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For the 1930s cricketer, see Dallas Page (cricketer)

Diamond Dallas Page
Born	(1956-04-05) April 5, 1956 (age 68) Point Pleasant, New Jersey
Website	DiamondDallasPage.com Template:MySpace
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	"Handsome" Dallas Page "Diamond" Dallas Page
Billed from	New Jersey Shore Atlantic City, New Jersey
Trained by	Jake Roberts WCW Power Plant
Debut	1988
Retired	2005

Page Joseph Falkinburg, Jr. (born April 5 1956) better known by his ring name "Diamond" Dallas Page, is a semi-retired American professional wrestler most famous for his work with the World Championship Wrestling (WCW), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotions.

Early life

Page, the oldest of three children, was born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, the son of Sylvia (née Seigel) and Page Joseph Falkinburg, Sr. Page's father came from a "well known" family and was the son of a Dutch immigrant father and an American mother, Sally Wilson, who was of "blue-blooded" background. Page's maternal grandparents were Doris Lipschultz and Fred Seigel, a German immigrant. Page and was raised by his father during his early years, after his parents divorced. The name "Dallas" is derived from his love of the Dallas Cowboys Football team. His brother and sister lived with his mother, who had to have her mother raise them so she could work.

Page went to live with his father because the elder Page could handle the ball of energy that the younger Page was. He lived with his father from the ages of 3-8. His father took him, at 8 years old, to live with his grandmother, who raised him. Page admitted in his autobiography that he is dyslexic. He had many challenges hit him throughout his childhood and educational years. DDP attended St Joseph's High School, now known as Monsignor Donovan High School, in Toms River, New Jersey and Point Pleasant Boro High School in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.

From these experiences of bouncing around from one unstable family situation to another Page became very resilient. He learned to go at things at a run and tackle them rather than being afraid of the unfamiliar or things people said he could not do for one reason or another. He started living the principles that later developed into his personal beliefs and the basis for his unconventional entry into professional wrestling, his successes there and the motivational books, speeches, CDs and DVDs.

Page achieved a large amount of fame throughout the 1990s and early 2000s as a professional wrestler, competing under the ring name Diamond Dallas Page (often abbreviated to "DDP"). The addition of the word "Diamond" was inspired by Page's admiration of the rhythm of the name of wrestler "Classy" Freddie Blassie. In the course of his wrestling career, which spanned two decades, Page wrestled for World Championship Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on three occasions. DDP entered arenas to a theme similar to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. The Song is called "Self High Five".

In his autobiography, 'Positively Page',, as well as in Mick Foley's Have a Nice Day, Page details an incident that occurred while Mick Foley and Stone Cold Steve Austin were traveling with him. Irritated by his constantly upbeat attitude, the two determined to make Page lose his composure. After a number of attempts, the two found success by placing ground cookies on Page's hotel room bed, and when Page got into bed, hilarity ensued.

Wrestling career

Early years

Page's first wrestling appearance was in Canada in 1979. Shortly thereafter, he gave up wrestling. His next notable appearance was not until WrestleMania VI, where he drove The Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine to the ring in his pink Cadillac. At this time, he was virtually unknown in the WWF, fondly recalling it on the WrestleMania XIX DVD.

Page worked in the night-club business before and after he started working as a wrestling manager in the American Wrestling Association (AWA).. He started managing in March 1988, where he handled Badd Company (Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka), a team he lead to the AWA World Tag Team Championship on March 19. Badd Company, were often accompanied by a pair of female valets known as the "Diamond Dolls". During his time in the AWA, Page also managed Col. DeBeers and Madusa. He worked for the AWA at 12 dates over a period of nine months, where they filmed all the television shows in one day. He also worked as a color commentator in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) where he worked along side the Dean of Wrestling, Gordon Solie, before finally debuting as a professional wrestler.

In 1990, Dallas received a tryout with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as an announcer, but never got the job. When FCW went down, Page was still involved in the club business until Dusty Rhodes returned to World Championship Wrestling. WCW started booking and brought Page in on a small contract in early 1991.

World Championship Wrestling (1991–2001)

Page came to World Championship Wrestling in 1991 as manager of the Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael P.S. Hayes). Page managed the Freebirds to a shot at the NWA World Tag Team Titles where they defeated Doom (Butch Reed and Ron Simmons) on February 24 1991. Before that match took place, Page unveiled the stable's new road manager, Big Daddy Dink, formerly known as Oliver Humperdink, who interfered in the match. During this match Page introduced the Diamond Dolls. Page added Scott Hall to the stable under the name of Diamond Studd.

