Diamond Dallas Page recently spoke with Escapist Magazine for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the WWE Hall of Fame legend spoke about how video games have kept his legend alive, his thoughts on WWE 2K25, an opportunity Hulk Hogan gave him that he’ll never forget, Cody Rhodes having more self-belief than anyone and something he learned from Vince McMahon.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On WWE video games helping keep his legend and others alive: “Absolutely video games have, and YouTube and the network. Peacock paid $5 billion to be able to use it [the library of old wrestling footage]. And it’s vast and it has everything. But one of the main things is WCW and WWF, or WWE’s Monday Night Wars. Like, we have our own section.”
On how WWE 2K25 is so realistic and how he can’t wait to see what AI does with the video games: “WWE 2K25 is so realistic. If you’re playing as me or Jade [Cargill], she looks exactly like that, it’s amazing. I can’t wait to see what they do when AI becomes involved [to increase the realism] because it will pretty much be us. And that’s not a bad thing. That’s a good thing.”
On Hulk Hogan giving him a huge opportunity he will never forget: “I was walking up the stairs to get on the bus, and I heard, ‘Diamond!’. Hulk always called me Diamond. I always called him Hulk. He said, ‘come on down here’ and Eric Bischoff was in his locker room. And he said, ‘Listen, I know you two guys are boys, ‘but you need to start doing something with him’. Bischoff wasn’t the guy in control. He was one of the guys on the booking committee back then. Hulk said, ‘Because if it’s not this year or next year, but somewhere down the line, I believe this guy right here has the ability to draw huge money with me.”
On no one believing in themselves more than Cody Rhodes did: “I tell everyone, never underestimate the power someone gives you by believing in you. More importantly, never underestimate the power you give yourself by believing in you. And there is no one in this modern era of guys who believed in himself more than Cody Rhodes. He left. And I don’t know how much money he was making back then, but I would bet it was somewhere around a half a million dollars a year, when a half a million dollars meant a lot of money back then. We’re talking about ten years ago, whatever it was. For him to have the guts to believe in himself, for his wife, Brandy, to have the guts to believe in her husband that much, having no guarantee of anything, and for his life to turn out the way it has, Nothing sets a better example than never underestimate the power you give yourself by believing in you.
On Vince McMahon showing him to never be afraid to walk away from the table: “No, I’m a positive guy. But Vince did make me understand the importance of never being afraid to walk away from the table. That’s what he did for me.”
