During a recent appearance on the “Insight” podcast, Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) discussed working closely with Lex Luger to help the former world champion walk again, The following are some of the highlights.
On when he thought Lex Luger could possibly walk again: “I don’t really know. I told you this story, when Lex went down, it was in San Francisco. I went to take this because I heard he was born again, and I had to see that for myself, because Lex is the one who taught me about the four degrees of celebrity. And I said, Really, what is that? Well, number one, anticipation. Back when I played for Green Bay, I wasn’t a starter, or any of that. I was at the bottom of the totem pole, but is anybody going to ask me for my autograph? And then there’s avoidance, you wear baggy shirts, you wear sunglasses, wear hats, you never look at anyone eye to eye in an airport, because it’s going to be [attracting attention]. I said. So what’s number three? He goes. That’s where I’m right now. Back then he was married. He’s like, My wife hates it, because recluse like I am. I don’t go to the mall, I don’t want to go out to dinner, I don’t want to go anywhere, I have to do what I have to do to get on the road, to do what I do when I come home, I want to be home. I go, Okay, I go, what’s number four? He goes, Well, we hope we never get there, but at one time or another, we all do. I go, what is it? He goes, aggression. I have this favorite story of mine. Me and Lex are going through Terminal C in the Atlanta airport, and it’s 1997 or 98, paparazzi, and me and Lex are just power walking, and there’s this one kid just clicking and clicking and clicking, and Lex goes, ‘Okay, that’s enough.’ He just knocked the camera out of the kid’s hands. I go, ‘What the **** are you doing?’ He’s like, ‘I told him, that’s enough.’ And that was Lex back then, the Lex that I would later be with in San Francisco, complete opposite, like the antithesis of that guy. Now we still got Lex in him, but the bottom line is, he’s one of the nicest human beings on this planet.”
On Lex Luger’s WWE Hall of Fame induction: “A lot. It should have been Sting, because that’s the real brotherhood of those two. But the bottom line is, we even tried to make it so we could both do it, because Sting is Sting. So being able to do that was strong. People have heard this story, but don’t realize that down Panama City Beach, where we built Page’s retreat, when you get off the bottom floor, there’s four floors. So you would come around and come out the door, which you can just roll out, and then you roll right onto my boardwalk that comes around the house and then goes straight out to the beach. I did that for Lex so he could roll and get out there and then get up and walk the rest of the way. We had great footage of him just putting his hand on my shoulder and walking like 15 feet, 20 feet. We had that, and we were getting we were going to rehearse it like once we get to Vegas. And when Lex went to get out of the car in Atlanta, the Uber, the guy came around with the chair, but he didn’t hold on to it. So when Lex went to sit on it, it slid, boom. He hit that concrete, and he felt so bad. He’s like, ‘D, I feel so bad I can’t walk, and I want to do this for you.’ This is about you, and we’re doing a documentary.”
On plans for a Lex Luger documentary: “That’s the goal. And it’s got to be when he’s hit that spot where he feels really comfortable, his physical and mental action will tell us when that is, and we’re not there yet, if anything, for that hurdle. But he did get up those last two steps and and he did stand up there. And that was, that was really special. And his bonus son, as I call him, Jonathan, was right there to roll him out. And it was a special, special, special moment. It’s long overdue. I love Triple H. He made all that possible.”
