10 Awesome Wrestling Debuts That Quickly Faded Away
5. Diamond Dallas Page
Most fans have done their best to scrub Diamond Dallas Page’s lacklustre WWE run from their memory, but it’s easy to forget just how potent his debut was.
It was 2001, and Vince McMahon had just acquired what remained of WCW. The Invasion angle was yet to fully kick-off, but WCW superstars had started slowly trickling onto Raw and SmackDown. A series of disturbing vignettes started airing around about this time, too. They depicted The Undertaker’s then-wife, Sara, going about her business at home, and it soon became apparent that she was being stalked.
The story progressed for several weeks before the big reveal came on a June 2001 episode of Raw. The Undertaker’s music hit, and a man dressed exactly like the American Badass drove down to the ring on a motorcycle. Tension lingered in the air, and after a few seconds, the masked man pulled away his disguise to finally reveal himself.
DDP’s unveiling got a huge response, but it proved to be his undoing. The stalker angle was always done in questionable taste, and it turned Page from one of WCW’s most popular wrestlers to an irredeemable creep in WWE. DDP lost his feud with The Undertaker and attempted a babyface turn in January 2002, but it turns out that trying to turn a former stalker into a sympathetic character isn’t all that easy. Page eventually became WWE European Champion, but his career fizzled out and he was released later that year.