Was Diamond Dallas Page Getting Over and Rebuilt in 2002?

[The Rick Jericho]

I'm following the timeline of his matches after the Royal Rumble in 2002. He kept on getting bigger and bigger pops those first few months of the year. This seemed to be the TRUE DDP and the crowds were behind him as a babyface. Winning and defending the European title, this felt to me like the closest DDP got to being WCW DDP in WWE. He even went into the crowds to celebrate. This makes me hate Holly for ending his career and for Taker burying his run in WWE.

He was so damaged that the best he could get was a European title run? I would've preferred an IC title feud with Regal instead.

Also, remember when they had Hall, Nash and Hogan vs. Rock and Austin. The roof would've blown off the place if the 3rd man was DDP. A guy who knows the nWo helping out Rock and Austin. And of course he can eat the pin, but get the rub. DDP vs. the WWE nWo would've been a blast.

[abjordans]

I think DDP being a true national pro wrestling star, and WWE pretending he wasn’t, was one of their biggest mess ups.

[chazraps]

Yeah, by that May when they actually let him be DDP, he was very, very over. Post brandsplit, it was getting to the point where it was undeniable and they would have had to do something with him.

[Pure Fusion Jesse Walsh]

I just watched the 2002 Rumble match last night and noticed how much of a pop he got when he entered, which pleasantly surprised me because they did so much damage to his character throughout 2001.

[CMWaters]

Not to rain on the parade, but a caveat has to be made in the fact that Rumble 02 was in Atlanta AKA WCW country.