"Yo! It's me, it's me. It's DDP!"
"Bada Bing, Bada Boom, Bada BANG!!!"
"Diamond" Dallas Page (born Page Joseph Falkinburg, Jr. on April 5, 1956) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and fitness instructor best known for his stint in WCW. He'd actually debuted as a manager in the AWA in the 80s, but some time after he showed up in WCW, he made the transition to a wrestler. Gradually, over the next decade, he became one of the biggest names WCW had to offer, with a showy personality and one of the most popular Finishing Moves in the business (the Diamond Cutter), until the company's buyout in 2001.
He became a major player in the "Invasion" storyline following WWE's buyout of WCW, and was so excited to work for WWE that he took a buyout on his contract to the tune of $.50 on a dollar. What happened was an abysmal trainwreck of a storyline that ended with him playing the part of a stalker, and later leaving the business altogether.
As with many wrestlers, his years in the business had a severe physical toll. After leaving wrestling, he turned to Yoga to help rehabilitate his body and became an absolute fanatic when he realized how much of a positive effect it had on his life. Realizing that most men think of yoga as being a "feminine" pursuit, he developed "Yoga for Regular Guys" and launched a health and fitness website, along with a line of classes and instructional videos that aim to make the art more accessible and straightforward, before rebranding it as "DDP Yoga
".
In recent years, DDP has used DDP Yoga to help rehabilitate wrestlers who have been having issues with drugs and alcohol. Two of his most noteworthy charges have been Jake "the Snake" Roberts and Scott Hall/Razor Ramon.
He is a former "3X, 3X, 3X" WCW World Heavyweight Champion, a former 2x WCW United States Heavyweight Champion, a former WCW World Television Champion, a former 3x WCW World Tag Team Champion, holding the belts w/Bam Bam Bigelow and Kanyon as the Jersey Triad and 1x w/Kevin Nash as the Insiders, a 1x WWE World Tag Team Champion w/Kanyon and a 1x WWE European Heavyweight Champion. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017.
"These tropes are gonna feel the BANG!":
- '80s Hair: Had long, thick curly blond hair until he cut it off in 2000.
- Aborted Arc: After being fired from WCW (in Kayfabe) in 1996 and becoming homeless, a mysterious benefactor helped Page out of poverty and brought him back into WCW a few months later. The identity of this benefactor was never revealed and WCW seemed to have forgotten about this arc once the nWo storyline took off.
- Amicable Exes: He and Kimberly divorced in 2005, but are still close friends.
- Arch-Enemy: Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero), Randy Savage, the Booty Man (Brutus Beefcake), the nWo in general.
- Ascended Extra: DDP transitioning from manager to wrestler.
- Bookends: Very early in Page's career, he made a cameo at WrestleMania VI in Toronto's SkyDome driving Rhythm and Blues (the Honky Tonk Man and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, w/manager Jimmy Hart) to the ring in his pink Cadillac. Fast forward 12 years later to WrestleMania X8 in the same building, DDP wrestles one of the last matches in his active career, successfully defending his WWE European Championship against Toronto native Christian, who attended WrestleMania VI as a young fan.
- Borrowed Catch Phrase: When questioned on why he attacked Raven on an episode of TNA Impact!, all he had to say was "Nevermore".
- Bullying a Dragon: In a way. Mick Foley recounted running into Page backstage after his first match, when he'd obviously been crying. Foley assured him the match had been good (particularly for a 35-year old rookie), but later found out Page was actually upset because one of his opponents, Curtis 'Firebreaker Chip' Thompson, had picked a fight with him in the locker room. Though that night was Page's first match, he'd been training for nearly a year and as a former bouncer, was capable of holding his own in a real fight. Chip threw a punch, a scuffle broke out, Page quickly locked in a front facelock (which is a legitimate fight-ending hold), and had to be pulled off the now-humbled Chip.
