At WCW Slamboree 1996, Diamond Dallas Page became the Lord of the Ring when he won the Battlebowl match.
Battlebowl was an eight-man battle royal where elimination occurred via pinfall, submission or over the top rope. The eight qualifiers were determined by the lethal lottery tag team tournament.
Page picked up the victory with three straight eliminations, all coming via the Diamond Cutter. While Page received the Lord of the Ring on-screen, it was Kanyon who put the finish together backstage.
"I told Chris they were going to put me over," DDP recalled on a special edition of Talk Is Jericho focused on the life and career of Chris Kanyon. "He goes, 'You've got to get the Diamond Cutter over.' We're sitting and brainstorming. Before you know it, he'd laid it out to where I hit Diamond Cutters on the last three guys. 'That will get the Cutter' over, [said Chris]. When Sting and Dusty won, you can imagine who was in that mix. When it was my turn, it was Barbarian, Ice Train, Johnny Grunge, Rocco Rock, Scott Norton. A bunch of midcard guys, me being one of the midest. I tell Arn the finish. Without Kanyon putting it together for me, I don't have anything figured out. I explain it to Arn and goes, 'You know it better than I do, you tell the boys.'"
Page laid out the finish to Barbarian, which was originally supposed to see Barbian, the final man in the battle royal alongside Page, kick out of the Diamond Cutter before being tossed over the top rope after some back and forth. Barbarian said he would lay down for the move instead of kicking out.
Page ended the story by saying, "Without Chris Kanyon and being able to take it to the next level of how I promote the move, I don't know if I have that career. That's how much of a sticking point for me. It's really his finish."
Kanyon would famously steal the Diamond Cutter during a feud with Page in WCW and rename it the Kanyon Cutter.
Fightful's Molly Belle wrote a feature on Kanyon in December 2020 looking at his legacy. You can read her feature by clicking here.
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