Diamond Dallas Page was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31, 2017. The master of the Diamond Cutter earned his rightful spot in this year’s lineup after having an incredible wrestling career that exceeded all expectations. These days, the former three-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion is on a mission to change people’s lives for the better. His highly successful DDP YOGA program has inspired a new generation of people who are taking their health and well-being more seriously. And that’s not a bad thing…It’s a good thing. In an exclusive with stillrealtous.com, the People’s Champion explained how DDP YOGA is revolutionizing the fitness industry.
DDP’s positive attitude and outlook makes him a natural leader. When asked how people can lead happier lives, he explained, “There are people who will inspire you and there are people who will drain you. Choose wisely. I’m not going to be around people who drain me. I try to help people who are in a bad spot, but they have to change the story they tell themselves.” DDP elaborated, “A lot of depression is based on what we are focusing on and the story that goes on in our heads. Before I walked out in front of 20,000 people to induct Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts into the Hall of Fame, I knew I was going to speak in front of a live crowd with a lot of people watching me.” He let out a laugh before continuing, “Who knows how many people were watching on the WWE Network. Before I walk out there, I’m not going, ‘Oh my God. I hope this doesn’t suck. Oh God, I hope I don’t screw this up. This is going to be horrible.’ I’m thinking to myself, ‘This is going to be the best thing I’ve ever done. This is going to blow people away. This is going to change someone’s life.'” Page nodded his head and stated, “That’s what I am thinking when I go out there. It’s all about the story that we tell ourselves.”
The story DDP tells through DDP YOGA is one filled with substance that is capturing everyone’s undivided attention. The former world champion explained, “We are a production studio. I mean, we are talking about full-blown LED lighting and an 8 camera shoot. We take our workouts that we normally do and put them live in the air. Whenever I flub over the words, that is what you get. I make it funny,” DDP let out a hardy chuckle. He continued, “People like it when you are real. I’m not perfect — far from it. I’ll be the first to tell you that. I want the raw energy from the people. Some people won’t come because they don’t want to be on camera. When you come to one of my workshops, normally there is anywhere from 50 to 150 people. There will be at least 2 people over 300 pounds. Seriously bro.” It is no surprise that the charismatic founder of DDP YOGA is constantly surrounded by every type of person one can imagine. DDP’s inspirational leadership — along with his cool and hip presentation, resonates with anybody that has a goal of living a better life.
DDP is so confidant in his program that he recently launched a series where a person can get an intense workout without leaving their seat. “I just created workouts in the chair. I’m really focused on disabled vets. I show them how to use a chair. Zach Gowen is one of my certified instructors. Remember, he has one leg,” DDP told Still Real To Us. Zach Gowen gained fame in WWE for feuding with chairman Vince McMahon. DDP continued to have nice words for his instructor. “When he does the workout, he does it with one leg. He uses the chair to replace the leg that is missing. If there is a will, there is a way,” DDP glowed. Page then made sure to to tell the world that anybody can do his program. He said, “DDP YOGA is great for people who are extremely overweight or extremely beat up. It’s even great for people who are older. Really, anyone who can lift their arms can do the workout. I don’t know any other yoga program or any other workout that has people who can’t get out of a chair.” DDP playfully shrugged, “In the last video of the series, I have a workout where you never get out of the chair because it is for paraplegics. The DDP YOGA app really has it all.”
DDP never imagined in his wildest dreams that he would become one of the top yoga instructors in the world. He explained to Still Real To Us, “I knew that guys like me didn’t do this. When you start wrestling at 35 and your career takes off when you are 40…Man, name me one guy in sports whose career takes off when he is 40 years old. It is unheard of.” Page wasn’t kidding around. He continued, “At 42, I threw my back out. I was the king of holding back the hands of time prior to this. Again, I’m not doing yoga though. I knew the stigma. There was this stigma for people ages 30 and up. People who are 22? They don’t have that. They really don’t.” DDP sighed, “For my generation, they still have that. Once I got out of wrestling, this just felt like something that was part of who I was.”
DDP’s new mission was to help as many people outside of the ring as he could. “I saw that guys who were ‘real men’ would do it. The slogan TNA became ‘Tone N’ Attitude’ for us. A lot of women don’t like yoga but they absolutely love DDP YOGA. My ex-wife Kimberly who owns part of DDP YOGA — she is a yogi. She loves what we do but she also needs that calm, serenity thing. That’s not what this is,” Page laughed. The head of DDP YOGA continued, “I knew I could bring a whole different perspective to the yoga field. I used to just kick people’s ass in the workouts to make them see how tough it was. They would go, ‘F**k this — I’m not doing that again. It’s too hard.’ I went, ‘Okay. That’s not the direction.'” DDP let out a laugh before continuing, “I really made it what it was — something that anyone could do and I can make it the easiest thing you have ever done or I can make this the most challenging thing that you ever thought existed.”
Page insisted that anyone has the ability to take their workout game to a level that they never thought was possible. Page broke it down for those who are looking for that extra push. “With DDP YOGA, I teach you how you take your core strength to the next level. I get studs who have sweat pouring off of them. I teach them to go deeper. I make them challenge themselves. Consistency takes your game to another level,” DDP told Still Real To Us. He then explained why people see such incredible results with his program. “You don’t see my DDP YOGA DVDs out there for $1.99 and you never will. There is such a commitment level that comes with it. People don’t want to give it up just in case they want to revisit it later.” DDP urged people to try their best. “Sometimes people fall down, but you get back up again and that’s what counts. Don’t stay down,” he said.
