Colling’s Corner
Fourth Edition
Written By: Bob Colling
Diamond Dallas Page: Push to Main Event scene done poorly?
On April 11th, 1999 Diamond Dallas Page won his first WCW World Heavyweight Championship by defeating then World Champion Ric Flair, Sting and Hulk Hogan at Spring Stampede. At the time, DDP was seen as a long shot to win the belt. DDP was playing the role of a baby face heading into the event, but was starting to get booed at each WCW show. At this point in time, DDP had been fighting battles with Scott Steiner over Steiner disrespecting his wife Kimberly. DDP had lost a lot of his appeal as a baby face. The rebel was turning into a hero of sorts for his wife, something the fans didn’t like about him. Having DDP win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at this time was poor planning.
If you look at the year 1997 for instance, DDP was a huge rising star. He had a successful feud with Randy Savage for most of the year and that made DDP look like a credible main event wrestler at some point in the future. Instead of following up with that, DDP would feud with Bret Hart over the WCW United States Championship. Now, Bret Hart was also being used horribly at the time, but for DDP to go from being in main events with Randy Savage to under card matches, and the one main event match with Bret Hart. So, working with Randy Savage and Bret Hart is great for DDP. Going from that to being demoted to work with Curt Hennig, Raven and Chris Benoit were not good ways of keeping his momentum.
DDP would win the WCW United States Championship at WCW Starrcade 1997 from Curt Hennig and would lose the championship to Raven at WCW Spring Stampede 1998. For a mid card champion, DDP had a nice run with some good matches with Hennig, Raven and Chris Benoit throughout the run. After losing the championship, it appeared that WCW was going back to the direction of making DDP a main event wrestler. DDP would take that step as he would team up with NBA All-Star Karl Malone to take on Hulk Hogan and fellow NBA All-Star Dennis Rodman. The first misstep was that DDP would end up getting pinned by Hulk Hogan. You would think that the celebrity of the match would be pinned. I believe having Karl Malone lose via Dennis Rodman screwing him over and allowing Hogan to pin him would have been a fine way to keep Hogan strong. However, a better decision would have been for DDP to go over Hogan cleanly. This was the one shot for DDP to get to be seen as a credible contender. Instead, he loses and remained to most people eyes to not be at the top tier caliber wrestler.
Do you want more proof? The next month at WCW Road Wild 1998, DDP would team up with celebrity Jay Leno to take on Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. Perhaps this would be the event that DDP pins Hogan? No, instead they have Jay Leno pin Eric Bischoff making Leno come across as the ultimate winner. So, for two months DDP is seen as a loser and isn’t able to beat guys without Leno pinning a non-wrestler in Eric Bischoff. DDP needed that big win for their to be any thought that he would be a contender to any sort of World Heavyweight Championship. That just didn’t happen.
At Fall Brawl 1998 the next month, DDP would win the War Games match to earn a WCW World Heavyweight Championship shot at WCW Halloween Havoc 1998. The match had plenty of top names that included Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Kevin Nash, Sting, Roddy Piper and The Warrior. However, none of those men where involved in the pin fall for Page’s win. Instead, DDP won War Games by defeating a glorified lower mid card worker in Stevie Ray. Heading into a big pay per view match after beating Stevie Ray of all people doesn’t really give someone a lot of momentum. If DDP had beaten any of the other guys in the match, then Page would have been made to look like a viable contender to Goldberg’s WCW World Heavyweight Championship at WCW Halloween Havoc 1998. As expected, DDP would lose the match which was considered to be Goldberg’s best match up to that point of his career. Page would defeat Bret Hart once again for the WCW United States Championship at World War III 1998 and beat The Giant at Starrcade 1998. Going into the year 1999, DDP sure didn’t look like a main event wrestler.
DDP would feud with Scott Steiner over his wife Kimberly and how Scott Steiner had been stalking her and wanted her to be his freak. Steiner, who hadn’t been more than a upper midcarder at the time, would beat DDP at Superbrawl IX. DDP would get revenge on Steiner by beating Steiner, with help from his wife on a Nitro in April of 1999. That sure didn’t help his creditability, needing his wife to help him win against tough opponents. With the win, Page was mentioned as being a future World Champion for WCW. Thus, he was put in four way match against Flair, Sting and Hogan at Spring Stampede 1999.
