Image credit: The Daily Beast

WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) recently appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet. They discuss his wrestling career, how his yoga program is helping current stars and his new documentary Relentless.

On his early attempts at wrestling:

“As you know, I am a people person. That’s why I am successful at every turn and everybody thinks “That’s impossible, what are you thinking?!” My wrestling career, I tried when I was 23. I had 3 matches, it didn’t work out for me in 1979. I got sucked in. I was already in love with the bar business, so I got sucked in to running my first rock n’ roll joint and I forgot about the dream. I came back to it in 1988 as a manager for AWA, which was ridiculous that I would have pulled that off! To understand how impossible it is for an outsider to get involved in the business, especially back then. My wrestling career was an eight year overnight success.”

On working with WWE Superstars:

“I’m building wellness centres for the boys. I’ve got Ivar from The Viking Raiders, he broke his neck. He literally sent me a picture of him diving through the ropes. That cat is over 300 pounds. He has been doing my workouts since before it was DDPY, it was YRG (yoga for regular guys). He goes back that far and it’s what kept him in the ring. He was on his way to the hospital and he said “can I come and see you when I am done?” Tomasso Ciampa is another one, he did the same thing. When Drew McIntyre tore his tricep, he came up here. He drove 7 and a half hours to work with me for four hours, and then drove back to Tampa. These guys look at me and go “How can he do this sh*t?” I’m going to be 65 in a month and a half, how am I still running like I am in my 40’s? I can’t go out there and bounce around anymore, but I can go out for one night and tear it down.” 

On his wrestling retirement and his relationship with Cody Rhodes:

“That stuff with Cody Rhodes, that was just fun. That was my last match though, and Cody is like my nephew. I just got off the phone with him and we talk every week. We had to get on a schedule because there were months where we wouldn’t talk. I would see him at my performance centre and I would go “Bro, I know you’re crazy busy, but I need to be able to connect with you.” Bottom line he goes “How about we just schedule it?” We agreed that Friday at 12 works so we did that. That time can change but it keeps us connected as he is going through this incredible ride.” Whatever he wants me to do, he just needs to fly me in, put me up and I won’t charge him. I wanted him to know I don’t want a contract, I don’t want money, I wanted to be his voice.”

On being a father figure to fellow wrestlers:

“I’ve always done it. I parented myself, I love my dad but he was a drunk. Now he is not because he is in a home. But give him a chance and he is going to hit the bar and have a couple of cocktails. By the time I was 3 years old my mum was married, divorced and had 3 kids, she was 19. I was raised by my Grandmother. She was a great lady but she was going through menopause. Because of that, I was always giving to people, it’s just part of what I do. Before DDP yoga even existed, when I was wrestling, I helped Kidman, Disco, Glacier, Kanyon, Raven. I mean I can name 30 guys that I either originally got jobs for that wouldn’t get it on their own.”

On his new documentary Relentless and the origins of DDP Yoga:

“It’s funny, you know Bryan Alvarez, well 12 years ago he asked me “Where is DDP 5 and 10 years from now?” This was 4 years before the yoga started. I said 5 years from now I will start to be known as the new Jack LaLanne meets Tony Robbins meets Drake Richard Simmons, and he laughed. Honestly, what I’m doing now in 10 years will dwarf my wrestling career. He didn’t believe me. I already knew what it did for Arthur, the disabled veteran. I didn’t have the form of a video. We remade it in 2012, myself and Steve Yu (Director of the critically acclaimed documentary The Resurrection of Jake the Snake), when you watch Relentless on Amazon Prime, The Resurrection will be one of the recommended movies to watch. If you’ve got Amazon prime, you can watch this. The reviews have been amazing. We started this about 6 years ago. Steve Yu wanted to create a mini doc that’s about 15 – 20 minutes that shows what our company is about. If you talk about Steve Jobs, you think of Apple and that’s it. If you think of DDP, you will think of both wrestling and yoga. ”

On the DDP Yoga app and what the schedule is:

“The app has a seven day free trial. Every Monday I put out a video for motivational Monday, there’s over 300 of them up there. Every Tuesday I post a new workout. It could be sitting at a chair, it could be psycho-extreme, it could be laying in bed. Every Wednesday is a new healthy recipe. Because of the pandemic, it’s what we are eating that night. Every Thursday I have added DDP’s tip of the week. That could be showing you how to do black crow, or it could be something I read on Facebook. Then there is fabulous Facebook Friday, over 56,000 people are on there. It goes up another 1,000 every week. I’m just reading stories that people are writing and putting my opinion on it. This week was about this couple. Because of the pandemic they wanted to take control of their lives. In 5 months she lost 83 pounds and he lost 107! They shared their stories, people are helping each other. The number one thing my program does is build confidence. I can prove it with one example after another.”

On his daily routine and living to over 100:

“The first thing I do. Once or twice a week I roll over and hug my old lady and hang with her for 20 minutes. If she is in a deep sleep, I leave her alone. I roll out of bed, there’s this thing, it’s this algae that is in chocolate. It has the highest antioxidant level that you can eat. I have that and then walk into my hyperbaric chamber, and get on my phone. I look at my emails, my schedule, set alarms for calls with Cody. So then I know what I’ve done and what I am going to do. I’m not training to be 65, because that could be here tomorrow. I’m preparing for 75, 85, 95 and even 105! My core is so strong, I could do a 20 minute match and tear it down. I won’t do that, because I know what damage it could do. After the chamber, my girl gives me a protein shake, and a lay on a beamer pad. It frees up my circulation. Being on this pad 22 minutes, twice a day. Within 5 days there is zero numbness. I’m constantly training to turn back the sands of time.”

On the future of DDP Yoga:

“Three years from now I will be training the top athletes in the world that are coming back from injury. I will be training a small group of guys that understand competitive maintenance. If you do the work at the 65 year old level, the chance of the 28 year old self getting injured is reduced by 50%. Look at Chris Jericho and AJ Styles. Chris can drink like a viking, there’s a guy who when he says he will do something, he does it and at the highest level. He makes a lot of money doing what he does but he would do it for free!”

On his appearance on Shark Tank promoting DDP Yoga:

“The disabled veteran video with Arthur went viral. He was a key component of it. People thought “that’s impossible! But if he can do it…” Arthur came with us to Shark Tank too. I never went for a deal, I just went to get awareness. I only offered 5%, it was so much fun, you can see it in Relentless. We filmed for an hour, but you don’t know what they are going to use. But if I edited it myself, I couldn’t have edited it better. We made $1 million in 5 days. I could do nothing for the rest of my life. If I die tomorrow, it would triple.”

Three things that he is grateful for right now:

“My partner Paige McMahon, my health and that in these hard times God has blessed me to do what I do.”

Full podcast audio can be found below:

Video version can be found below:

DDP can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.

For more information on DDP Yoga, click here.

Relentless can be watched now on Amazon Prime