DDP On Dominik Mysterio, LA Knight, MJF and Why It's Never Too Late To Chase Your Dreams - EPISODE #500!

Diamond Dallas Page (@realddp) is a professional wrestling icon, actor, fitness guru, bestselling author and international speaker. He joins Chris Van Vliet at his house in Atlanta, GA for the 500th episode of INSIGHT! He talks about his thoughts on MJF, Dominik Mysterio and LA Knight, what made him start DDPY, his entrepreneurial spirit, filming "The Resurrection of Jake The Snake", why his WCW entrance theme sounded like Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', Cody Rhodes' success in WWE, what he learned from his friend Dusty Rhodes, his career ending matching with Hardcore Holly and much more!

Diamond Dallas Page (@realddp) is a professional wrestling icon, actor, fitness guru, bestselling author and international speaker. He joins Chris Van Vliet at his house in Atlanta, GA for the 500^th episode of INSIGHT! He talks about his thoughts on MJF, Dominik Mysterio and LA Knight, what made him start DDPY, his entrepreneurial spirit, filming "The Resurrection of Jake The Snake", why his WCW entrance theme sounded like Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', Cody Rhodes' success in WWE, what he learned from his friend Dusty Rhodes, his career ending matching with Hardcore Holly and much more!

The fact that you're so hospitable is, there are so many things about you and your wife, Paige that I love and I admire. But the fact that you are so welcoming is it's one of your best traits.

“We're just being ourselves, anybody we care about. Like I invite, I just literally invited Matt Hardy, who I love and I always see him as he's got a gorgeous family. He's got all those little babies, a beautiful wife, Reby. I mean, he has a beautiful life. And I know that he's still working, and he does [the plan]. I just texted him saying, are you still doing the programme? And this is what I loved. He said I've developed what you taught me into me doing it without I don't need the app anymore. And I'm like, Yes, that is my goal for each and every person especially if they're one of the boys are one of the girls because I give it to all of them. Or give it to any NFL players. Anybody who's made it that and now their body is their life. And I look at it as Matt has this beautiful family, and I'm like, bro if you ever really want to come here by yourself, with your brother, with your wife, whatever. You've seen all this stuff. I have all the anti ageing stuff. The Gauntlet, which I would also love to put Matt through, but it just would help. Again, always looking for a way to hold back to hands of time time. Matt Hardy is such a great entertainer can he keep doing it forever? Look at Sting, you know, I mean Stingers still going, but he's finally going to retire at 64. But, you know, it's all about how you live after. And for me, it's 67. It's that's my biggest example, I always want to set like, look what I'm doing. Look at me now. I don't look like your average 67-year-old or even 57-year-old. And I can do a lot of different things. Because of this, it's not just DDP yoga. It's not just the food. It's not just the ice punch. It's not just oxygen deprivation. It's everything. Chiropractic, deep muscle massage. Everything. And that's what I tried to do when I see someone I really care about like that.”

You are so giving. Have you always been this way?

“Yeah, pretty much. When I was in a nightclub business because I love the nightclub business. It was so much fun. It's kind of ironic that I've helped so many people get sober with my programme too, which is kind of crazy. But way back in the day every Christmas, it was always you know Toys for Tots or anybody who needed something that if a family reached out to me we do it, go to their door, would go to, you know, to that whatever we collected that night or whatever. So it was always something that we were doing like that, but I never really even thought about it. Just like to me you when you're like, what I'm doing today with the programme and helping so many different people, it's the best karma in the world. You know, it's like, I use it all up with my driving, God takes all my saves but God is my co-pilot. Lex had to correct me, God, is no one's co-pilot. But for me, I feel like God is watching over me when I'm driving just stone-cold sober. I think I'm a really good driver, but nobody else does.”

It's interesting because the wrestling business and a lot of people in the wrestling business are not usually outwardly giving. It's a lot of times, it's like, look at me and look what I'm doing. You're the complete opposite of so many people in this industry.

