Diamond Dallas Page

Page came to World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1991 as manager of The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael P.S. Hayes). Page managed the Freebirds to a shot at the NWA World Tag Team Championship where they defeated Doom (Butch Reed and Ron Simmons) on February 24. Before that match took place, Page unveiled the stable's new road manager, Big Daddy Dink, formerly known as Oliver Humperdink, who interfered in the match. During this match, Page introduced the Diamond Dolls. Page added Scott Hall to the stable under the name of Diamond Studd. Page also worked as a color commentator for WCW with Eric Bischoff. With rumors that the WCW wanted to take the Diamond Studd away from Page, he decided to take the advice of Magnum T.A. and begin to wrestle himself. He headed to the WCW Power Plant where Buddy Lee Parker, The Assassin, and Dusty Rhodes trained the 35 year old rookie. He debuted as a wrestler in a tag team match later that year. With the Diamond Studd, he faced Kevin Sullivan and his partner. He was relegated to the "jobber" list. He made his wrestling pay-per-view debut at Starrcade in 1991, teaming with Mike Graham in a losing effort to Jushin Liger and Bill Kazmaier.
Page continued wrestling and brought other wrestlers into his stable, The Diamond Mine, such as Scotty Flamingo and Vinnie Vegas (Kevin Nash). The relationships between DDP, Flamingo, and Vegas were used in many angles over the following months. Page went in the corner of Scotty Flamingo, at Clash of the Champions XXI on November 18, 1992, when Flamingo fought Johnny B. Badd in a worked boxing match. Flamingo won this bout with a little help from Page who filled Flamingo's glove with water. The following year, after Studd and Flamingo left the stable, Page teamed with Vinnie Vegas as the Vegas Connection. The Vegas Connection never returned to WCW until 2001 under the name "The Insiders", because Page was fired from WCW shortly after the team's debut due to his torn rotator cuff. The injury occurred in late 1992 in a tag match with Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce (later known as The Godwinns).
Page determined to continue improving his character, sought the help of Jake Roberts who advised him on the psychological aspects of the business.[8] After his injury had healed, Page returned to WCW television in 1994, with his wife Kimberly[8] as the Diamond Doll, and an on-screen bodyguard,[8] Maxx Muscle. He held open arm wrestling challenges to win Kimberly but Maxx always helped him win or arm wrestled for him. He also had a long feud with Dave Sullivan because Sullivan gave Kimberly gifts (and largely because Page was defeated by Sullivan in one of the arm wrestling contests, which earned him a date with Kimberly).[1] At Fall Brawl, Page won his first championship when he defeated Renegade for the WCW World Television Championship.[1] In the build-up to his first title defense at Halloween Havoc, there was growing dissension between Page and Kimberly. Johnny B. Badd defeated Page for the TV title and again at World War 3 on November 26, winning Kimberly's freedom from DDP.[1] At Uncensored on March 24, 1996 The Booty Man with Kimberly as The Booty Babe defeated Diamond Dallas Page in a Loser Leaves Town match.[1]Page returned on the May 18th, 1996 edition of WCW Saturday Night defeating Billy Kidman. On May 19, Page participated in the Lord of the Ring Tournament (Battle Bowl) at Slamboree. Page was victorious when he defeated The Barbarian with two Diamond Cutters. The winner was to be the number one contender for the World Title which at that time was held by The Giant.[1] However, he never received the title shot that he earned that night. Page was feuding with Eddie Guerrero when the New World Order (nWo) was formed. Since Nash and Hall were both former partners of Page, they assisted him in his matches in the tournament being held for the vacant US Title. Believing their help was not appreciated, however, Hall and Nash attacked him during the tournament finals, therefore handing the belt to Guerrero.[1] After demonstrating the benefits of the nWo, they asked him to join. He responded by giving them Diamond Cutters on January 25 1997 at Souled Out, starting a face turn and a feud with the nWo.[1] Page began a feud with "Macho Man" Randy Savage in 1997.[1] On an episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Savage, aided by Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, attacked Page and spray-painted "nWo" on his back. A few weeks later at Uncensored, Savage and Miss Elizabeth "broke kayfabe" (a worked shoot) by revealing to the world that Page and Kimberly were, in fact, married. Savage then proceeded to beat up Page, ensuring a future match between the two. At Spring Stampede, Page and Savage battled in a match where Page emerged victorious, but it was the not the end of conflict between the two.