by Chris Gosek
“Diamond” Dallas Page was recently the guest for a special double interview on WGD Weekly with Steve and the Scum. During the two interviews, which each ran about an hour, DDP talked candidly with Steve and the Scum about all points throughout his time in the wrestling industry, right up through his current work with DDP Yoga and the numerous performers and athletes who have been taking part in his program. Both interviews in their entirety can be heard here:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MDB3iRokiP0
Some of the highlights from this “double shot” of DDP on WGD Weekly include him discussing:
Working with David Arquette in WCW and the reaction of the fans to his becoming WCW Champion: “…David Arquette is his own animal. As much heat as he ever took, for him, …all the money he made for that pay per view when he busted me over the head with the guitar and Jarrett took the World Title, the money he made, he gave to Melanie Pillman…When he pinned Bischoff, not me, and I will go on record as saying that was the biggest cluster fu*k ever! and it never should’ve happened, but it did. That being said, that was the booking committee, it was not David Arquette, and every fan that has ever roasted him should dip their own ass in boiling oil, because everyone of you that has buried David Arquette if put in the same position, you would’ve jumped through a hoop of burning oil to do the same sh*t. That’s why when everybody busts balls on that, I just want to smack someone. I’m like really, you, ‘marko mark?’ You would’ve died for that…”
A conversation he had in his early days wrestling in WCW backstage with Hulk Hogan: “…I walked through the curtain after my match and Hulk pulls me over and he says, ‘how are you getting so much better?’ I said, ‘wow, Hulk, thanks, how do you even know?’ He goes, ‘I’ve been watching your match the last couple nights.’ I’m thinking, your watching my matches? So, he says, this is what they are doing, I don’t hardly ever see you on TV, just once in a while. He says, this is what they are doing with you, they’re letting you learn your craft on the road here…I said, I go to the Power Plant, he said, what is the Power Plant…I told Hulk, I figured out that the more that I train people down there…and if you only work when they book you, then you never really get any good, because you’re not wrestling enough…I go down there every day I’m not wrestling and what I figured out is the more I train people, the more I learn and the more I learn! the better I got. Hulk really didn’t understand it because he came from a different generation where you went from one territory to another, but he said, well, whatever it is your doing you need to keep doing it because it might not be this year, or next year, or even the year after, but if you keep doing what you’re doing, somewhere down the line, you and I can draw huge money together, and then he walked away…”
A great reaction from Paul Orndorff backstage before the spot on Nitro with him and Randy Savage, where he was disguised as LaParka: “…when I did LaParka against Savage, it was one if my favorite moments in wrestling. Nobody knew that was coming. There has never been a moment that was like that in professional wrestling…you had no fu$#*ng idea…Bischoff pulled me aside in a room, with Sullivan…he goes okay, here is the deal, we are going to dress you up as LaParka and keep you guys in here the whole time, no one is going to know…so, you’re going over with a Diamond Cutter, I said, ‘Oh my god,’ he says, and then you rip off the mask and the place is going to go bat sh*t, and it did. So, I’m in the back with LaParka, and he can barely talk English, so I’m mimicking him, how do I do your walk, how do you play the guitar, what do you do with the chair? He is showing me his sh*t, so then to get to Mr.Wonderful, he is an agent at the time. He is walking around giving finishes. He gets to the door and knocks on it. I open the door in full LaParka gimmick. Now LaParka is about six foot! but I’m six four, legit, so, Orndorff is a good six one, he knows he is taller than LaParka. He is looking down his glasses at the sheet and he looks up and he goes, ‘You’re going over?” Then he looks back up at me and he sees my blue eyes, and it LaParka, but he goes, ‘ You’re not LaParker.” Then he could just see my eyes light up and they just went, ‘ding,’ and he realized it’s me, and he just says, ‘ I love it,’ then I do the thing and he says, ‘mums the word,’ then he walks away…”
A life lesson he learned from agreeing to do the “stalker” angle in WWE against the Undertaker: “…I’ve already learned, walk away from the table. I learned that in WWE. If I walk away from Vince and I don’t do the stalker angle, and I go, ‘wow, good stuff, but not for me.’ If I walk out and say call me when you want to do people’s champion versus people’s champion, I wouldn’t have made it to the elevator. All I had to do was walk away from the table, but I just thought, they know what they are doing…what I learned out of that was never be afraid to walk away from the table. After that, I have never signed a contract the first time, I don’t care what it is. I don’t agree to anything the first time, let me think about it…”
Thoughts on the comments from fans he reads across the internet: “You know, I read a lot if what people write on YouTube, as obviously I have my DDP TV videos, which is hundreds of them…and people write a lot of comments. I also read when there is something I said in an interview…now I don’t remember the article, but you know, you get these jerk offs that go online and they think they know the business…I don’t know who they are, but there are certain people who just don’t like me no matter what I do, for whatever reason…I get that, not everybody is going to like you, but when they just write stupid sh*t, I can’t help but laugh…No matter how rude some of the comments can be, I find it entertaining…”
In addition to these points, during these two interviews, DDP discussed his start in the business with the AWA, working as a manager for the Freebirds, Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin, a car ride he had with Hayes and Jerry Jarrett, meeting many of the WWF Superstars from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s in his nightclub, how he wound up driving the pink Cadillac for Rhythm and Blues at WrestleMania 6, his work at the Power plant in WCW, the evolution of his character in WCW, being put in the program with Randy Savage and what that feud meant to his career, being the “first to get to” Scott Hall and Kevin Nash during the nWo angle, meeting and working with Karl Malone and Jay Leno, an emotional story he shared with Lanny Poffo when savage passed away, growing up a fan of the WWWF and looking up to Jimmy Valiant, Dusty Rhodes, Bruno Sammartino, and Superstar Billy Graham, memories of legends such as Andre the Giant, Blackjack Mulligan, Dick Slater, Dick Murdoch, Paul Orndorff and others, where he sees DDP Yoga going as he develops a new app, his recent appearance in the TV show, “Shark Tank,” stars that have been using DDP Yoga including Scott Hall, Jake Roberts, Lance Storm, Chris Jericho, Lex Luger, and more, running into Ric Flair and making amends to put any “heat” they had behind them, his thoughts on Roberts getting a Hall of Fame nod and returning on “Old school Raw,” and much, much more.
WGD Weekly with Steve and the Scum interviews a different legend from “Wrestling’s Glory Days” every week as a part of their show. You can find all of their previous shows and get updates and information on upcoming programming on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/WGDWeekly or on Twitter @WGDWeekly. All shows are available on their YouTube channel and on iTunes.