- The Bus Came Back: He was fired by Bill Watts in 1992 while injured and wouldn't return to WCW until 1994.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Used his real name (at the time; he legally changed his name to "Dallas Page" in 2003) in his last WCW promo on the last Nitro.
- Captain Ersatz: "Appeared" in various entries Fire Pro Wrestling under the names "D. Glass Edge", "Darkness Wolf" and "Karachi Kid".
- Catchphrase
- "Self High Five" and "Get ready to feel the BANG!"
- Later, in WWE, he built up a gimmick as a self-help guru: "It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing."
- Also had "It's me, it's me, it's DDP."
- Cassandra Truth: Rejected Kevin Nash's offer to join the nWo Wolfpac for War Games in late 1998 because he didn't trust Nash, and in particular implored Sting and Lex Luger not to do so either. Not only did they continue to trust Nash, so did the fans, who in fact booed DDP for his rejection of the massively popular red and black stable. Come the first Nitro of 1999, the Trope Namer for Finger Poke of Doom would happen.
- Cool Shades: As a heel.
- Demoted to Extra: Despite being in the top card at WCW, when he moved to WWE, he was put in an angle where he stalked The Undertaker and his wife. After he jobbed there, he was stuffed into the lower mid-card, given his "self-help guru" gimmick and never even came close to the main event scene, which certainly didn't help silence the claims that Vince McMahon gets upset that someone got over in another company without his doing.
- Determinator
- Page spent a lot of time with "injured ribs", and one of his trademark things was when he was too beat up to stand up he'd still try to pull himself back to his feet using his opponent's pants.
- In real life, due to his advanced age and lack of natural athleticism following a string of knee injuries, trained extremely hard and taped every match he had to study his strengths and weaknesses. He still went to wrestling school until he finally started working a full-time schedule.
- The Everyman: As his peers have said, he was the blue-collar hero, someone who was never meant to be a wrestler, but worked his way up to become a main event star. One of his nicknames was 'The People's Champion' for a reason.
- Face–Heel Turn: After he first won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Spring Stampede 1999.
- Finishing Move: The Diamond Cutter, one of the most iconic finishers in WCW history. Randy Orton would later slightly modify it into the RKO.
- Gender-Blender Name: Though gender neutral, "Page" is generally a feminine name. This might be why he changed his name to "Dallas Page".
- Heel–Face Turn: When he turned down the nWo at the start of 1997.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The aforementioned "cookies" incident, which ended with him getting his revenge on Austin and Foley, all while shouting, "How do you like it?! HOW DO YOU LIKE FUCKING COOKIES IN YOUR BED?!" Foley, however, responded to this by making fun of Page's tendency to sleep in the nude: "It's not the cookies that I mind. It's the fact that you're rubbing your naked ass all over me."
- Hold Up Your Score: In his heel run in WCW in 1995, his valet Kimberly would hold up scorecards whenever he executed a particularly effective move. Naturally, winning the match earned him a "10."
- I Have Many Names: Page Falkenburg (his birth name), Page J (his nickname from his nightclub days), Diamond Dallas Page (also originated during his nightclub days and would become his ring name), Dallas Page (his legally-changed name as of 2003).
- Impersonation Gambit: On the July 7, 1997 WCW Monday Nitro, Randy Savage was scheduled to face Masked Luchador La Parka. The match seemed to be going along as usual, with Parka doing his usual dancing and strutting. Out of nowhere, "Parka" hit a Diamond Cutter and unmasked as DDP and got the pin. This actually raised Parka's profile in WCW a bit, as, for a short time, he would walk out to the ring and Kimberly would be standing by the entrance and raising the sign of the Diamond Cutter. On DDP's section of WCW's website, someone asked how he got Parka to loan him his costume. DDP said, "I gave him a hundred bucks."
