Diamond Dallas Page got his start in the wrestling game surprisingly late, debuting as a manager in his thirties and becoming a full-on in-ring competitor for World Championship Wrestling at the age of 35. However, his age didn’t seem to hamper him, as his work ethic led to him becoming one of the more popular home-grown stars in the company and even led to him winning the WCW World Title.
DDP’s career has gone through a number of permutations -- from not only manager to wrestler, but heel to face and back again. So let’s take a look at all the various versions of Page that have been over the past few decades.
9 Creeping on Undertaker’s Wife
Diamond Dallas Page debuted for WWE in 2001, mere months after the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro aired. Unfortunately, his initial storyline was as a creepy stalker targeting The Undertaker’s wife in order to play mind games with the Dead Man.
The angle was largely unsuccessful and seemed to exist in order to make the former WCW star look bad, but he did manage to team up with old partner Chris Kanyon to win the Tag Team Titles once.
8 WCW: The Early Years
DDP originally came into WCW as a manager for The Fabulous Freebirds, but soon came to manage Scott Hall under his Diamond Studd gimmick, and also did some color commentary for shows.
It was during this era that Page was also training at the WCW Power Plant to be a wrestler himself, and formed a stable, The Diamond Mine, with Hall and wrestlers who would come to be best known as Kevin Nash and Raven. Overall, this early era was necessary for Page’s development even if he didn’t accomplish much.
7 The TNA Years
After a neck injury led to a brief retirement in 2002, Diamond Dallas Page returned to wrestling in 2004, eventually making his way to TNA, as all aging wrestlers of the era tended to do. DDP’s run with the company was brief, lasting about six months or so, but Page proved that he could still be a viable in-ring performer in pretty good efforts against Raven and Jeff Jarrett.
However, many of his bouts suffered from classic TNA overbooking and nonsensical storytelling.
6 The Insider
One of the forgotten developments of late-period WCW was Diamond Dallas Page forming a tag team with his old Diamond Mine stablemate Kevin Nash. Known as The Insiders, Page and Nash managed to have two Tag Team Championship runs during the duo’s brief existence.
While not the most exciting tag team, they had a lot of value as veterans who could work with the rising stars of the promotion like Chuck Palumbo, Sean O'Haire, and Shawn Stasiak.
5 Diamond Exchange
During his time with the American Wrestling Association in the late 1980s, Diamond Dallas Page was strictly a manager, first for Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond. Soon, however, Page had a full-fledged stable of clients, including Curt Hennig, Madusa, and Col. DeBeers -- collectively known as The Diamond Exchange.
This era lasted only about a year or so as tag teams split up and Curt Hennig left for WWE, but offered a great look at DDP’s incredible charisma as a performer.
4 Mid-1990s Heel
As Diamond Dallas Page’s career approached the mid-1990s and he got more in-ring experience, his hard work began paying off as opportunities started to arise. By 1994, DDP was no longer a manager but now had managers including his wife (“The Diamond Doll”) and a bodyguard named Max Muscle.
This era of more prominence also brought DDP his first ever championship when he defeated The Renegade for the World Television Title.
3 Motivational Speaker
After Diamond Dallas Page got done with his Undertaker feud in WWE, he pivoted to a new gimmick where he was an absurdly positive motivational speaker. It was a pretty good gimmick, especially bolstered by Page’s all-in approach to the character and his catchphrase, “That’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing.”
More than just character work, DDP also managed to capture the WWE European Championship during this period.
2 Jersey Triad
In 1999, Diamond Dallas Page turned heel after a successful run as a babyface and ended up forming a little stable with Bam Bam Bigelow and Chris Kanyon.
Known as the Jersey Triad -- so named because they were all from New Jersey -- the trio was a pretty effective heel team, with each member filling a unique role in the group: Bigelow as the bruiser, DDP as the mouthpiece, and Kanyon as the younger guy benefitting from the union.
1 People’s Champion
It should be no surprise that Diamond Dallas Page’s best era was the one during which he had the most success. In 1997, Page turned face while feuding with the nWo, and managed to not only score a couple of reigns with the US Heavyweight Title, but also the World Heavyweight Title.
During the late 1990s, DDP went from midcard heel to “the people’s champ,” a main eventer known for his cool diamond hand gesture, Nirvana-in-reverse entrance theme, and a ridiculously popular finisher in The Diamond Cutter.