DDP wins the title at the event after pinning Ric Flair with the Diamond Cutter. In what would appear to be a future angle, DDP injured Hulk Hogan’s knee which would sideline Hogan for three months. DDP’s title reign would be extremely short. DDP would lose the belt to Sting on April 26th which would mean a eleven day run for DDP. However, DDP would win the belt back that same night in a four way with Sting, Goldberg and Kevin Nash. Talk about making very little sense. Why have DDP lose the title when he will just win it back? That hurts Sting in the process as well. DDP’s second title reign if you want to call it that, would come to an end at Slamboree 1999 when he lost to Kevin Nash. Despite being over as heel, DDP wasn’t given the chance to be a highly successful champion.
June, July and August would see DDP team with his stable members Chris Kanyon and Bam-Bam Bigelow. They were known as the Jersey Triad and were the top heel stable at the time. They would feud with Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn for most of those months. Page would unsuccessfully go for the WCW United States Championship that Benoit had held at the time. After those feuds, DDP would once again feud with Goldberg briefly and would lose to him at Fall Brawl. In October DDP would feud with Ric Flair as Flair was trying to sleep with DDP’s wife Kimberly. Yes, another angle involving DDP’s wife. DDP would actually win the contest, but would be taken off television for a couple of months to film a movie for TBS.
DDP would make his full time return to WCW in April 2000 and would lose to Jeff Jarrett at Spring Stampede 2000 in the finals to crown a new WCW World Heavyweight Champion. DDP would manage to win the belt two weeks later in a cage match, but would lose the belt on a Thunder when David Arquette won the championship by pinning Eric Bischoff. DDP would never hold the WCW World Heavyweight Championship again. DDP would feud with the likes of the Natural Born Thrillers when he came back to WCW in November and would be taken out by Scott Steiner in February 2001 losing in his last WCW World Heavyweight Championship match.
To prove that DDP was never properly booked as a main event wrestler, during the Invasion angle for WWF, DDP was the only former World Champion who didn’t have any major success in the angle. DDP was really just a midcarder who stalked Undertaker’s wife. He would lose to Taker fairly easily in a series of matches. DDP wouldn’t be highlighted on WWF television until after the Invasion angle. DDP would return in January 2002 as a baby face motivational speaker and would win the WWF European Championship. A drastic change of where he was just one year earlier.
Colling’s Critique: The whole experiment of DDP becoming a main event wrestler should have began in late 1997. DDP was very popular at the time, and sure he had competition with Sting but he would have been a great number two top baby face. In the summer of 1998, DDP should have beaten Hogan at least once in the tag team matches that he had with various celebrities. DDP could have gotten that big push from such a big win at the time. Instead, he doesn’t win and instead Leno gets the win? That had to hurt the character for DDP to thrive in WCW at the time. If he would have beaten Hogan at the time, going into the Fall Brawl pay per view DDP could have been seen as a threat. Instead, he was made out to be a joke along with Stevie Ray for the match.
I will never understand why DDP pinned Stevie Ray. That is just a horrible way to make DDP look good going into his match with Goldberg at Halloween Havoc. Honestly, Page should have beaten Bret Hart or a Kevin Nash for that matter to face Goldberg. Anyone but Stevie Ray who was involved with the match. From a writing standpoint, having DDP face Goldberg was lackluster. I can’t believe that anyone truly though that Goldberg would lose to him. That really has to with the poor building for DDP.
Fast forward to April 1999 and there is more poorly written situations. DDP and Hulk Hogan should have had a feud after DDP injured Hogan’s knee. They never were given a singles match on pay per view to blow that off. DDP was very much over a heel, surprisingly enough. If DDP would have been given a decent title run until Hogan came back then he could successfully drop it back to Hogan when he returned in July. Instead, DDP was just a transitional champion who never was given the chance to carry a company. I find that to be a shame. DDP was a good worker and had a pretty interesting character at the time. By the time 2000 came along DDP was just a joke. He was the best viable option, but he wasn’t a good option at all.
It truly speaks volumes that when he went to the WWF he was made out to be a complete dope. He wasn’t given any major angles or feuds. He was just your typical midcarder at the time who would talk a lot of smack but never back it up. His lackluster WCW run, in terms of booking and not work rate, really affected his run in the WWF. DDP could have been a bright spot for WCW, but was just another guy who fell victim to Bischoff believing Hogan, Flair and Sting were still big draws, when they really weren’t. That again, was all because of horrible booking.
Thanks for reading.
