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Notes From Recent Kimberly Page RF Video Shoot Interview
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Posted by PWPIX
on 09/15/2007
RF Video released a shoot interview with Kimberly Page recently. It was shot in early June. She comes across well throughout the interview. Although she didn't really go in-depth regarding a number of many subjects, it was still interesting to hear about her take on the world of professional wrestling.
-- Kimberly went to some Florida Championship Wrestling shows when she was really young because her friend was a huge Dusty Rhodes fan. She didn't really follow wrestling at first, but she started to get into the 80's WWF. She didn't want to be a Diamond Doll at first cause she thought they were trashy, but after going out in front of the crowd, she thought it was awesome. She made an appearance as one in 1991. She started going on the road regularly in 1994. In between that time period, she was doing some marketing job in Atlanta.
-- She notes that she was really immature in her early days in WCW. She thinks she should have showed some more respect to Sherri Martel because she was a veteran and in the business for a long time. Kimberly would want to get to the arena before Sherri so that she could get the good spot in front of the mirror in the dressing room. Sherri never got mad at her for it. For a while, they were the only two girls in the locker room. She says she respects her and that Sherri taught her a lot about the business. She says she's totally changed since then and that she was just a silly girl. She'd never act the way she acted again.
-- She didn't really like being a heel because she didn't like being booed. She said it was much easier to play a dumb bimbo type. She thought the heel DDP with the face Kimberly was similar to Liz and Savage in the 80's in that Liz was the good girl face and Savage was the mean jerk.
-- She was going through old tapes a few months ago and found the whole Dave Sullivan/DDP storyline on video. She thought they were cheesy, but she had fun doing them, She transferred all of them to DVD.
-- She didn't really like Marc Mero just leaving when they were in the middle of a storyline. She could sense that Sable wanted to get into wrestling, and it was probably hard on her seeing Kim out there with Mero. She thought Mero was easier to work with than DDP because DDP planned practically every little spot and she couldn't tell the difference between the several variations of certain moves like suplexes.
-- She would cringe whenever fans would yell out "Booty Girl" to her in public. She seemed to like working with Beefcake nonetheless.
-- Brings up Playboy. She says the WCW people got mad when they found out she did it. She says that she wouldn't do it now.
-- She pretty much said what everyone else says about Randy Savage in that he seems to have two personalities. He can a really nice guy sometimes, but then when he gets into character, he's like in the zone. In 1997, she asked Liz if he could tell him to not be so hard on handling her and Liz just kind of rolled her eyes.
-- Regarding Miss Elizabeth, she was really excited to have Liz join WCW in 1996 because she was a big fan of her when she watched her on TV in the 80s. From what Kimberly said about Liz, she seemed to be kind of a complex person in that you she didn't really know what she's really thinking. When Liz moved to Georgia to live with Luger, Kimberly thought it would be cool to hang out with her. But while Liz was friendly to Kimberly at work, she never seemed to want to leave her house and hang out with her for whatever reason. They never once did anything together outside of work. Also, they had a short television feud in 2000. Kim thinks that Liz probably thought she always wanted to take the spotlight on screen, but she just wanted to do really well in her role. She didn't actually say it, but Liz just seemed to go through the motions in their short feud and not really take command. She was shocked when she heard she died. She was mad at Lex. She thinks Lex lead her on the destructive path, but at the end of the day, Liz is an adult and she's the one making the decisions.
-- Bischoff pretty much gave her three weeks to get the Nitro Girls together and on TV. Kimberly somehow managed to do it. She went around Atlanta and looked for a bunch of girls. They didn't necessarily have to be the best dancers, but she was more interested in characters and diversity. She thought the fans would all have a favorite.
-- There's some photos from the first Nitro Girls photoshoot around, and there is this one strawberry blonde girl in the photo who never actually appeared on TV. Kimberly picked her, but later changed her mind as she thought she was too nice and wouldn't make that good of a character. She replaced her strawberry blonde with Spice. She thought Spice would make for a better character. Spice's hair is actually dark. Kimberly told her that if she cut her hair a little and dyed it blonde, she'd have a job. That's what Spice did and the rest is history.
-- They asked her if she ever had problems with any of the Nitro Girls. She said they had occasional squabbles, but they were all friends at the end of the day. The only girl she really had a problem with was Tayo -- the black girl from the original group that seemed to just disappear one day. Basically, Tayo didn't really like to practice and then she'd show up to TV day and expected to dance anyway because she had a lot of training. Kimberly told her that she wasn't dancing on this day because she didn't practice. They then took it to the people in charge and they told Tayo that she wasn't dancing. She was then fired. Tayo would then come to Kimberly's house to try to talk to her. Kimberly didn't answer the door, so Tayo went to a neighbor's house to call her on the phone and she said something along the lines of "Kimberly! I know you're in there!" She jokingly called her a stalker. What's funny is that they had tryouts again later that year for a new girl, and Tayo went to those tryouts. Kimberly thought it was unbelievable. These tryouts were likely the ones where they got Paisley aka Sharmell and Tygress.