Page also worked as a color commentator for WCW with Eric Bischoff. With rumors that the WCW wanted to take the Diamond Studd away from Page, he decided to take the advice of Magnum T.A. and begin to wrestle himself. He headed to the WCW Power Plant where Buddy Lee Parker, The Assassin, and Dusty Rhodes transformed Page into a wrestler. Later in the year, he debuted as a wrestler in a tag team match. Alongside the Diamond Studd, he faced Kevin Sullivan and his partner. There were good remarks from both wrestlers and announcers, but it didn't help Page much. He was relegated to the "jobber" list. He made his wrestling pay-per-view debut at Starrcade 1991, teaming with Mike Graham in a losing effort to Jushin Liger and Bill Kazmaier.

However, Page worked on and brought other wrestlers into his stable, such as Scotty Flamingo (Raven) and Vinnie Vegas. The relationships between DDP, Raven, and Vegas were used in many character angles over the following months. Page went in the corner of Scotty Flamingo, at Clash of the Champions XXI on November 18 1992, when Flamingo fought Johnny B. Badd in a kayfabe boxing match. Flamingo won this bout with a little help from Page who filled Flamingo's glove with water.

The following year, Page teamed with Vinnie Vegas as the Vegas Connection. The Vegas Connection never returned to WCW because Page was fired from WCW shortly after the team's debut due to his torn rotator cuff injury. The injury occurred in late 1992 in a tag match with Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce (later known as the Godwinns). During his layoff, Jake "The Snake" Roberts taught him psychology, what to do and when to do it, and how to do it. During his layoff Page wasn't employed by WCW.

Page returned to WCW TV in 1994, with his wife, the Diamond Doll Kimberly and got a (kayfabe) bodyguard, Maxx Muscle. He held open arm wrestling challenges to win Kimberly but Maxx always helped him win or arm wrestled for him. He also had a long feud with Dave Sullivan because Sullivan gave Kimberly gifts. At Fall Brawl 1995, Page won his first championship when he defeated Renegade for the WCW Television title. In the build-up to his first title defense at Halloween Havoc, there was growing dissension between Page and Kimberly. Johnny B. Badd defeated Page for the TV title and again at World War 3 on November 26 1995, winning Kimberly's freedom from DDP.

On May 19 1996 Page participated in the Lord of the Ring Tournament (Battle Bowl) at Slamboree. The winner was to be the number one contender for the World Title which at that time was held by The Giant. Page was victorious when he defeated The Barbarian with two Diamond Cutters. However, he never received the title shot that he earned that night. Page was feuding with Eddie Guerrero when the nWo was formed. Since Nash & Hall were both former partners of Page, they began assisting him in his matches in the tournament being held for the vacant US Title. Seeing that their help was not being appreciated, Hall and Nash attacked him during the tournament finals, therefore handing the belt to Guerrero. After demonstrating the benefits of the nWo, they asked him to join. He responded by giving them Diamond Cutters, starting a face turn and a feud with the nWo.

Page's career really took off in 1997. As part of the popular nWo storyline, Page began one of WCW's most highly acclaimed feuds of '97 with the nWo's "Macho Man" Randy Savage. On an episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Savage, aided by fellow nWo members Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, attacked DDP and spray-painted "nWo" on his back. A few weeks later at Uncensored, Savage and Miss Elizabeth "broke kayfabe" (a worked shoot) by revealing to the world that Page and Nitro Girl Kimberly were, in fact, married. Savage then proceeded to beat up Page, ensuring a future match between the two.

At the 1997 Spring Stampede, Page and Savage battled in a match where Page emerged victorious, but it was the not the end of conflict between the two. A few months later at The Great American Bash, they squared off again in an anything goes, lights out match. This match ended with Savage defeating Page with help from (then) Tag Team Champion Scott Hall. Savage and Page would continue their rivalry from there on. Page even dressed up as masked wrestler La Parka and beat Savage.

Around this time, Page also started fighting nWo leader, Hulk Hogan. Page and Savage battled for the last time at Halloween Havoc. The match was billed as a Las Vegas Sudden Death Match, where anything goes and the only way to win was to beat your

opponent so brutally, he could not get to his feet by a count of ten. The match ended when Hogan, dressed as Sting, came out and hit Page with a baseball bat in his already "injured" mid-section, resulting in Savage picking up the win. On an episode of Nitro shortly after Halloween Havoc, Page fought Hogan, but was again beaten down by the nWo.

