10 Incredible Wrestlers Fans WROTE-OFF Before They Were Famous
6. DDP
Diamond Dallas Page was 32 years old when he worked his first match for WCW in August 1991. That's not old, right? It didn't matter. Page could've been 22 years old - people had already decided he'd get nowhere as a pro wrestler. That was the general consensus behind the curtain as well as in the stands. After all, DDP had been a glitzy, over-the-top manager. Now he wanted to wrestle?! Get out of here.
It'd take years of huffing and puffing away before Page gained any traction. Even when WCW top brass tried to make something of him as a midcarder, fans wouldn't meet them halfway. The loyalists who bought tickets just wanted Page to go back to cutting promos as a manager or get out of the way. Then, something utterly magical happened.
The wrestling dream clicked and DDP's endless amounts of hard work paid off.
A feud opposite Randy Savage in 1997 proved to be the catalyst, and 'Macho Man' deserved a huge amount of praise for going above and beyond to make Page as an in-ring performer. He could've easily scoffed at the mere thought, but Randy wanted to help. Help he did. '97 was a breakout year for Diamond, then he went from strength to strength in 1998 before becoming World Champ in '99.
That had seemed impossible when he was first cutting (ahem) around with the 'Diamond Doll/Booty Babe' Kimberly in the mid-90s. Those who had put a red pen through Page's name were suddenly raising their hands to the sky and doing his 'Feel The Bang' gesture along with him like that was second nature.