Heartbreak and Happiness: 10 Wrestlemania Moments that Take You on an Emotional Roller Coaster

Happiness #5: DDP Enters Wrestlemania X8

Regardless of his amount of positive thinking, DDP had to wonder if this 1990 entrance would be his only trip down the Wrestlemania aisle

This is a subtle moment of happiness, but one which is powerful nonetheless.

Diamond Dallas Page was entering his lone Wrestlemania as a competitor; he had previously appeared at Wrestlemania VI (coincidentally in the same building as the eighteenth signature event) as a valet, driving his pink Cadillac for Rhythm and Blues (Page jokes about how Vince McMahon booked his car but Page insisted on tagging along for the booking).

However, in the intervening 12 years, Page stayed with World Championship Wrestling until its 2001 demise, then battled bad injuries and worse booking in his short WWF tenure; still, Page managed to enter Wrestlemania X8 the defending European Champion. Using a motivational speaker gimmick (which wasn't too far off from the persona he projects in his DDP Yoga videos), Page took on his former protege and perennial brat Christian, whom Page was trying to teach a more positive mindset to succeed as a superstar.

It was a flimsy justification for a match which lasted six minutes and change, but was clearly designed to get the former WCW Champion at least one Wrestlemania Moment before back problems forced him to retire.

However, the look on Page's face when he crosses through the curtain (starting at about 1:17 in the above video) and walks down the ramp for his only Grandaddy of 'Em All as a competitor is truly inspiring; he becomes a giddy young mark all over again, marveling at the size of the gathered Toronto crowd and reminding us that little boys who love wrestling never really grow up, they just get bigger.