What would a WCW column be without a reference to Diamond Dallas Page?
I’m not going to touch DDP’s political rise to glory from 1996 to 1999. Instead, I’ll cover one of many poor WCW booking decisions that caused several wrestling fans to scratch their heads.
On April 11, 1999 at Spring Stampede, DDP competed in a Four Corners match against “Nature Boy” Ric Flair (champion), Hulk Hogan, and Sting for the WCW World title. Most people believed Hogan would regain the title, but he was injured early in the match. Alternatively, DDP, with assistance from special referee “Macho Man” Randy Savage, pinned Flair to win his first World title.
Two weeks later on Nitro, DDP lost the title to Sting at the beginning of the second hour then regained the title in the main event in another Four Corners match involving Kevin Nash and Goldberg.
So where did it lead: Unfortunately, DDP’s second reign ended at Slamboree when Nash defeated him.
In my humble opinion, DDP was the Roddy Piper/Junkyard Dog of WCW in the late ‘90’s because he didn’t need a title to get himself over. Unfortunately for DDP, the shock of his winning the title in ’99 was not met with great excitement from wrestling fans. Of course, it didn’t help that the WCW World title changed hands not once but TWICE on the same TV show two weeks later. Those events helped to devalue the title for the sole purpose of TV ratings. If only that was the last ratings ploy WCW would use to compete for ratings against RAW.
What do you think of DDP’s first and second title reigns in 1999?
Please be sure to check out all of my reflections at rockstargary.com.