Diamond Dallas Page Supposedly Annoyed Ric Flair And The Undertaker With The Way He Worked
Everybody in professional wrestling does things their own way. Whether it's because of their unique training styles or a matter of what a wrestler finds suitable along the line, there are few "right" ways of doing things in pro wrestling.
This fact holds true for the way wrestlers lay out their matches. While some wrestlers, such as John Cena, are known for "calling it in the ring" instead of having pre-planned spots, that is not the case for everyone. Notably, "Macho Man" Randy Savage was known to deliberately write out his matches as much as possible ahead of time. The "Macho Man" way of thinking created hardship for WCW stalwart Diamond Dallas Page throughout his time in both WCW and, eventually, WWE.
Talking about DDP's heat with the locker room on an episode of "Keepin' It 100 with Konnan and Disco Inferno," Disco said that Ric Flair was critical of Page. "It wasn't to each other, but Ric would throw [shade]. He'd bury Page every once in a while... because Page liked to go over move-for-move." While his preference to go over matches in-depth ahead of time annoyed Flair during their shared time in WCW, it was far from the only reason their relationship was consistently strained for years.
DDP's philosophy led to a rocky start in WWE
When DDP eventually made the jump to the WWE, the locker room's reaction to his pre-planned matches was similarly negative. According to Disco, DDP got a bad rap when he attempted to hand The Undertaker, his first opponent in the company, a piece of paper with their match laid out on it. "Hunter told him 'do not show that to 'Taker,' he showed it to Taker anyway, and the famous story is that Taker saw it, crumbled it up, and threw it in the garbage," Disco explained, "These old-school guys didn't want their match written down top-to-bottom, and Page didn't get that."
Konnan added to this, telling a story about Chris Benoit reacting similarly to The Undertaker when he wrestled Page himself. "I do remember very vividly Benoit telling me 'Can you believe this guy? He handed me a letter with the moves he wanted me to do!'" Konnan recalled.
Disco and Konnan went on to speculate on whether Randy Savage's feud with DDP in WCW was what ultimately led to DDP's detail-oriented strategy. While it isn't clear whether that is truly the case, Disco did note that Flair had a similarly critical view of Savage due to his tendency to rehearse his matches.