[1997-01-13-WCW-Nitro] Diamond Dallas Page and The Outsiders

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

DDP puts away a jobber, and Hall and Nash are out with an NWO t-shirt for DDP. DDP accepts, then Diamond Cutters Scott Hall. Nash goes after him, DDP ducks and ends up landing on a ringside table. DDP takes off through the crowd and a star is born! Great angle and a hot crowd.

[Ditch]

DDP puts away a jobber, and Hall and Nash are out with an NWO t-shirt for DDP. DDP accepts, then Diamond Cutters Scott Hall. Nash goes after him, DDP ducks and ends up landing on a ringside table. DDP takes off through the crowd and a star is born! Great angle and a hot crowd.

At this point I'd say the Diamond Cutter was seen as a "big deal" more than Page himself, and overall it made sense for the nWo (which was still somewhat selective at this point) to recruit him. Execution was indeed GREAT and it served to elevate both the man and the move in a big way.

[Loss]

I do wish they'd been a bit more literal in the build up about DDP being Bischoff's neighbor and working with Hall and Nash when they started out, but Kevin Sullivan likes to be cryptic, so that part doesn't surprise me. Agreed that the finisher is what got DDP over.

[soup23]

Have always loved this angle as Dibiase and Bisch on commentary are gloating to the extreme and the timing of all of this with DDP giving Hall the cutter to Nash's great bump flipping over the ringside table was great.

[Kevin Ridge]

Thing I take away from this every time I see is when Nash flips the table it looks to have hit some young kid in the front row. Looked so dangerous. Big moment for DDP though with getting the upper hand on the Outsiders and hitting a big Cutter on Hall.

[MikeCampbell]

The jobber in question was Mark Starr.

[Strummer]

I know I'm in the minority but I just never could get into DDP during this time period. I won't doubt he was crazy over and his push was an organic rise to the top but the guy did nothing for me. Worked hard in the ring, great bumper, good looking offense but his promos bored me to tears. I always thought he was a pretty lousy talker. Especially in 98/99 when you could fill in the 'scums" mad libs style in his promos

[flyonthewall2983]

DDP tells a great story about how they kept cutting time away from the segment, ultimately to where it was down to four minutes (match included). He was freaking out, but Hall and Nash were cool about it. He also said he was legitimately pissed at something Mark did but didn't quite bury him for it, too.

[stomperspc]

This gets over really big and is the start of the big DDP face push. Watching the year book, DDP gets over quicker than Austin even though Austin had a bit of a head start. Both started being pushed around May/June of the prior year (DDP wins Battle Bowl and Austin wins KOTR), but Austin was feuding with Bret by September while DDP was still a mid-card heel. Yet by this time I think the argument could be made that DDP was more over. I am thinking Austin will lap him relatively quickly, but despite the smaller push DDP got over big quicker.

[MikeCampbell]

DDP tells a great story about how they kept cutting time away from the segment, ultimately to where it was down to four minutes (match included). He was freaking out, but Hall and Nash were cool about it. He also said he was legitimately pissed at something Mark did but didn't quite bury him for it, too.

Mark was supposed to take corner bump and then stumble into the Diamond Cutter. But, he decided to take the bump and do a big belly flop, so DDP had to run and leap in order to do the 'Cutter.

[El-P]

I do wish they'd been a bit more literal in the build up about DDP being Bischoff's neighbor and working with Hall and Nash when they started out, but Kevin Sullivan likes to be cryptic, so that part doesn't surprise me.

 

Well, DDP did do promos leading to this where he explicitely talked about managing Hall ad tagging with Nash, as well as him being a friend of Eric Bischoff. Can't be much more literal than this.

Great angle, of course. Nash took a hellacious bump over the top rope to a table to the floor, swinging the table away with him for added effect. DDP leaves through the crowd and a star is born. In the Superdome no less. Damn, WCW had so much going for them at this point, it's amazing to think two years later they would be bleeding money and had pissed away their best new fresh talent.

[PeteF3]

The Outsiders get punked for the first time themselves, and DDP is now a major babyface, completing it by exiting through the crowd. Perfect execution on a great angle that was really as much of a shock at the time as most of the NWO turns.

[KB8]

I had no memory of this. Awesome angle. The comparison with Austin is an interesting one because this got over huge and afterwards Page felt like a legit star that could oppose the nWo. Meanwhile on the other show Austin attacking whoever he wants every week never felt nearly as hot. Of course, WWF never felt nearly as hot as WCW. Shout out to Nash's table bump as well. I thought some kid front row was for getting his teeth removed.