“Well, you know, it's so hard when you're trying to come up and you're trying to get noticed. I mean, wrestling is the world of look at me, let me push your buttons. You know, like, I'm personally no MJF. But he will be pissed off at me for saying this. But he's the nicest. He's the nicest guy. He really is, to me. But to everybody out in the open, he's an asshole. And it's not him being an asshole, it's him living the gimmick. He could turn babyface in an instant and he would be over even bigger, I think. But as a heel, oh my god. One of my favourite MJF stories. This was on the Jericho Cruise, which is amazing. If you haven't done it, and you're thinking about doing the Jericho Cruise, do it. I did a couple of them. And I love Chris Jericho. There's another goat, I mean, capital GOAT I mean like big time, but one of the comedians was up on stage. And it's a packed house, you know, that particular night. And I can't remember his name. But he said, you know, you have to really appreciate MJF's commitment to being the character. He's never out of character. My buddy and I, we love to listen to him. So We're waiting in line [for autographs]. He's charging more than anyone. I don't know if it's a particular moment. But I remember, there was a point of charging for autographs, and MJF when he was nobody put himself at like $150. And they paid it! [MJF said] I don't give a f*ck if you come here and want my autograph or not. I'm better than you and you know it. I mean, that was one of the great, that's a great tagline. And I put the kid over because I love him. But he says you have to appreciate MJF’s commitment to being MJF. My buddy and I finally get up to the front. And we say, bro, we love your sh*t. Now my buddy's drinking a coffee at the time. MJF grabbed his cup, took it, spit in it, gave it back to my buddy and said so what the f*ck do two want? I mean what a roar., you know, but that's him, he's committed to the character. So oh my God. I could talk about MJF for hours.”

On the other end of your career. What do you think it was that led you to everything you're doing now with DDPY?

“Without wrestling, without having that fan base. Like, I have some amazing people who were fans and it's so funny, the ones that really put the work in end up becoming friends because I respect what work they put into themselves. Like my buddy, Dr Tom Wallen, who was a huge fan of mine as a kid, and started to do the program and went through a transformation during DDP Yoga. Now he's the head of my BFR blood flow restriction programme that we're putting together with power cuffs, he’s a doctor. You know, he's a scientist, and he's a doctor, and he’s a second level two DDPY Instructor. He's a transformation coach instructor. Along with being a doctor and heading my BFR. And he stayed up here because we were filming some stuff for the power cuffs, because I want the doctor's side sure, you know of what this is all about. And he's gone through all the courses for blood flow restriction, everything. So we're getting ready to go over and film and he stayed over the night before, like you did. And like I did for you. I'm making breakfast, and as I'm walking over with the plates, he goes I’m having a little flashback here of my 12-year-old self, and DDP is making me breakfast. But you know, without the fan base without that, because in the beginning, anybody who pretty much got it, it was pretty much wrestling fans. Then Arthur's video came, and that changed the entire thing.”

What do you think the percentage is now?

“I think it's probably about 55% wrestling fans and 45% [that have never seen a DDP match]. Never. But when something next goes viral like we have, I mean, you have talked about this, and now I can really talk about it, because it's going to be coming out at some point, probably around the first of the year, I'm guessing. Our showed that it’s a docu-series that we filmed called Change Or Die. And we brought five people into one of the other homes that I kept when I got this one. And I was just renting it out. And then Steve said we need a house and everything's so expensive in Smyrna, where the company is, he's like, do you think you'd take that off the market and, and let us use that? And I said, Well, you're in luck because they're at the last month, they want to renew, but I can tell him, you might have to give him a couple of months, you know, just to get comfortable, and that's what happened. And then we brought these five different people into where the resurrection of Jake the Snake was filmed, the accountability crib. And these people go on this journey. And we film everything, Buff Bagwell was one of them. That's why you see Marcus, I know we called him Buff, because the character Buff today is good. But when he was flipping the Buff, he would become an asshole because he's an addict. And he didn't think he was an addict. So that's another guy that is kinda like gone through what we're doing. And then it was like, you have to see it, I don't want to spoil it. But you can look at Marcus when he walked in our house, and who he is today, and he is completely different.”

But think of how many people that we as wrestling fans can thank for their health now, or the fact that they're still around now, because of you.

“Because of my team. It's not just [me], everybody thinks it's me, I always say to them it takes a village. I really took every single person like Jake, I look at Jake today, and I couldn't be more proud, happier. Because my whole goal, when we started filming the Resurrection of Jake the Snake, which is on Amazon Prime, by the way, and our other documentary is Relentless, you might want to check that out. But when we started filming, we'd never done documentaries before. Like Steve Yu and I, my partner, my business partner. We are the guys who figure it out. I will hire a person who knows nothing about our business before I'll hire a person who knows a lot about it. I'll hire the person who doesn't know a lot if they're a figure-it-out person. I found that out when I was in Iraq one time. I went there like three different separate occasions to see the troops for like, two weeks, once to Afghanistan. But I was in Iraq and it was the first tour I was on. And I was out because they didn't, me and Rob Dibble who played for the Reds and when the Reds won the World Series. He was the MVP. He was one of the pitchers. And we're out there and out in the outer where bad shit was happening. And the Colonel's like, well DDP that you could drive a tank. I said, Yes, I can. Now how those tanks went, I don't know if they're all like this. But here's a tank, and then there's a middle part that's open, and you slide your body in, and you grab a hold of the steering wheel, and, you know the friggin speed like this. And I could just, I’m about 250, back then, I could just fit in. And, dude, I drove it like a madman.”

