Kevin Sullivan Describes How WCW Vet Became 'The New Dusty Rhodes'

During a recent episode of "Tuesday With The Taskmaster," Kevin Sullivan sang the praises of Diamond Dallas Page when asked about one of his angles from WCW in 1996.

"At that time, Page was given a lot of leeway to do his own stuff and he was learning the ropes," Sullivan said. "Page, to me, was the hardest-working man in show business. He started very late. I never thought he would make what he became. He became, really, the blue-collar man. He became the new Dusty Rhodes. The people just flocked to him. He was starting to draw money. Why it was dropped, this is one of the great questions. Sometimes things just fall through the cracks."

At WCW Uncensored 1996, The Booty Man (Brutus Beefcake) beat Page in an "I Quit Wrestling" match. In the weeks that followed, vignettes aired to show Page as homeless and losing everything in his life. Lawyers were then hired by a "mysterious benefactor" to get DDP reinstated. Fans never learned who the benefactor was and the angle was dropped rather quickly. However, Sullivan did reveal that "The Booty Babe" Kimberly Page, Dallas' wife at the time, was supposed to portray the benefactor.

Page would go on to capture the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on three different occasions throughout 1999 and 2000. He was voted "Most Improved" in 1996 by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and later received his WWE Hall of Fame induction in 2017.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Tuesday With The Taskmaster" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.