WWE Hall Of Famer Diamond Dallas Page recently talked to CBS Washington DC where he discussed WWE’s new TV deals, Ronda Rousey getting a significant push early on in her WWE career. Below are some highlights from the interview:
DDP on Ronda Rousey getting WWE Raw Women’s Championship opportunity:
I think that would be like asking whether you’re a Republican or Democrat. You’re gonna have people say, ‘She’s who she is and she should get it.’ And other people are gonna go, ‘No, she didn’t earn it, she didn’t deserve it.’ But a lot people don’t understand all the work she put in to get to where she is today. So bottom line is, she’d be one of the highest paid people there. And she’s one of the highest paid people there because she draws and people are tuning in.
My opinion is, I think she’s gonna draw. I haven’t been watching enough to see her work, but I know what she did at WrestleMania and she killed it. So I think the girls are so good today. One of the things when you’re a great worker like a lot of these young ladies today, from Bailey to The Boss Sasha Banks. Charlotte’s one of the best athletes in the company. When they get there and they realize you’re in a feud with Ronda Rousey, guess what, you just got mainstream attention.
That’s gonna hold on for a while. Because I would never even push Ronda out of maybe doing a comeback [in UFC]. And guess what. She’s still a draw. She wouldn’t come back and go right against the champion, but she’d go out there and everybody would want to tune in. So don’t discount that either.”
On new TV deals acquired by WWE:
“Wrestling is cyclical. And if you look at the 80s, it had an unbelievable run and then it just fell down. 90s had the biggest run ever, because of the Monday Night Wars. People would say, ‘Do you think you’ll ever see that again?’ I say to them, ‘You’ll never see it like that again.’ See Vince [McMahon] has mainstreamed the television. And he’s the taken the wrestle and over the last 20 years made him a superstar not a wrestler. And the biggest star in the world is who? Is The Rock. Then out of wrestling the next guy would be John Cena. And then maybe Dave Bautista, because what he did in the wrestling world, but what he’s doing in Hollywood. He is an A List actor, now so is John.
You’re gonna see a lot of guys come out of that. You’re gonna see The Miz come out at some point and have a hell of a film career. Cody Rhodes just got five episodes coming up on The Arrow. He’s mainstreamed the boys, and the girls. Because it’s not like these crazy ratings that they had. We had better ratings than they had back in the day. But it’s more mainstream audience, so it’s a way more valuable audience.
So no, I’m not surprised at all. I’m super happy because they’re getting these kind of money numbers from the television and they own the network, the WWE Network. So owning your own channel on a spot where you’ve got it 24/7 and we’re talking about creating your own channel. Just like I did with DDP Yoga. My DDP Yoga channel with my DDPY workouts, it’s my own channel. And I’m constantly putting money into making it better. I’m like over $2 million into my DDP Yoga Now App, which is insane. And no one, and that’s including Beach Body or anybody else is doing it the way we’re doing it.”
