40 Greatest Stories Wrestling Ever Told

25. DDP = People’s Champion (WCW, 1997-1999)

There's a bizarre misconception about WCW that refuses to go away. According to some (WWE revisionists, mainly), the promotion exclusively profiteered from hard work Vince McMahon had done when building stars like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and others. Was that WWF lore important to ideas like the nWo? Undoubtedly. Did WCW create their own stars too?

You bet they did.

Bill Goldberg, Sting and Booker T all proved to be shining examples of what was possible in WCW when the place was ticking, but arguably no 'rags to riches' story topped that of Diamond Dallas Page. He trained harder than anyone to go from cigar-chomping 1980s-style gimmicky manager to man of the people pro wrestler in the 1990s, and he did it all without the machine ever really getting behind him Goldberg streak style.

DDP grafted his way from the outhouse to the penthouse the old fashioned way. He scratched, he clawed and he fostered a relationship with fans who could see that this wrestling wannabe was someone to pay attention to. Then, Savage helped Page earn his stripes with one of 1997's best rivalries. Their match at Spring Stampede that year put DDP on the map.

2 years later at the same event, Page was winning the World Title in a Fatal-4-Way next to Hogan, Flair and Sting. His old pal 'Macho Man' was there as special guest referee, and he had to be proud of how far Dallas had come. That motormouthed manager wearing 100 gimmicks had done good - he'd become the 'People's Champ' long before The Rock was calling himself that.