Perfect examples of getting back up are Scott Hall and Jake “The Snake” Roberts. DDP shared intimate details of the triumph both men have seen under his guidance. “Once I got through the second guessing, I remembered the quote, ‘You can never underestimate the power you give someone by believing in them.’ That resonated with both of those guys throughout the journey. It’s part of the therapy,” DDP recalled. He continued, “I stressed to Jake, ‘We are all put on this Earth for a certain reason. You are one of the greatest professional wrestlers ever. You have touched so many people’s lives and they watched you go through this crazy, destructive thing that you did to yourself. You should be dead. So should Scott.'” Page took a pause before before he told Still Real To Us a few conversations that took place between himself and his fellow Hall of Fame friends. Page said, “Scott once told me, ‘I had 90 Xanax. I took them all and I didn’t die.’ I told him, ‘Maybe you weren’t supposed to die yet bro.’ Destiny is an interesting concept. I told Jake, ‘You will never be able to impact people the way you did the last couple of years if you didn’t have the journey you were on.'” Page further explained, “If it wasn’t publicized — if it wasn’t something where everyone could reach out and see it, things might be different today. Somehow this thing called social media came alive. It didn’t exist years ago. It came at a perfect time where Jake’s story needed to be told.”
Not everyone understood what DDP was trying to accomplish. DDP told stillrealtous.com that “Stone Cold” Steve Austin had serious doubts about Page taking on Roberts and Hall as his personal projects. Page stated, “Steve Austin is one of my closest friends. He told me, ‘Are you out of your fucking mind? Why would you do this? You are putting your company on the line.’ I went, ‘No I’m not. I’m helping out my buddy. That’s all.’ Then when I got Scott involved, he was sure I was out of my mind.” DDP let out a grin before continuing, “But look what happened? Again, never underestimate the power you give someone by believing in them. There were times where you would question it, but when it came down to it — every time that Jake fell, he got a little bit stronger.” DDP explained that Roberts was ready for serious change. Page proclaimed, “That’s because he really wanted it. You have got to want it. When you try to help people who aren’t ready…you are wasting your time. Until they want it — it ain’t ever gonna happen.”
DDP YOGA wasn’t the only thing Page talked about. Another man who made headlines during WrestleMania weekend was former WWE Universal Champion, Bill Goldberg. Goldberg took part in an epic encounter against Brock Lesnar. Fans all over the world enjoyed the suspenseful clash of the titans. Page was very proud of his good friend. He told stillrealtous.com, “I was a fan of Billy as a person before he ever became a wrestler.” He elaborated, “When he was in the NFL we became friends. I constantly told him, ‘You need to do what I do, bro. I think you would be amazing.’ I never thought that he would shave his head and do all the stuff that he did because he had a full head of hair. You don’t normally see that.”
Wrestling fans fondly look back at DDP vs. Goldberg at Halloween Havoc 1998 as one of the greatest matches in WCW history. Page provided Still Real To Us a behind-the-scenes look at what made that match so special. “I knew coming into that match that if he would let me lead, you know, let me be the general here…We would tear it down. It took him a while for him to really have the confidence. I wanted to miss that spear during the match,” Page said. He told wrestling fans to take a closer look at the match. He continued, “If you see, when he just misses it, he was literally going to get me. When he did spear me, I know that Bill was just taking down one guy after another who was humongous.”
During Goldberg’s meteoric rise in WCW, he toppled big men such as Wrath, The Giant and Bam Bam Bigelow. DDP remembered, “Sometimes, the guys were 400 or 500 pounds. They kept feeding him top guys. The announcers would always put him over saying, ‘Oh my god! This guy is 480 pounds and 6’8!’ When Bill would spear them — he would really spear them. Those guys weren’t taking no flat-back bump.” The master of the Diamond Cutter followed up with, “But me…Bill coming at me with that spear? I would have been like a napkin. I would have been gone before he ever touched me. In this scenario — watch that match again. Ask yourself what hits the mat first — his head or my body? It’s his head. If he didn’t have those ridiculous traps, he could have been a quadriplegic. He knocked himself out.” Page then painted a pretty gruesome picture for curious wrestling fans. “Just think of running at full speed and then diving into the ground. Your head is the first thing to hit. He didn’t have to take me down. I was already gone. He cracked Big Show’s sternum when he was The Giant. I was like, ‘I ain’t letting that happen to me.’”
It’s a good thing that it didn’t happen. It resulted in a match that people still talk about to this day. DDP told Still Real To Us that he wished things wound up a little bit differently as far as the outcome was concerned. “It retrospect, I think that Bill’s first loss should have been that night. Instead of getting cattle prodded later on at Starrcade. We could have wrestled again the next night, you know, and him getting the World title back again. The fact is that he would have got that loss out of the way. That was part of his mystique,” Page stated. He had one last thing to say about his friend. “He is a great athlete, a great guy and a great human being. Goldberg has a heart of gold. He does more charity work than any three people I know. He doesn’t take a single dime for it either.”
Before leaving with a bang, Page stressed that DDP YOGA has the ability to change the world. DDP winked, “Ultimately, it’s about people helping people.”
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[…] Superstars, including Jake Roberts, have also benefited from the yoga program. In an interview, DDP spoke about what he aims to achieve from his business […]