- It Will Never Catch On:
- When DDP told Michael P.S. Hayes that he was making the transition to an in-ring performer at the age of 35, Hayes responded by belly laughing in his face. Triple H recalls seeing Page in the Power Plant and thinking "what is this old guy doing here?" Until he saw Page's work ethic and perseverance. Mick Foley, one of Dallas' long-time road buddies outright admitted that he thought Dallas' chances of making it were minimal at best. Very few people initially had faith in Page's ability to make it (and somewhat justifiably so), even Page himself only expected to last five years in the ring and never get even close to the world championship. Needless to say, he eventually proved his naysayers wrong and exceeded even his own expectations.
- After successfully selling $3,000,000' worth of DVDs and books for DDP Yoga and making $895,000 in net profits, Dallas took a filmmaker and a successful client* to Shark Tank to pitch the Sharks on investing $200,000 in the company for 5% ownership in order to expand to an online format by creating a DDP Yoga app. Despite being impressed with the entire presentation, the investors all rejected it, citing various concerns that there were many other fitness brands crowding the market, feeling that the transition to an online format would be expensive and not make back its investment, and thinking that DDP Yoga had already plateaued with its DVD sales and wouldn't be able to increase market share. The following week after his appearance aired, DDP Yoga would make over a million new sales, creating more than enough surplus money to finance the app development. Though it would taper off from its meteoric rise, DDP Yoga would continue to trend upwards and continues to do a brisk business to this day.
- Jerkass: His character was one pre-nWo and for most of 1999.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Page is dyslexic and it wasn't until his WCW peak that he was determined to read properly, and ended up doing so.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: One of the many factors that sunk WCW was the gimmick of using celebrities in actual matches, and worse, as PPV main events. While Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff deservedly get some heat for that (Jay Leno?), one of them was actually the brainchild of DDP himself. According to Page's own admission on The Rise and Fall of WCW, it was DDP who suggested the match of teaming him and Karl Malone against Hogan and Dennis Rodman to Eric Bischoff, though in all fairness to DDP, Karl Malone didn't actually suck in the ring all things considered.
- Older Than They Look: DDP really doesn't look much different now than he did in WCW apart from his shorter hair. He also likes to joke that he turns "29 again" every year.
- Power Stable
- The Diamond Exchange, in the AWA, and less so in WCW.
- The Alliance, in WWE.
- The New Jersey Triad also in WCW.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Became interested in yoga while rehabbing from an injury and eventually became an instructor, at a time when yoga was seen as a very feminine form of exercise.
- Actually did wear pink during his earlier years in WCW. This costume can be seen in WWE 2K17 as part of the Hall of Fame Showcase DLC.
- Red Baron: The King of Bada Bing, The People's Champion, The Master of the Diamond Cutter, Positively Page, Handsome. Diamond started out as this before being treated as part of his professional name.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: According to Mick Foley, DDP is a walking example of this; he jokes that Page "uses at least two f-words to describe a newborn puppy." During one of their trips around the country, Page ended up screaming "Who put fucking cookies in my bed?!"
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: One of the reasons why Page transitioned from a manager to a wrestler was because he received complaints from the office about him taking too much attention away from the wrestlers he was managing.
- Tag Team:
- The Vegas Connection, w/Vinnie Vegas (Kevin Nash) (later reformed as the Insiders, w/Nash as himself)
- The Jersey Triad, w/Bam Bam Bigelow and Kanyon
- Took a Level in Badass: Despite starting his in-ring career well into his thirties, he went from a boring midcard heel with no defined character into WCW's third biggest babyface (behind Sting and Goldberg).
- True Companions: DDP has a lot of friends in the industry, but he's particularly close to Jake Roberts and Scott Hall, both of whom he invited to come and live together with him (in his "Accountability Crib") to help them fight off their crippling substance and alcohol addictions and put their lives back together. Both men were unashamed to admit that DDP unambiguously saved their lives. This is unsurprising in Jake's case, as Jake is one of the guys who trained Dallas to wrestle.
"This is the end of my trope page. But that's not a bad thing... That's a good thing. Why? Because now you can go read another page on this wiki!"