[1] A few months later at The Great American Bash, they squared off again in an anything goes, lights out match. This match ended with Savage defeating Page with help from (then) Tag Team Champion Scott Hall.[1] At Bash at the Beach, Scott Hall and Randy Savage defeated Diamond Dallas Page and Curt Hennig. Curt Hennig, who Diamond Dallas Page had recruited personally to join WCW and team with him, turned on DDP during the match.[1] Hennig defeated Diamond Dallas Page in a Grudge Match at Road Wild.[1] At Fall Brawl, Page teamed with Lex Luger to defeat Scott Hall and Randy Savage in a NO DQ match.[1] Page even dressed up as masked wrestler La Parka and beat Savage. Around this time, Page also started fighting nWo leader, Hollywood Hulk Hogan. Page and Savage battled for the last time at Halloween Havoc. The match was billed as a Las Vegas Sudden Death Match, where Savage pinned Page after Hogan, dressed as Sting, came out and hit Page with a baseball bat in his already "injured" mid-section, resulting in Savage picking up the win.[1] On an episode of Nitro shortly after Halloween Havoc, Page fought Hogan, but was again beaten down by the nWo.At Starrcade, Page won the United States Heavyweight Championship from Curt Hennig.[1] The following year at Uncensored, Page defended the title in a Triple Threat, Falls Count Anywhere contest against Chris Benoit and Raven (formerly know as Scotty Flamingo), putting Raven through a table with a Diamond Cutter to retain the belt.[1] Later in the year, Page tagged with Karl Malone against Hulk Hogan and Dennis Rodman at Bash at the Beach, losing due to interference.[1] Page tagged with late night talk show host Jay Leno at Road Wild, where they defeated Hogan and Eric Bischoff.[1]At Fall Brawl, Page won the WarGames main event, and got a World title shot against the undefeated Goldberg at Halloween Havoc. Page did not win the match,[1] but the match was voted WCW Magazine's "Match of the Year" 1998. Halloween Havoc ran slightly longer than expected resulting in a number of cable companies blacking out the end of the Hogan versus Warrior match and all of the DDP versus Goldberg contest. WCW decided to air the Goldberg versus DDP title bout in its entirety on the October 26 edition of Nitro, which proved immensely popular in the ratings and resulted in a ratings win for Nitro over Raw — the last win Nitro would ever have. Despite this setback in the World title picture, Page rebounded this same following night of Halloween Havoc, on the October 26 edition of Nitro, with a win over Bret 'The Hitman' Hart to capture the United States Heavyweight Title.Page became WCW World Heavyweight Champion in April 1999, at Spring Stampede when he defeated Sting, Hogan, and Ric Flair for the title in a Four Way Dance with "Macho Man" Randy Savage as Special Guest Referee, Page pinned Flair after giving Flair the Diamond Cutter.[1] Shortly after gaining the title, Page wrestled Goldberg for his championship. Page turned heel during the match, using everything at his disposal to try and beat down Goldberg (the match eventually ended in a no contest). His first reign as champion lasted 15 days: on April 26, Page was defeated for the World Championship by Sting on Nitro in the first hour of the show. A little more than an hour and a half later, Page was given an opportunity to regain the title thanks to a challenge match set up by the returning Kevin Nash; he was pitted against Page, Goldberg, and the newly crowned champion Sting. During the course of the match, Page hit Nash with a foreign object to take the win and regain the title without actually defeating the reigning champion.[1] Page was defeated by Nash at Slamboree that year, and fell out of the World title picture shortly thereafter.[1]Shortly after Slamboree, Page entered into an alliance with fellow New Jerseyan Bam Bam Bigelow and won the WCW World Tag Team Championship from then champions Perry Saturn and Raven on May 31, thanks to Chris Kanyon turning heel on former ally Raven and costing the team the championships. Page, Bigelow, and Kanyon became known as the Jersey Triad and through their alliance with WCW "President for Life" Ric Flair took advantage of the Freebird Rule in their subsequent matches (meaning any combination of the three could defend the championship). The Triad held the titles until June 10, when Saturn and Chris Benoit (now stablemates in The Revolution) took the titles from them. The team regained the belts at The Great American Bash three days later, but would lose them to Harlem Heat at Road Wild in August.