8 Things You Didn't Know About Ready To Rumble
4. DDP Pitched An Alternate Ending To Warner Bros.
Somewhat unlikely WCW Champion Diamond Dallas Page (he was getting on in years and had been a career midcarder up until mid-1997 don't you forget), features heavily in Ready to Rumble. Page is the heel champion that Jimmy King must defeat to regain his title and his career and also his pride, or something, and the two collide in a Triple Cage match in the movie's climax.
The film ends with King winning the match by slamming DDP through the three cages to the mat below, reject a potential tag team with Goldberg in favour of tagging with the Scott Caan character before the heroes ride off in a stretch Hummer driven by Nitro Girl Chae. The 105-minute fever dream is finally over in the most audience-pleasing way possible.
According to his 2013 YouShoot, DDP suggested to Warner Bros. at the time that the movie should end with King and himself hugging each other and talking about the match after it was over, telling the Caan and Arquette characters - who, like the film itself, are not aware that wrestling is a work - 'Boys, welcome to the business!' before inviting them out for a drink. This would, presumably, cause their minds to explode in a situation similar to David Cronenberg's Scanners.
This ending makes not a jot of sense, thanks to the film flip-flopping between presenting wrestling as a shoot and a work for its duration. It's probably a better ending than what we got instead, but Warner Bros. didn't bite and the film ends with a montage of people getting hit between the legs (how apt).