At Starrcade 1997, Page won the WCW US Heavyweight Championship from Curt Hennig. This capped off what had been a great year for Page; he was voted WCW Magazine's "Wrestler of the Year" for 1997.

In 1998, at Uncensored, Page took on Chris Benoit and Raven in a triple-threat, falls-count-anywhere contest for his US title, putting Raven through a table with a Diamond Cutter to retain the belt. Page had a reputation as the "People's Champion," a title he shared with The Rock (who, unlike DDP, originally used the title as part of a heel gimmick, in order to disparage the crowd). Chronology shows that DDP was the first to use the title, but The Rock ran further with the gimmick, referring to almost everything as "The People's...", including the entrance ramp as "The People's Ramp" and his signature move as "The People's Elbow".

During much of this era, DDP was also frequently called "the hardest working man in the business" by commentators and other WCW figures.

Later in the year, Page tagged with Karl Malone against Hulk Hogan and Dennis Rodman at Bash at the Beach 1998, losing due to interference. Later on, Page tagged with late night talk show host Jay Leno at Road Wild, where they defeated Hogan and Eric Bischoff. He taught Karl Malone, Jay Leno, and Kevin Eubanks the "secret" of the Diamond Cutter.

At Fall Brawl 1998, Page won the WarGames main event, and got a World title shot against the undefeated Goldberg at Halloween Havoc. Page did not win the match, but both men put on a tremendous show which resulted in the match being Vote WCW Magazines "Match of the Year" 1998. Halloween Havoc 1998 ran slightly longer than expected resulting in a number of cable companies blacking out the end of the Hogan v Warrior match and all of the DDP v Goldberg contest. Given the technical problems, WCW decided to air the Goldber v DDP title bout in its entirety on the October 26th Edition of Nitro, which proved immensely popular in the ratings and resulted in a ratings win for Nitro over Raw - the last win Nitro would ever have. Despite this setback in the World title picture, page rebounded the following night on the October 26th edition of WCW Monday Nitro with a win over Bret 'Hitman' Hart to capture the United States Heaveyweght Title. At WCW World War 3 1998, Page actually wore the WCW United States Championship belt upside down on his way to the ring.

Page finally became World Champion in April 1999, at Spring Stampede when he defeated Sting, Hogan, and Ric Flair in a 4-way dance for the title, Page pinned Ric Flair after giving Flair the Diamond Cutter. This match was ironic for Page, as it featured Randy Savage as the special-guest referee and also saw Hogan eliminated early when Page seriously damaged Hogan's leg with a submission hold. Page was finally champion, and being champion changed him. Shortly after gaining the title, Page wrestled Goldberg for his championship. Page turned heel during the match, using everything at his disposal to try and beat down Goldberg (the match eventually ended in a no contest). Throughout the rest of his reign as champion, Page resorted to underhanded tactics to keep his championship.

His first reign as champion lasted all of 15 days. On April 26 1999, Page was defeated for the World Championship by Sting on WCW Monday Nitro but regained it a little over an hour and a half later during a four way match the same night (thanks to a match set up by a returning Kevin Nash, who challenged Sting, Goldberg, and Page for the title). Page hit Nash with a foreign object to regain the title without actually defeating the reigning champion. Page was defeated by Nash at Slamboree that year, and fell out of the World title picture shortly thereafter.

As 1999 drew on, Page changed his look, and along with Chris Kanyon and Bam Bam Bigelow, he formed the Jersey Triad. The group got its name from all three members being from New Jersey. The Triad held the WCW World Tag Team titles at one point and invoked the Freebird Rule, stating any combination of the three members could defend the titles.

In 2000, with WCW under new control, Page (who had returned to being a face) earned a shot at the vacant WCW World Championship Belt. He would get his shot at Spring Stampede, the same event where one year prior he won the title for the very first time. His opponent would be ex-nWo member, Jeff Jarrett. In a surprise twist, Page's wife Kimberly turned on Page and helped Jarrett become the new WCW World Champion.history, WCW Greed. This also led to Kimberly forcing an unconscious Page to sign divorce papers. Page got the better of Jarrett on an episode of Nitro in May, but, in a tag team match against Jarrett and Eric Bischoff in which the belt could change hands, Page would lose the title to his very own tag partner, movie star David Arquette. Page and Jarrett met Arquette in a rematch at the Slamboree PPV in the first triple cage match, but Arquette, who had vowed to stay out of the match and support DDP and help him regain the title, betrayed Page, allowing Jarrett to regain the gold once more. The angle was poorly viewed by fans as one of WCW's biggest mistakes.

