10 Potential Megastars That Never Recovered From WWE Burials
1. Diamond Dallas Page
Retrospective puff pieces on WCW produced by WWE routinely trot out the line that the Atlanta outfit couldn't create bonafide stars. This is demonstrably not the case of course, but it doesn't stop the simplified line of reasoning being an old favourite whenever a soulless soundbite is required.
Diamond Dallas Page was one such breakout talent, surviving some of the organisation's darkest days as a comedy heel to burst out of the pack as a lone insurgent against the New World Order to become a man-of-the-people World Champion and decorated company icon.
One of the few willing to sacrifice his bulky AOL/Time Warner contract, DDP became the first high profile star to be revealed on WWE television, though he probably didn't expect to be ripping off a balaclava when he made his shocking debut.
Confirmed as the sinister stalker of The Undertaker's wife Sara, Page suggested he'd done so just to get 'The Deadman's attention and to be 'made famous'. This ludicrous assertion that one of WCW's top stars during the company's hottest period wouldn't be known by audiences at large highlighted exactly how Vince McMahon still felt about his derilict opposition.
Speaking of derelict opposition, that's exactly what DDP offered Undertaker in their eventual 'match'. Battered all over the arena at June 2001's King Of The Ring, he was then defeated by Sara herself, before losing a tag team squash alongside Kanyon in a shameful embarrassment of an encounter. Attempts to rebuild him as a motivational speaker were insulting and fruitless, and he was gone less than a year after his regretable debut.