-- Initially, she didn't want Whisper in the group because she didn't want her to ruin their rhythm and they already had a tall brunette, which was Kimberly of course. Management picked Whisper because they saw her somewhere and were impressed. But then Whisper danced and was wowed by her. So she didn't mind her being in the group anymore.
-- Because of Torrie Wilson getting a $250,000 deal when she first came to WCW, Kimberly thought she could cash in -- and she did. No girl was making that amount, and she thought was underpaid for all she did for WCW. She got that big raise pretty much thanks to Torrie's arrival.
-- She's not at all surprised by Stacy Keibler's success and she just seemed to stand out to her when they were doing the Nitro Girls contest in 1999.
-- She didn't seem to mind leaving the Nitro Girls in fall 1999. It seems like she was just tired of it by then. Vince Russo came in and wanted to give her a huge part in WCW. She was really interested in that and didn't seem to mind leaving the Nitro Girls for it.
-- She really hates taking bumps and never wanted to be a wrestler. She just wanted to be a personality. Vince Russo wanted to get her more and more physically involved, and she really wanted him to loosen up and have someone else take the bumping. Also, Bischoff made her go to the Power Plant when she was starting out in 1995 by telling her that if you're going to be in wrestling, you're going to have to take bumps.
-- She admits that she was kind of intimidated by Bischoff for a while. She later though it was ridiculous to be intimidated by him because they were neighbors and good friends.
-- She pretty much saw all the politics in WCW. She'd be in the boardrooms with DDP and would just see Hogan talking with Bischoff for example. She didn't really think it was politics at the time because she thought they all just wanted to improve the show and make it the best possible show.
-- The whole Kimberly getting Tammy fired by finding a syringe in the locker room seems to be incredibly fabricated. Kimberly had nothing to do with any of it whatsoever. Basically what happened is that the girls walked in the locker room one day and were aghast to see a syringe in the locker room. One of the main assistants -- Janie Engle -- was notified, and she told Bischoff about it. Kimberly was outside reading a book when all this went down. Tammy was later blamed for it, but according to Tammy, it turned out to be false when they did a urine test I think. It seems like Tammy had a heated argument with Bischoff about pointing the blame on her when he was wrong, but she just never came back to WCW anyway for whatever reason.
-- The deal with Kimberly leaving WCW... you can foot the blame on Scott Steiner as he was the straw that broke the camel's back. What happened is that for an episode of Thunder, Russo wanted Kimberly to drop her top and flash a wrestler. Russo thought it was ok because they would digitize her breasts. Kimberly thought it was a bogus idea because there are kids in the audience and whatnot. Steiner overheard the conversation and said that she should do what Russo tells her to do. They then had an argument which had Steiner called her the "C-word" among some other derogatory comments. Kimberly was just fed up with it all (she also thought WCW was a sinking ship), she then went to Bischoff's trailer, and told him that she was quitting. She then left the arena and went home. DDP then came later that day and was flabbergasted to find out that she quit. DDP asked her why she quit, she said what Steiner said to her, and that seems to be where the heat between them stems from. About two months later, Steiner saw Kim at the gym and apologized for what he said to her. She accepted his apology and they were ok again.
-- She actually didn't seem to mind to get away from wrestling. She could sleep in her own bed and do a bunch of things she never had time to do. She took up horseriding again and seemed to be completely happy just doing that.
-- When she left WCW, she knew that she was pretty much done with wrestling. She never considered going to WWE because of how she thinks they portrayed the women at the time. The two never had conversations about her coming in with DDP.
-- She moved out to L.A. in 2004 to pursue acting. She got a bunch of a small gigs, but it was pretty much only as T & A. She thought she was capable of doing a lot more than T & A as she'd read stuff like Shakespeare and whatnot. Pretty much one day last year, she just got fed up. She removed her breast implants and told her agent that was done doing slutty roles. She only wanted roles as like a doctor or lawyer or something serious. Her agent was like...WHAT?!!! And Kimberly would joke that she's had no roles since then, which sadly is true. Her acting career seems to be pretty much done now as she's not getting offers anymore. She could probably still get gigs, but pretty much only as T & A. Kimberly doesn't want to do that stuff, and that's why her acting career is probably through.
-- The "swingers" thing with Bischoff and his wife and DDP gets brought up. She said it's all false and that the thought is gross because the Bischoffs were like family to them because they were neighbors. They never did anything, and I believe her on this one. Just seems to be an internet urban legend like the Stephanie/Randy Savage one.
-- Doesn't really give a specific reason for her divorce from DDP. They seemed to be going in different directions and they just amicably separated one day. They're still good friends to this day and she said that they actually get along better now compared to the last few years when they were married.
-- She has since moved to Utah and seems to love the place what with the skiing and outdoorsy stuff and whatnot. She now has her own business for interior designing in homes. There's more about that at her official website, KimberlyPage.com She seems really happy with what she's doing now, so you shouldn't feel sorry for her not doing acting/wrestling anymore.
That basically covers all the major topics discussed in the DVD. The interview was a little over one hour and a half, but it seemed to breeze by and was never boring. If you're a fan of either Kimberly, DDP or the Nitro Girls, you should really enjoy it.
You can purchase the DVD at this link.
Click here to see pictures from Kimberly's career in professional wrestling.
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