Page took some time off shortly after this, but returned in late 2000 as a full time wrestler. Their feud hit a climax at WCW's final PPV in their , which saw Page's final match in WCW and a semi-burial type defeat as he passed out in Steiner's finisher, The Steiner Recliner.

World Wrestling Federation (2001–2002)

When WCW was purchased by WWF owner Vince McMahon in 2001, Page was one of the few major WCW stars to sign with McMahon. Page went from the People's Champion (in WCW) to crazed stalker, to a self-help guru in less than a year. He became known for his catch phrase "Yo! It's me, it's me, it's DDP!" during this time.

Page was originally brought in as the man revealed to be the stalker of The Undertaker's wife, Sara. He was the first WCW wrestler brought in as a heel (a little before the Invasion storyline began) and eventually paved the way for the entire WCW roster to turn heel as well. The angle began as him stalking Sara as a way to get The Undertaker's attention, because he believed he could get respect in the WWF by challenging and defeating him.

Page eventually switched gimmicks to become a pseudo-motivational speaker, in what would come to be known as his Positively Page character. The name came from the title of his autobiography that was published during his WCW days. The character involved Page constantly smiling and acting optimistic, with his trademark phrase "That's not a bad thing...that's a good thing."

In early 2002, Page became the European Champion. At WrestleMania X8, he defeated Christian, a former follower of his positive "philosophy" and retained the title. However, he lost the title to William Regal on an episode of Smackdown! that aired March 19.

At the age of 46 and with nagging injuries, including a neck injury he suffered in a match with Bob Holly, his contract was allowed to expire.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2004–2005)

On April 1 2004 Diamond Dallas Page announced his return to the ring. After working for several independent promotions, he debuted with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on November 12 2004, feuding with Raven and Erik Watts. On July 3 2004, Page announced that he and Kimberly had amicably separated. Kimberly and DDP officially divorced late in 2005.

Page received an NWA World Heavyweight Championship title shot on March 13 2005 at TNA Destination X 2005 but was defeated by reigning champion Jeff Jarrett. He remained with the company until May, 2005, at which point he left TNA.

Life after wrestling

Inspirational speaking

He has had many speaking engagements in the past few years. He spoke twice at Yale University at the Masters Tea for Dr. William Sledge. He visits the troops in Iraq as often as his schedule allows as well as speaking to many Fortune 500 organizations.

His main speaking topic is how to "Live Life at 90%" the concept being life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. He also incorporates his Owning Your Life techniques from his "Own Your Life" 10 principles of SMACKDOWN into his speaking engagements.

Page is known as an inspirational speaker, Fitness Guru with his Yoga for Regular Guys or YRG Workout and actor. His support of the troops in Iraq continues with frequent visits to duty stations in Iraq where he discusses his wrestling career, holds workout sessions and helps bring up morale of the troops.

Fitness guru

The birth of the YRG Workout came in 1998 while Page was recovering from ruptures to his L4/L5 discs. He was reluctantly brought into power yoga with his wife Kimberly. While watching her daily workouts he realized that yoga had benefits that he hadn't yet explored. Page regained his flexibility and strength that were hindered by his ruptured disks.

His favorite kind of yoga (according to his "Yoga for Regular Guys" book) is "Power Yoga," an Americanized version of "Ashtanga Style" yoga. Page worked with Dr. Craig Aaron, the "Yoga-Doc," and made his own the Yoga for Regular Guys Workout (YRG). It is designed as a lifestyle program rather than simply a workout or yoga routine. YRG is a low impact high cardio program. Page calls it Ashtanga Style with basic calisthenics, isokenetics and resistance training. The addition of a strict eating program a complete lifestyle change along with the discipline of YRG. Amazing transformations can be see on the YRG Website Transformations page.

Lawsuit

Page is commonly associated with the "Self High Five" as well as the "Diamond Cutter" symbol - a hand gesture made by joining the thumbs and index fingers on each hand to form a diamond shape, then parting the two hands in one swift motion. He created the symbol in 1996 and later copyrighted it. DDP credits Bobby "The Brain" Heenan for coming up with the Diamond Cutter name. His Diamond Cutter finisher is so well known that the most variations of the move -- a three-quarter facelock bulldog -- are now called the Cutter.