[1] Later that night, Chris Benoit defeated Diamond Dallas Page to retain the United States title.[1] The group broke up shortly thereafter and Page began feuding with Hogan again, joining Sid Vicious and Rick Steiner in a team effort to take on Hogan, Sting, and Goldberg. Soon after that feud ended Page turned into a hero again and feuded with both Kanyon and Bigelow before the year ended.In 2000, with WCW under new management, Page earned a shot at the vacant WCW World Championship Belt at Spring Stampede against Jeff Jarrett. In a surprise twist, Page's wife, Kimberly, turned on Page and helped Jarrett become the new WCW World Champion.[1] Page got the better of Jarrett on the April 24th edition of Nitro, where he defeated Jarrett in a steel cage match to become WCW World Heavyweight Champion for the third time, but would lose the title to his very own tag partner, actor David Arquette three days later on Thunder; the rules stated that whoever got the pin would win the title, and Arquette pinned Jarrett's partner, Eric Bischoff. Page attempted to win the title back at Slamboree later that month in a triple cage match against Arquette and Jarrett, but lost after Arquette hit him with a guitar. Page then entered a feud with Mike Awesome, who defeated him in an Ambulance Match at The Great American Bash after Kanyon turned on Page.[1]Page took some time off shortly after this, but returned in late 2000 as a full time wrestler. After Page came back he formed a tag team with Kevin Nash called The Insiders, and the team won the tag team championship on November 26 at Mayhem by defeating Perfect Event (Shawn Stasiak and Chuck Palumbo).[1] The team was temporarily stripped of the titles but won them back at Starrcade defeating Stasiak and Palumbo again. Page and Nash lost the titles to Palumbo and Sean O'Haire at Sin in January and broke up shortly thereafter. After his tag team run Page briefly feuded with the returning Kanyon, which saw Kanyon defeat Page at SuperBrawl Revenge, and Page defeating Kanyon the following night on Nitro, ending their feud. Page then moved into the World Championship picture again by facing Scott Steiner. Their feud hit a climax at WCW's final PPV Greed, saw Page's final match in WCW and a semi-burial type defeat as he passed out in Steiner's finisher, The Steiner Recliner.[1]When WCW was purchased by WWF owner Vince McMahon in 2001, Page was one of the few major WCW stars to sign with McMahon. He debuted in the WWE on the June 18th, 2001 edition of RAW when he unveiled himself as the stalker of the The Undertaker's wife, Sara.[1] Page did it to make an impact and wanted to take on the biggest dog in the yard, but he then became obsessed with Sara. Page soon joined the the Alliance during the WCW Invasion.[1]Page and Chris Kanyon reunited on the August 6th, 2001 edition of RAW when Kanyon helped Page attack The Undertaker backstage. Three days later on August 9, 2001 edition of SmackDown, Page and Kanyon defeated the APA to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.[1]The feud with the Undertaker went on for the best part of Three Months but it ended in a steel cage match featuring Undertaker and Kane defeated Page and Kanyon at WWF Summerslam 2001 on August 19, 2001 in a Steel cage match for the WWF tag team championship, where Page got injured which kept him out of action until late October, 2001.[1]He became known for his catch phrase "Yo! It's me, it's me, it's DDP!" While Page was injured he developed a new gimmick in September, 2001 to become a motivational speaker, something he did in real life, in what would come to be known as his Positively Page character. The name came from the title of his autobiography that was published during his WCW days. The character involved Page constantly smiling and acting optimistic, with his trademark phrase "That's not a bad thing...it's a good thing".His return televised match was on November 3, 2001 at Rebellion losing to The Big Show. After the Alliance lost at Survivor Series DDP along with the rest of the alliance members kayfabe lost their jobs. Page eventually won his job back by defeating The Big Bossman on the January 17th, 2002 edition of SmackDown! and also competed in the Royal Rumble Match on January 20, 2002 but did not win it.Page became the European Champion on the January 31st, 2002 edition of SmackDown, when he defeated Christian, a former follower of his positive "philosophy".[1] At WrestleMania X8, Page retained the title in a rematch. He lost the title, however, to William Regal on an episode of SmackDown that aired March 19.[1] At age 46, he had nagging injuries, including a neck injury he suffered in a match with Bob Holly on the April 18th, 2002 episode of SmackDown, so his WWE contract was allowed to expire.[1]