Wrestling has had a number of power couples over the years. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon jumped to the front of the line for their combination of on and off screen power and The Game’s accomplishments in the ring. Before them, Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth were the gold standard for romantic couples, but other pairings like The Miz and Maryse and Rusev and Lana have followed in their tradition real life couples working together on screen, to varying degrees of success. In reflecting on the history of WCW, the pair of Diamond Dallas Page and Kimberly stands the test of time as an important duo with interwoven storylines and a real life connection that accentuated their noteworthy individual contributions to the business.
The Humble Beginnings Of Diamond Dallas Page And The Diamond Doll
While Dallas Page had been a figure in professional wrestling for years—including work as a manager and as a broadcaster—fans got to see a new side of him in 1994 when he became a full-time wrestler in his own right. DDP was a flamboyant heel character who quickly turned heads with his beautiful valet, known as The Diamond Doll.
The pairing was an uneasy one, presented as a riff off of the old Macho Man Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth dynamic, with Page as a controlling boyfriend, Kimberly as a meek beauty fans could only sympathize with. The mid-card act gained some traction, as fans grew more attached to Kimberly and, simultaneously, Page grew as a performer until he was right at home winning the Television Championship, establishing himself as an upper tier mid-card act.
Before long, Kimberly was “freed” from Page and enjoyed a run as a babyface valet for Johnny B. Badd and later The Booty Man. DDP prospered on his own, especially after starting a babyface run.
DDP As The People’s Champion
Diamond Dallas Page really started gaining traction as “The People’s Champion.” He had an everyman’s look, solid game on the mic, and an incredibly over finisher in The Diamond Cutter. Perhaps most notably, he was positioned opposite the nWo—particularly against The Outsiders and Randy Savage—and became one of the most popular and underrated homegrown stars WCW ever had.
WCW put some pieces together and positioned DDP and Kimberly back in partnership with one another off and on to weave into the nWo storyline. Later on, the two would engage in some more soap opera-esque theatrics as Kimberly turned heel on her beau during the New Blood angle in 1999.
Kimberly Page As The Leader Of The Nitro Girls
One testament to a wrestling power couple’s importance is not only that they appeared together on screen with one of them enjoying success and the other riding the coattails, but rather that each party made a mark on the business. Most of Kimberly’s most memorable wrestling storylines directly involved Diamond Dallas Page, but she did also have her own, more distinct legacy as the leader of The Nitro Girls.
While the idea of having beautiful women dance to entertain the fans between matches feels a little outdated by modern standards, it a key part of WCW Monday Nitro’s packaging. Led by the familiar face of Kimberly, The Nitro Girls had their own, not insignificant following. Even though Stacy Keibler would ultimately surpass Kimberly as the most memorable face from the group, Kimberly was nonetheless an important figure in getting fans invested in the dance troupe from the start.
The Real Life Relationship Between DDP And Kimberly Page
Surely, a core component to the on screen chemistry between Diamond Dallas Page and Kimberly, and a reason for WCW to return to the well at the height of the now was the real life relationship between them. The duo got married in 1991, when Page primarily served as a manager in wrestling, and went their separate ways in the mid-2000s, after WCW had sold WWE, and after, even, Page wrapped up his brief, unlucky WWE run.
It’s hard to replicate the dynamic between real life partners, both in terms of how they work together and the way fans receive them. In those fledgling days of wrestling coverage on the Internet and tell-all books, fans had more resources to know the real story as well, only adding to the intrigue of this pair.
The power couple of DDP and Kimberly has been forgotten to an extent through the passage of time. Given Page’s relatively ineffectual WWE career, and Kimberly never crossing over, WWE itself and fans who only followed this promotion don’t recall them as well, and the fact that they divorced in 2005 means that Kimberly hasn’t been a part of Page’s second life in the public eye as a fitness guru. Just the same, they remain a special part of WCW history, and the 1990s wrestling scene more generally.