In December 2005, Page filed a lawsuit against rapper Jay-Z, who, he claimed, had "illegally adopted his trademark hand gesture." Page accused Jay-Z of trademark and copyright infringement, and sought a prohibitive injunction and monetary damages.

Jay-Z paid Diamond Dallas Page an undisclosed settlement in DDP's lawsuit against him alleging he took his trademarked Diamond Cutter hand signal from him without authorization or any kind of agreement.

According to one source, the settlement included a monetary fee that was paid by Jay-Z to Page. In exchange for the fee, Page agreed to drop all claims in regards to the infringement suit. Each party paid their own legal fees.

Wrestling facts

• Finishing and signature moves

• Diamond Cutter (Three-quarter facelock bulldog)
• Diamond Death Cutter (Elevated three-quarter facelock bulldog)
• Spinning sitout powerbomb
• Belly-to-back inverted mat slam
• Spike DDT
• Discus clothesline
• Tilt slam
• Wrist lock followed by multiple shoulder blocks
• Inverted atomic drop
• Side slam
• Swinging neckbreaker
• Russian legsweep

• Managers

• Kimberly Page

• Theme Song

In WCW, DDP's entrance song was a modified version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, entitled "Self High-Five". In TNA, He used a variation of this theme, also entitled "Self High Five", with a more accurate chord progression to the original song, and it was preceded by his catchphrase "It's Me, It's Me, It's D... D... P...".

Championships and accomplishments

• Swiss Wrestling Federation

• SWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• World Championship Wrestling

• WCW United States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
• WCW World Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
• WCW World Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Kevin Nash (2), Chris Kanyon (1), and Bam Bam Bigelow (1)
• WCW World Television Championship (1 time)
• WCW Battlebowl winner in 1996
• WCW Lord of the Ring winner in 1995
• WCW MTV Tournament winner in 1999

• World Wrestling Federation

• WWF European Championship (1 time)
• WWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Kanyon

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him # 4 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1997 and 1998
• PWI ranked him # 111 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1995
• PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (1995)
• PWI Feud of the Year (1997) – vs. Randy Savage
• PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year (1999)

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• Most Improved Wrestler award in 1996
• Best Wrestling Maneuver award in 1997 - Diamond Cutter

Filmography

• First Daughter (1999) as Dirk Lindman
• Ready to Rumble (2000) as DDP
• Rat Race (2002) in a deleted scene.
• Nice Guys
• Bald (2005) as Huge Bruce
• The Devil's Rejects (2005) as Billy Ray Snapper
• Jack's Law (2006) as Spider Benson
• Hood of Horror (2006) as Jersey
• Splinter (2006) as Detective Stiles
• Driftwood (2006) as Captain Kennedy
• Gallowwalker (2007) as Scorpius
• Splinter (2007) as Detective Styles
• Knight Fever (2008)

Bibliography

• Genta, Larry and Page, Diamond Dallas (2000) Positively Page, ISBN 0-9679922-0-6
• Aaron, Craig and Page, Diamond Dallas (2005) Yoga for Regular Guys: The Best Damn Workout on the Planet, ISBN 1-59474-079-8

References

1. ^ "Positively Page"
2. ^ "Own Your Life" audio book on CD
3. ^ "The Career of Diamond Dallas Page" Jan Jorgensen
4. http://yrgworkout.com/transformations.html
5. "Trademark infringement lawsuit between DDP & Jay-Z now settled; info". wrestleview.com. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)

External links

• Yoga for Regular Guys site by DDP
• Interview with DDP on Tha O Show
• Dallas Page at IMDb
• Diamond Dallas sues Jay-Z over "Diamond Cutter" hand sign
• DDP Interview 2/8/06
• Diamond Dallas Page Joins Legends Of Wrestling
• "The Career of Diamond Dallas Page" website compiled by Jan Jorgensen from various sources
• "Own Your Life" audio book on CD.
• "Positively Page"

• Articles needing cleanup from September 2007
• Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field from September 2007
• Misplaced Pages pages needing cleanup from September 2007
• Misplaced Pages articles needing copy edit from September 2007
• 1956 births
• American film actors
• American professional wrestlers
• American television actors
• American Wrestling Association alumni
• Living people
• People from Ocean County, New Jersey
• Professional wrestling announcers
• Professional wrestling managers and valets
• Total Nonstop Action Wrestling alumni
• World Champion professional wrestlers
• World Championship Wrestling alumni
• World Wrestling Entertainment alumni