DDP and Leno Team Up, Beat Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff [August 8th, 1998]

Whether or not you attribute decisions like this to the death of WCW, this team up of the host of The Tonight Show with “The People’s Champion” got the wrestling company major headlines across the nation.

Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone vs Dennis Rodman and Hollywood Hogan - WCW Bash at the Beach [7/12/1998]

I kind of remember enjoying this match due only to the fact that the concept of Malone wrestling Rodman managed to hook my father into watching WCW with me. I haven’t visited the match in years, but I’m sure that it was godawful in every aspect. in fact, I’m sure one of you can write a biting piece about how insulting it was to have a WCW celebrity match go on twice as long as the longest-running match with actual wrestlers, especially on a card that featured guys like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Booker T.

The Diamond Exchange: Diamond Dallas Page, Curt Hennig, and Diamond Doll Tonya - American Wrestling Association [1988]

A great shot of the early days when Diamond Dallas Page and Curt Hennig. At this point, DDP was barely beginning in the world of professional wrestling at the age of thirty-two and stayed exclusively in the role of a manager until late-1991 when he started dabbling with tag-team matches with the Diamond Studd (Scott Hall) in WCW.

Curt Hennig would not stay with the AWA long after this photo was taken, as he’d find himself in the World Wrestling Federation later on that year as Mr. Pefect.

Diamond Dallas Page - WWF SmackDown [3/14/2002]

Great shot of the WWF European Championship during the segment where DDP accepted Christian’s request for a rematch for the title and set the date for the two to meet at WrestleMania.

Around this time, I was more interested in graduating from high school and finishing up my senior year, and I hate the fact that I missed out on most of the Positively Page angle. For someone who loved WCW, these entire era of the WWF should have been the time were I watched the most, but the whole mishandling of the Invasion angle completely turned me off from watching wrestling entirely for a while.

It is what it is, but I probably shouldn’t feel too down about it. I mean, taking a break from certain things you enjoy didn’t really harm my obsession with wrestling one bit.  Having a bit of time off every now and then, that’s not a bad thing… that’s a good thing!

Scott Hall Joins Diamond Dallas Page and Jake “The Snake” Roberts for DDP Yoga [2/18/2013]

If DDP manages to flip Scott Hall’s life around with his DDP Yoga classes and helps him get away from all of the drug and alcohol abuse plaguing him, there might be sainthood in Page’s near-future.

“Diamond” Dallas Page and Scotty Flamingo - WCW Magazine [July 1992]

DDP and Raven during happier times, before the feuding and the bloodshed.

Tough crowd.

WCW Sin Advert [1/14/2001]

I still remember watching the end of this PPV live.

I was a WCW fan till the very end and was enjoying seeing where the company was headed as a new Cruiserweight division was being put together and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship was across the waist of a verified badass, “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner. Unfortunately, the main event revealed to me that WCW would never really change as the hyped up “mystery opponent” in the four corners match ended up being Road Warrior Animal, a guy that hadn’t been seen on television in over three years.

However, that reveal isn’t the thing people remember from this PPV. WCW Sin was the show where Sid Vicious suffered his infamous leg-break on the live broadcast. It’s still one of the nastiest injuries I’ve ever seen on television, but I’ll always look at this PPV was nothing more than a giant waste of time.

The WWF would eventually buy out WCW on March 23, 2001, a little over two months past the WCW Sin PPV.

Friday night.

Cover for The Best of WCW Monday Nitro Vol. 2 Revealed

Once I got over this bizarrely photoshopped cover, excitement started to set in. It’s no secret that I absolutely loved World Championship Wrestling from the moment where I started watching weekly in 1996 all the way up to its demise in 2001, so getting more matches from WCW’s heyday is awesome. My main complaint about the first set is how there was so much completely glossed over due to how much ground they were trying to cover along with everything specifically being from WCW Monday Nitro, so I’d love a companion The Best of WCW Thunder set to be released as well. The set will be available on February 18th, 2013 unless the Mayans were right and the world ends next Friday.

[Via WWEDVDNews]