I've known you for years and there are actually some wrestling questions I've always wanted to ask you, but never asked you. How did you not get sued by Nirvana?

“You know, that's fascinating because I went to see Jimmy Hart. First, let's go back to where it comes from. Jimmy Hart's musical genius and you know, he had a number one hit at one time with The Gentry. Did you know that? Again number one hit. So what it was a one-hit wonder, he was number one when it meant something like when it got paid and sh*t, yeah. But we went down I went down to Florida. He said so what music do you like? I said right now I'm listening to Nirvana. I really liked them. I think there's a sound of the 90s. And he goes, which song do you like, it was between Smells Like Teen Spirit, and I can't remember the other name of the other one, but it was between both of them. And I said, let's pick Smells Like Teen Spirit. And then he did something with the music. I go, That sounds amazing. Sounds just like it, he goes, all I did was flip the beat. So instead of going bump, bump it went bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. So if you notice you played to both at the same time, you'd hear the difference. Dude, I tell you, I was so bummed out when the WWE changed my music. And on all the WCW stuff, all the Peacock stuff, they changed the music, because they didn't want to get sued. And then I also found out that it wasn't David Grohl who owned it. It was Courtney.  She probably wasn't even aware I was using it.”

You want to talk about someone who's on another level. We were talking about him last night. But how impressed are you with Logan Paul?

“Oh, my God. Yo, I've not told this story, since I told the other story. Back when I first met him. Not this Mania, it was the Mania before, and he walked into the elevator. I was like, Hey, man. Boom, Dallas Page. He goes Good to meet you. I said. I said, Man, I gotta tell you. I'm blown away by just what you've done so far, but keep up the great work. I want to get a picture. He's like, Yeah, sure. And I got I gotta put the Diamond Cutter side up. And he goes, I can't do that. And I go, You can't do that? He goes, Well, it's a gang sign, I go it's really not. I’m not going to start to like to debate this. So I put it down. And then later I talked about it when I was doing the podcasts with Jake, [Robrts], and, you know, it kind of took off with the internet, you know. So now it's Mania in LA, and I'm on the elevator and who walks in? Logan Paul walks in, and I go Hey, bro, I go, we got to stop meeting like this. And he goes oh my God. Oh my god, dude, I'm so sorry. I know you are a legend. He was so apologetic. I said can we take a picture now? He goes, Absolutely! But the bottom line is, just the nicest guy.”

What do you think your life would look like if WCW had continued being successful into the 2000s?

“I don't think it would be this. I might have because sometimes we have to get on to get back on track and end up back in our destiny. But I don't know. I don't know if it's the same. If we do the people's champion versus people's champion. I don't know if it's the same if we do that.”

What do you remember from that superplex with Hardcore Holly that really effectively ended your WWE run?

“I remember because Bobby works super stiff. And that's where he got the name Hardcore Holly. And I lit him up in the corner with some punches, threw him in the turnbuckle and like I can judge your foot. I can make a little rip my head off. But you got to hold it there. And Bobby would later apologise because he last second caught me. And my neck only moves so far, even back then. And when he hit me, boom, it kind of staggered me. Now when he would come through with a clothesline, I would always be gone. Like I'm not going to be there to take that hit. But I was knocked a little silly, and my timing was off. So when he hit me, it apparently friggin like jackknifed my neck like whiplash type thing. By the time I hit the mat. I'm like, Okay, I have no idea where I am.”

I feel like in WWE, if you were a WCW guy, they just didn't want you to be successful. 

“I did take it personally in the beginning, but I realised later, it wasn't about me. It didn't matter if Booker was the only guy there, would have been him. If any other guy would have come in who was the top guy, it would have been them. They wanted it to be me because I was one of the biggest faces. I was the only guy besides Goldberg that WCW ever made, at that level, you know, and they wanted it to be that character.”

Who's on your pro wrestling Mount Rushmore?

“Oh, yeah, of course, gotta be Flair, you know? Gotta be Jake. Dusty’s up there because it's, you know, I just thought he was unbelievable. And I will put up five guys, put Hogan and Austin up there, you know? It was like those guys did a lot, just monstrous for the business.”

Thoughts on Dominik Mysterio:

"I said this six months ago or five months ago, whatever it was. I said, if I was booking, I would put Dominik over every time he went to the ring. Just because the heat is so amazing. The heat he's got and you're talking about a kid who has been thrown in the middle, in the middle of the fire. Like not like you learned to swim, you get thrown in the middle of fire water. And I think he's done an unbelievable job. When he's not on the road? He's like, what I did, I would go back to the powerplant. He's going back to the Performance Center."

What are three things today that you're grateful for?

“My wife and kids for sure. The opportunity to help people with what I'm doing and changing lives on a different level, and God’s gift of the sight of my superpowers.”