DDP - 'dead man walking'
Bagwell lasted 3 weeks. DDP led the WCW faction into WWF and flopped. After 8 weeks in the big league, it's all over for DDP.....Earlier this year, DDP bought himself out of his WCW contract to compete in "the crown jewel of sports entertainment - the WWF. Everybody knows," Page told us "that WrestleMania is the Super Bowl. It’s the whole deal. It’s what it’s all about. If you’ve never worked WrestleMania, you never really hit it.” (DDP on wwf.com 06/22/01).
When he left AOL-Time Warner in June, DDP had 18 months on his WCW contract (at $1.4 million a year, courtesy of buddy, Eric Bischoff). With a buyout of 30 cents in the dollar, that's a payout of $630,000 before tax. In return for what - a 90 day contract from the WWF?
The day Page signed with WWF, instead of shaking Vince's hand, Page hugged Vince like they were best friends. They made a storyline out of it - with Angle and Austin hugging Vince - as an inside joke at Page's expense (WON 7/30/01).
Next, they poked fun at him lying about his age - with "WWF.com.asserting that Dallas Page is just 32 years old."
Finally, this week, they booked the "three time three times" WCW world champion to get beaten by The Undertaker's wife - in a record 0:06 minutes.
With DDP now literally 'buried' by the Undertaker, the WWF rumor mill is at work, writing his obituary, viz - "Page has been the biggest disappointment .. of any of the WCW signees..... He’s lost in the ring without a script.....Page plans out his matches meticulously and leaves little or no room for ad libbing .....Page isn't seen as a worker ..."
At the same time, the wrestling sheets have been pulling the plug on DDP's life support, with The Torch newsletter this week declaring that DDP "might have been long-gone had it not been for his close friendship with Eric Bischoff."
Why has it taken them so long for them to speak out .....
At last, DDP is free to go back to his roots at TCW. Back to where he always belonged - with the rest of Dusty's 1991 crew. Leaving us with the question, what was Bischoff paying him $1.4 million a year for? It cearly wasn't for his talent.....
The DDP watch06/18/01 - DDP is revealed as the stalkerr on WWF RAW. DDP chokes on his interview segment.
"Outdated by today's standards..."
06/26/ 01 - Scherer - "There was a feeling backstage among management that work needs to be done with Dallas Page to make his work with the Undertaker more successful. It was not lost among management that his interview segments and selling style seemed a bit outdated by today's standards... we can expect some work to be done with him to be more "2001" in how he sells and does promos."07/02/01 - Tom Zenk on Wrestlethis - "Zenk asked Ken to guess how many timmes DDP would be WWF champion. Ken hoped the answer would be zero...... Zenk said that in the WWF the overwhelming determining factor is business as in the gate and the drawing power of the wrestlers. The determining factor is not corruption, politics, or "Bullsh*t. DDP is finished."
DDP’s lost in the ring without a script......and Bischoff
"Page wants the WWF to add a feature to the end of his interviews where after he licks his teeth, they superimpose a "sparkle" reflecting off of his teeth. The idea has been the subject of ridicule...Dallas Page upset Undertaker at the house shows over the weekend for not selling convincingly. Page wasn’t taking flat-back bumps for Taker's punches and clotheslines, but instead was rolling onto his side. Taker grew frustrated with Page the first night. The second night they wrestled, the locker room gathered at the entrance curtain to watch the match, anticipating that Taker might snap if Page continued to soft-sell for Taker. Page did soft-sell, and Taker grew agitated. At one point Taker just stood still and stopped selling for Page, glaring at him for a long five seconds. Page defended his bumps by saying he saw similar "bumps" in Braveheart and contended that within a few months other wrestlers would he copying him. "Page has been the biggest disappointment to the wrestlers of any of the WCW signees," says one wrestler. "He’s lost in the ring without a script, yet he carries himself as if he can teach all of us. A lot of guys who liked him from their past experience with him years ago in WCW have already grown tired of his act." Page blew off attempts by others to talk to him about why Taker was so hot." (The Torch July 2001)
Like Scooby Doo off a cliff ....
