and was adamant she would never work for him.Meanwhile in that meeting he really didn’t have any ideas for DDP.

[Deleted]

He was never going to fit in that environment during any point of his active career. Were he coming up now, then he'd have a shot.

[auph10imitated]

Yes. 2001. They just booked him horrendously and Bruce Pritchards justification for it is an absolute joke.

[Deleted]

Mar 9, 2019 5:08:18 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

Yes. 2001. They just booked him horrendously and Bruce Pritchards justification for it is an absolute joke.

What was his justification?

[Deleted]

Mar 9, 2019 4:55:12 GMT -5 @returnofthestryker said:

He was never going to fit in that environment during any point of his active career. Were he coming up now, then he'd have a shot.

But this is the golden age of misusing talent.

[auph10imitated]

That the WCW DDP character wasn’t going to get over with the WWF audience so they had to repackage him.

Total bullshit since they kept pretty much every other WCW character the same from Booker to Kidman to Kanyon to Buff. And it was a WCW vs WWF storyline so why change the god damn character. Bull

[Deleted]

Mar 9, 2019 5:32:53 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

That the WCW DDP character wasn’t going to get over with the WWF audience so they had to repackage him.

Total bullshit since they kept pretty much every other WCW character the same from Booker to Kidman to Kanyon to Buff. And it was a WCW vs WWF storyline so why change the god damn character. Bull

Even if there was some validity to that (and I couldn't disagree more), they went with actual stalker followed by creepy smiley motivational speaker instead? That's some 2018 booking well ahead of it's time.

Purely speculative, but it always felt like Page's WWE career was Vince pissing on WCW's grave some more. "Oh, this was one of your top guys? Well here's what we think of him pal!". Or maybe he was bitter that Kim had no interest in storylines about them fuggin'. Shrug.

[Tea & Crumpets]

Mar 9, 2019 5:32:53 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

That the WCW DDP character wasn’t going to get over with the WWF audience so they had to repackage him.

Total bullshit since they kept pretty much every other WCW character the same from Booker to Kidman to Kanyon to Buff. And it was a WCW vs WWF storyline so why change the god damn character. Bull

It's absolute bollocks. DDP was almost this fusion of elements of Rock (People's Champ shtick) and and Austin (blue collar everyman but in a New Jersey Springsteen way rather than Texan redneck, sudden-death finisher). There was nothing about him that didn't fit, and for a brief time he was a contender for most over guy in wrestling- he could have been enormous in WWE if they'd wanted it. He was older, yeah, he was starting to get banged up and after his injury in 1998, he was on borrowed time. But he could still have given them a solid 1-2 years of main event work because of how well he looked after his body. Honestly, he comes in any time from 1998 onwards and he should waltz into the main event scene. One of many, many WCW talents WWE deliberately trashed.

[Deleted]

Mar 9, 2019 5:52:43 GMT -5 Tea & Crumpets said:

Mar 9, 2019 5:32:53 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

That the WCW DDP character wasn’t going to get over with the WWF audience so they had to repackage him.

Total bullshit since they kept pretty much every other WCW character the same from Booker to Kidman to Kanyon to Buff. And it was a WCW vs WWF storyline so why change the god damn character. Bull

It's absolute bollocks. DDP was almost this fusion of elements of Rock (People's Champ shtick) and and Austin (blue collar everyman but in a New Jersey Springsteen way rather than Texan redneck, sudden-death finisher). There was nothing about him that didn't fit, and for a brief time he was a contender for most over guy in wrestling- he could have been enormous in WWE if they'd wanted it. He was older, yeah, he was starting to get banged up and after his injury in 1998, he was on borrowed time. But he could still have given them a solid 1-2 years of main event work because of how well he looked after his body. Honestly, he comes in any time from 1998 onwards and he should waltz into the main event scene. One of many, many WCW talents WWE deliberately trashed.

Yeah, a big problem I have with the age/injuries argument is that they were using him; he wasn't on a reduced schedule or anything. If you tell me that you don't trust him in the main event scene because of that.. Okay. I can understand that. But they turned him into a pathetic joke and it felt malicious.

[timelimitdraw]

Mar 8, 2019 12:16:35 GMT -5 Kevin Hamilton said:

If they'd had the stalker angle be simply "I was doin it to get in your head Dead Man" and then then have a normal feud he'd honestly have been fine. They dicked him around from the get go. But he always could have fit if they'd given even a bit of effort

I'll co-sign this. I think it would've gone better if DDP had sat out, collected on his Time Warner deal, and signed later.

At the very least, he wouldn't have been wasted as a stalker to the Undertaker's then-wife, which made no sense when he was married to Kimberly at the time (who was smart enough to sit out and cash those Time Warner checks).

[Eddie Brock]

I think they could've definitely done something with him, but I would've drafted Bradshaw to SmackDown with Faarooq and DDP to RAW in 2002. Hall and Nash come out after a DDP match on RAW and hand him an nWo shirt, but DDP ends up taking them out, exactly the way it had happened five years earlier. This eventually leads to an alliance forming between Austin and DDP (instead of Austin and Bradshaw) against the nWo. Who knows maybe DDP doesn't get hurt on RAW.