While World Championship Wrestling had its fair share of ex-WWE stars during its late 1990s peak, it also had some tremendously popular homegrown talent as well, including Diamond Dallas Page. Initially a sleazy heel, DDP soon caught on with fans, becoming the original “People’s Champion” and enjoying three reigns with the WCW World Championship.
Page debuted WCW in 1991 and stuck around until the bitter end of the company in March 2001, though he didn’t wrestle on the final episode of Monday Nitro. Let’s take a look at DDP’s final 10 in-ring efforts with the company, starting with the worst of the bunch.
10 Diamond Dallas Page vs. Rick Steiner (WCW Monday Nitro, 3/12/2001)
March 2001 saw Diamond Dallas Page in a main event World Title feud with champion Scott Steiner, so it was only natural that he took on Scott’s brother Rick the week before their pay-per-view bout at Greed.
A six-minute effort, the match saw the elder Steiner brother giving a poor performance against the spirited Page, who had developed into quite a wrestler in recent years. In the end, Road Warrior Animal would stage a run-in to draw a disqualification finish.
9 Diamond Dallas Page & Dustin Rhodes vs. Jeff Jarrett & Rick Steiner (WCW Thunder, 3/14/2001)
Days after the above Nitro match, DDP once again stood in the ring across from Rick Steiner, this time in a tag match with Jeff Jarrett backing Steiner and Dustin Rhodes at the soon-to-be-challenger’s side, in a weird rematch of a bout all four men wrestled literally a month prior.
That previous match was better (see below), partially because it didn’t feel like a strange diversion for a go-home before a pay-per-view. Jeff Jarrett and Rick Steiner got the win in this match thanks to Jarrett using his signature guitar smash during a referee-distracting brawl.
8 Diamond Dallas Page & Dustin Rhodes vs. Jeff Jarrett & Rick Steiner (WCW Thunder, 2/14/2001)
As stated, the aforementioned tag match between Page/Rhodes and Jarrett/Steiner from a month before was slightly better than the above outing. What helped here was that the match was pretty lively and relatively short, at less than eight minutes.
It also helped that this match was in service to SuperBrawl Revenge happening days later, with DDP taking on Jarrett and Dustin Rhodes challenging Rick Steiner for the United States Title. Here Page would eat the pin after taking a Stroke from Jarrett.
7 Diamond Dallas Page & Booker T vs. The Steiner Brothers (WCW Monday Nitro, 3/5/2001)
Like the above match, this Nitro tag team bout once again involved two singles feuds going into a PPV, as Diamond Dallas Page was challenging Scott Steiner for the World Title and Booker T was challenging Rick Steiner for the United States Title at Greed. It would be DDP getting the win in this decent match after hitting his Diamond Cutter finisher on Rick Steiner.
Notably, this was the last Steiner Brothers tag match in WCW, with their previous bout being in August 2000 and the one before that being in 1998.
6 Diamond Dallas Page & The Cat vs. Buff Bagwell & Kanyon (WCW Thunder, 2/21/2001)
Earlier in the week of this WCW Thunder airing, Diamond Dallas Page took on his former Jersey Triad partner turned bitter rival Kanyon at both SuperBrawl Revenge pay-per-view and the subsequent Nitro. With this episode, however, the two met in a tag match, with Kanyon teaming with his former rival Buff Bagwell and Page backed up by Ernest “The Cat” Miller, who ended up taking on Kanyon in a singles match at the next PPV, Greed.
It’s a fun match that functions pretty well as a postscript to their previous singles bouts, but neither Page nor Kanyon fit into the finish of the match, as it’s The Cat who gets the win by pinning Bagwell.
5 Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kanyon (WCW Monday Nitro, 2/19/2001)
DDP and Kanyon’s pay-per-view bout at SuperBrawl Revenge wasn’t the end of their rivalry, as a rematch ensued the following night on Nitro. At this point, Kanyon was still doing his hilarious “Positively Kanyon” gimmick — complete with stolen “Kanyon Cutter” finisher — and had to fight Page while wearing a poorly placed wig and a DDP T-shirt.
While Kanyon got the win at SuperBrawl the night before, Page got some retribution by putting his rival away with the Diamond Cutter.
4 Diamond Dallas Page, Booker T & The Cat vs. Scott Steiner & Totally Buff (WCW Monday Nitro, 2/26/2001)
Late February 2001 saw Diamond Dallas Page emerging as the next challenger to WCW World Champion Scott Steiner, so he teamed with fellow babyfaces Booker T and The Cat to take on Steiner and his Magnificent Seven compatriots Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger. The result is a surprisingly fun six-man tag that actually functions to advance the storyline.
While Page goes on to challenge Scott Steiner at Greed, it’s Booker T that gets the pin on Steiner, which nicely sets up Booker as a future challenger, which ends up happening on the final episode of Nitro a month later.
3 Diamond Dallas Page vs. Kanyon (WCW SuperBrawl Revenge, 2/18/2001)
Following his infamous Judy Bagwell on a Pole Match with Buff Bagwell, Kanyon took a six-month hiatus from WCW, returning in February 2001 to rekindle his rivalry with Diamond Dallas Page. Page and Kanyon didn’t disappoint here, as they had great chemistry in their matches during their 2000 feud.
However, Page was also feuding with Jeff Jarrett at the time — they had a match right after this one — so Jarrett ended up interfering in this bout to get Kanyon the win.
2 Diamond Dallas Page vs. Jeff Jarrett (WCW SuperBrawl Revenge, 2/18/2001)
Diamond Dallas Page’s loss to Kanyon at SuperBrawl Revenge didn’t preclude his subsequent match with Jeff Jarrett — it was just a way to soften him up for Jarrett. Doing double duty with back-to-back matches served to make the already-popular Page a hero overcoming the odds, making for a very entertaining PPV bout.
Of course, Kanyon reciprocates Jarrett’s interference by meddling in the match himself, resulting in Double J smashing his guitar over Kanyon’s head by mistake, allowing DDP to take advantage with a Diamond Cutter for the win.
1 Scott Steiner vs. Diamond Dallas Page (WCW Greed, 3/18/2001)
Greed was the final pay-per-view in WCW history, as the company would basically come to an end with the final episode of Nitro eight days later. And while late period WCW has its problems, it certainly went out on a high note with Greed, partially thanks to this main event title bout between Diamond Dallas Page and World Champion Scott Steiner.
Page would come up short thanks to Steiner cheating, but both men did a great job in the brawling, 14-minute main event.