07/30/01 - Jonathan Roscoe - "Lastt night at RAW is think I saw the funniest moment of any recent RAW broadcast. It was better than any Stone Cold and Angle skit. It was Diamond Dallas Page's run-in. He was in a full on sprint (or as fast as a wrestler can sprint down the ramp) tripped at the bottom and did a full on header in the "W" of the RAW on the ring apron. The entire row I was in, the highest in the building, broke up into hysterical laughter. Finally, DDP did something worthwhile on a WWF broadcast."08/02/01 - DDP - "I was running doown that ramp at full speed trying to be on time to get that S.O.B. Taker who is about to clasp his hand around Nick Patrick’s throat. As I hit the bottom of the ramp, I must have hit air and kept running like Scooby Doo off a cliff. By the time I had said, “Rut-Ro” I had gored the ring. The 80 people in the area who actually saw it let out a thunderous “Whoa!”. Between the ring mat and the floor there is an open area of about 2 feet. I missed that. I actually butted the back of my head onto one of the steel girders that hold up the ring. I felt my head open immediately and go unconscious. I think it was the blood running down the back of my neck that made me think, “Don’t screw this up...do not mess this spot up…don’t screw this up” I instinctively pulled myself up and threw myself into the ring, running and sliding across the ring. I proceeded to nut shot (Sorry, Taker) the Taker with probably the hardest nut shot he has ever been hit with." (State of the Union Address by Diamond Dallas Page).
"Management views Page as a poor worker..."
"Management recently confronted Diamond Dallas Page about problems about how certain angles went involving him and Undertaker's wife, Sara. Instead of taking responsibility for the problems, Page ended up blaming Sara for being green . Management views Page as a poor worker and this caused Triple H to take Page aside backstage to address some of the things he has been doing. Again, Page acted somewhat indifferently instead of accepting the obvious and working to improve his demeanor. ""Can't work without his script..."
"Had a lot of input in his WCW storylines, because nothing was ever set in stone, and things were never written out clearly. In the WWF, things are mapped out for him, and while he can make suggestions, the WWF knows where they want things to go."08/20/01 RAW Monday
Sara (w/Undertaker) beat Dallas Page at 0:06. The match took DDP 5 days to map out.
3 times WCW world champ beat by WWF wrestler's wife
WWF writers have run out of ideas
"At this point in time, the WWF writing team is trying to come up with a new gimmick/program for Page but don't really have any ideas at this point. As Jim Ross has said, the program Page had with the Undertaker didn't get over with the fans ..... So at this point, they are going back to the drawing board and looking for something to do with him."DDP - Keller withdraws life support ......<
The Torch starts to bury DDP - five years too late!!"We've beat up on Dallas Page enough in the Torch Newsletter in recent months listing many of his locker room "groaner moments," so it's not worth repeating here, but in general he's one of those guys who after he leaves the room, there's usually snickering because he's such a shameless, obliviously boorish self-promoter. It's not that he's considered a "bad guy," it's just that a lot of wrestlers get really tired of his act in a short amount of time.
From a "respect of fellow wrestlers" standpoint, Page isn't seen as a worker, he's seen as a performer. Page plans out his matches meticulously and leaves little or no room for ad libbing. The ability to effectively ad lib isn't considered an optional skill among wrestlers. He has actually scripted out his matches move-for-move and expected his opponent to take his print out home and memorize it. He's a one of a kind, and if he weren't such a hard worker, he'd long be gone from the business (although he might have already been long-gone had it not been for his close friendship with Eric Bischoff during his years going from early-card worker to main eventer).
Whatever thoughts did exist when Page arrived in the WWF, he has quickly eliminated from the minds of WWF bookers." (The Torch, August 2001)
