Rewatching The Last Wrestling Show To Beat WWE Raw In The Ratings

1. Goddamn, DDP Was OVER!

Hollywood Hogan Horace Hogan
WWE.com

Technically, we got to see Diamond Dallas Page in action twice on the October 26, 1998 edition of Nitro - that first being a replay of his Halloween Havoc against Goldberg, then Page in action against Bret Hart as part of the regular Nitro content.

That Halloween Havoc match is often cited as the greatest match of Bill Goldberg's career, but a revisit makes you realise just how over DDP was at that point in time.

It's criminal how WWE opted to use Page during his one-year in-ring tenure with the company, and many of those that weren't watching his WCW rise will likely be unaware of just how big a deal the Master of the Diamond Cutter was at one point in time. And for DDP, he was rarely as over as when he made his entrance at the Halloween Havoc '98 PPV.

Pegged as People's Champion vs. World Champion, Page pushed Goldberg to places he'd never before been. At that point the WCW Champ, Da Man had to work for every hold and every semblance of movement as DDP stood his ground.

The story of Diamond Dallas Page is a well-known one - a manager and commentator who only started training in his mid-30s and became a three-time World Champion - but a quick revisit of 1998 reiterates just how much of a star Page made himself.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.