DDP’s WWE debut was one of the most controversial in wrestling history. Instead of being presented as a top WCW star, he was booked as The Undertaker’s wife’s stalker. Looking back, DDP regrets not fighting it.
“If I had been in WCW, I would have fought it. But I wanted to be a team player in WWE, so I went with it,” he admitted on Six Feet Under.
DDP explained that he had pitched an entirely different idea—The People’s Champion vs. The People’s Champion—where he would challenge The Rock.
“I had this whole vision: lights go out, everyone thinks it’s Jericho, and then boom—‘Who’s the real People’s Champion?’ But I let them talk me out of it,” he said.
Instead, he found himself stuck in a storyline that didn’t make sense.
“I should have said, ‘Are you looking at my wife? She’s one of the most beautiful women in the world. You think I’d stalk Undertaker’s wife?’”
The angle flopped, and DDP’s WWE career never recovered. But he took an important lesson from it.
“That was the first time I let someone talk me out of my gut instinct, and I learned a big lesson from it.”