One of the most over wrestling maneuvers of the Monday Night War era was Diamond Dallas Page's Diamond Cutter. Page could execute the move out of almost any configuration, making it an unpredictable way to finish a match. Moreover, the move was well protected so that it became believable as a definitive finisher.
In the years after the Monday Night War, though, Randy Orton’s RKO emerged as a move that was similarly over and executed by a much younger WWE star, such that his take on essentially the same move now has an almost twenty year long legacy. So which move is better? The classic Diamond Cutter, or the newer RKO? Here are five reasons why it’s the RKO, and five reasons why it’s the Diamond Cutter.
10 RKO IS BETTER: World Title Credentials
At SummerSlam 2004, Randy Orton hit an RKO on Chris Benoit to win the main event and, at twenty-four years of age, become the youngest world champion in WWE history. While that reign wouldn’t be long or all that great, it nonetheless established a template. Orton has thirteen world title reigns now to date, most of which he secured by hitting his signature finisher.
Few wrestlers have collected as much hardware as Orton. Few moves are responsible for taking home more titles, either (and that includes DDP and his Diamond Cutter, which only racked up three world title wins).
9 DIAMOND CUTTER IS BETTER: It's The Original
Diamond Dallas Page didn’t invent the cutter, but his use of the Diamond Cutter got the move over at a new level as a cool and effective finisher of the late '90s and beyond.
One might argue that Randy Orton hits his version of the move better, but The Viper will always have to contend with the fact that Page used it over a decade before Orton worked his first WWE match. For any iconic wrestling finisher, it’s hard to compete with the original.
8 RKO IS BETTER: All Those Beautiful Memes
From time to time, Randy Orton has managed to transcend the professional wrestling business in a way very few wrestlers ever have. Some of that has to do with how over he himself is, quite arguably second only to John Cena in terms of the most recognizable WWE stars of his generation. Some of that also has to do with the RKO itself.
There’s a recurring meme of Orton hitting the RKO, not only rendering him doing so against fellow wrestlers, but against pretty much anyone. There are countless meme videos where Orton was spliced in such a way that he brought random people down with an RKO out of nowhere. To be fair, memes weren’t around in DDP’s heyday but nonetheless, Orton and the RKO have become a part of modern pop culture in a way the Diamond Cutter never did.
7 DIAMOND CUTTER IS BETTER: DDP Was A True People’s Champion
One of the bigger criticisms attached to Randy Orton is that he tends to feel like a champion hand selected by WWE management. After all, he is a third generation wrestler with a great look, and he has more or less been pushed as an upper level star for his whole career.
While Diamond Dallas Page purportedly benefited from his personal friendship with WCW boss Eric Bischoff, there’s also no denying that he was organically over. Page earned the nickname “The People’s Champion” based on the groundswell of support behind him as a rare top-level, home-grown talent for the company. The Diamond Cutter was a huge part of his popularity.
6 RKO IS BETTER: It Works For Both Face & Heel
Randy Orton has done most of the best work from his career as a heel, and the RKO has at once been a confounding move that bails him out situations in which he otherwise looks beaten, as well as a move he uses to knock out an opponent he has already dominated.
The RKO’s visual appeal and crisp delivery have made it a big part of Orton’s popularity as well, though. While the general consensus is that The Viper works better as a heel, he has had his share of successful face runs, too, and the RKO in particular is over enough to have made those runs a success. DDP was over as a hero with his Diamond Cutter as well, but the move and the wrestler didn’t crossover nearly as successfully when cast in a villainous role.
5 DIAMOND CUTTER IS BETTER: It's The Underdog’s Equalizer
Randy Orton has played the roles of blue chip prospect, corporate chosen one, and veteran champion, but it’s hard to pin down a time when he could truly have been called an underdog. By contrast, Diamond Dallas Page was always fighting the odds. As a guy who didn’t start wrestling until his mid-thirties, he was behind the eight ball from his first match.
WCW got the Diamond Cutter over as Page’s equalizer. While he often wrestled younger guys or bigger stars, or found himself outnumbered, the potency of this signature move always kept him in the fight.
4 RKO IS BETTER: The Hang Time
While Randy Orton’s critics may call his ring work boring, there’s little denying that he's physically capable of great things. The RKO is a prime example, as Orton has delivered the move with precision, speed, and athleticism throughout his career.
Orton’s hang time on the RKO is especially impressive. Sometimes, he hits the move on opponents coming at him out of the air, and other times he has leapt into the air to hit it on much bigger men. Regardless, the maneuver is a thing of beauty when Orton really makes use of his hang time.
3 DIAMOND CUTTER IS BETTER: DDP Used It Against The New World Order
Randy Orton may have made use of the RKO against legends like John Cena, Triple H, Hulk Hogan, and Ric Flair. By sheer virtue of the era in which he has wrestled, however, he never got to use the move against enemies the caliber of the New World Order (nWo).
DDP tricked Scott Hall into thinking he’d joined the nWo, only to hit the Diamond Cutter on him. Later, Page would use his move to pin The Macho Man Randy Savage. These are the kinds of iconic moments it’s so difficult to replicate, and that immediately land the Diamond Cutter in more epic territory than the RKO.
2 RKO IS BETTER: The WrestleMania Moments
See Randy Orton nail an RKO on Mick Foley and pin him in the middle of Madison Square Garden. See him escape The Undertaker’s choke slam, and come as close as anyone had to ending the streak at that time. See Orton shockingly nail Triple H with an RKO seconds into their WrestleMania 25 main event. Watch him catch CM Punk out of mid-air, hit a Batista-Bomb-assisted RKO through an announce table on Daniel Bryan, or transition out of a Stomp into one of the highest floating RKOs ever on Seth Rollins.
The moments above are just some of Orton’s many WrestleMania RKOs, and by virtue of them happening at the Showcase of the Immortals, they’ll live on forever. DDP and the Diamond Cutter just can’t claim a catalog of moments like that.
1 DIAMOND CUTTER IS BETTER: The Legacy Lives On Through Yoga
Diamond Dallas Page is nothing if not enterprising. After an unlikely wrestling career that started in his mid-thirties, he parlayed his name recognition into a shockingly successful career in home fitness.
The DDP Yoga program has thrived off of drawing in wrestling fans and other men who might not think to give yoga the time of day if it weren’t a credible wrestling star leading them through the relaxing stretches and poses. One of Page’s best known modified stretches is, itself, called the Diamond Cutter, allowing the name and the memories of his wrestling career to live on in this unexpected form.