Diamond Dallas Page is an actor, yoga instructor, and retired professional wrestler. But not just any professional wrestler. DDP has been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, is a 3-time world champion, a published author, and the founder of DDPYoga. AND he’s joining Kevin + Steph this week (and next!) to answer some of Kevin’s most pressing wrestling questions.  Is it real? Who scripts the match? How do they decide who wins and loses?

Dallas has story after story about Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, The Macho Man Randy Savage, living with Stone Cold Steve Austin, and what it was like to become the wrestling World Champion at the age of 41!!!

This is part 1 of an amazing conversation with former professional wrestler,  Diamond Dallas Page.

Connect with DDP:
Website: diamondallaspage.com
Instagram: @diamonddallaspage
Facebook: @officialddp

To connect with Kevin + Steph:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter

📘 Their book titled ‘You Met Her WHERE?!’ can be ordered here:  👉 kevinandsteph.com/shop/ 

Access the Show Transcript Here

Transcript

Introducing Diamond Dallas Page: Wrestling’s Inside Scoop

[0:00] Hello friends, welcome to another episode of tell us a good story.
Do you believe that professional wrestling is real or fake?
Who predetermines the match and how do they decide who wins and loses?
These questions will be answered and more by our next guest, three time world champion and WWE Hall of Famer, Diamond Dallas Page.
You guys, I will admit I’m not the biggest wrestling fan. However, you don’t have to be to enjoy this next conversation with this amazing man DDP.
He has story after story after story about his personal life, professional wrestling and his fitness company that is completely changing people’s lives.
He had so many stories that we actually had to cut this up into two episodes.
Yes. And for those of you who are wrestling fans, you will love this.
DDP gives us stories about Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage being roommates with Stone Cold Steve Austin in the night he became a world wrestling champion at the age of 41.
You guys we can’t wait for you to hear part one of our conversation with Diamond Dallas Page.

Overcoming Challenges: From Electrocution to Cancer Diagnosis

[1:07] I’m Kevin and I’m Stephanie and during our marriage we have dealt with an electrocution, a brain tumor, brain surgery, then doctors telling us that children were not in our future, followed by miscarriage and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis. However today we live a life completely healed and restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible. And we’re here to tell stories that inspire, give hope and brighten your day. Welcome to tell us a good story.

Importance of Subscribing and Sharing on Social Media

[1:35] Okay, friends, before we get to this episode, just a friendly reminder to please hit the subscribe button on YouTube and Apple podcast or give us a review. Five stars, please. In our world, this is super, super important, because it will help with the algorithm to make it easier for people to find us.
And thank you for sharing our post across your social media.
That really helps with engagement and with us getting guests. Yes.
So hey, if you want us to keep working our way up to talking to Chip and Joanna, please share us with your friends.
But regardless, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.
Steph.
Oh, he’s so nice. He’s so nice. Oh, I love him already. He’s even nicer than I was expecting.
This is going to be so much fun. I’m so excited.
Well, friends, our next guest is a retired professional wrestler, fitness instructor, actor and founder of DDP Yoga. And in the course of his wrestling career, which spanned two decades, he was a three time world champion. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to tell us a good story.
Diamond Dallas page.

Overcoming Doubt and Age in Wrestling

[2:39] Well, Dallas, let me let me start just because of this right here. No, I’m working this way.
I didn’t start wrestling until I was 35. My career took off when I was 40.
And in the beginning, they laughed at my face. You know, you’re too old.
You can’t do it at this level. And by the time you learn it, you’ll be too old.

[2:58] I was always trying to find ways to hold back the hands of time, hence GDP Yoga, et cetera, et cetera.
But I don’t want to spoil this for anybody, but wrestling’s predetermined. I have no…
You know, when they get to pick who wins and loses, if they don’t believe in you, you don’t get to win that much.
Right. In a world that’s predetermined, how do you get to be a Hall of Famer?
And when I won my first world title, which is, like, our Oscar.
It was six days after my 43rd birthday.
Like, how did that happen?
Well, one of the things that will become infectious with especially wrestling crowds, like, if it’s me and an opponent, third person are the people.
Like, they call it the 12th man in football. Right, yes. That’s what it’s like in wrestling, and wrestling fans are ravenous.
And finding a way to connect with them in this finishing maneuver, which is how if I got to beat a bottom guy who means nothing, you knew he was going to lose, whatever.
When I did, I would use my finishing maneuver called the diamond cutter, and it came out of nowhere.
How I made myself, I knew before I would do the diamond cutter, I would throw this up. Okay.
In the beginning, I would throw it up, bang, I bring it down.

[4:21] I did it night after night after night. Nobody did it.
And I filmed every match I ever had. I would always over-film them.
I kept them because I had Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Before he was Stone Cold Steve Austin, doing play-by-play and coloring.
Kevin Nash and Mick Foley. I had the biggest Hall of Famers in the world on these tapes.
But every night, we’d go to the room, drink some beers, and we’d talk about it.
And then I’d over-tape them.
Oh, no. But what happened one night, when I drew it up, I watched a father and a daughter start to do this, sitting down, I could see them, because there wasn’t a lot of people there.
And when I came right back down, they came down. So I thought, oh, next time I’m on TV, when I threw it up, I held it up for three, two, one.

The Rise of the Diamond Cutter

[5:17] Bang.
Well, 50 to 100 people threw it up and some of them even did the bang.
Because you could see it in the crowd, it goes on TV.
And then it became 500 people, and then it became 1,000 people.
And then I’d start to beat some of the guys who meant nothing.
And how I made people care is I made the other guy look really good.
Okay. And it looked like, and I was a bad guy at the time.
I made him look really good, look like, oh my God, he’s going to beat him, he’s going to beat him.
And then out of nowhere, bang, I hit the diamond cutter.
And people would pop out of their seats. There’s a point where I hit the diamond cutter, and the entire side of the building jumped out of their seat and throw up the diamond cutter.
That’s awesome. It engoed the guys who write, we call them the booking committee.
Okay. Fitz McMahon would be the guy who oversees Triple H, should be the guy who oversees the WWE, but there’s still people in there pitching other people.

[6:13] Well, they call that the booking committee. Well, I couldn’t be denied because at some point I would go out and throw this on my entrance.
I’d throw it up, literally count three, two, one, 20,000 people threw it up.
So it made the booking committee see that, oh, he’s getting over with the people.
We should do something for them.
So that’s how it happened. So that’s a huge trademark for me.

The Origin of the Name Dallas Paige

[6:40] That’s awesome. Hey, did your name come from your love of the Dallas Cowboys?
Is that true?
Yeah. It is. It is.
My original name was Paige Joseph Falkenberg, and I knew that that was never going to draw any money. So I like the name Dallas. I love the Cowboys.
I love the, you know, the name Dallas. I love my own name, Paige.

[7:05] So I put it together and it’s interesting because no one, not my wife, not my family, my, you know, not my best friends are allowed to call me Paige in front of other people who don’t know me because, oh, that’s his real name. I’ll call him Paige. Like, no. Dallas Paige is my name.
I changed it 28 years ago because this is the brand, Diamond Dallas Paige. So, I don’t want to confuse people. You know, plus I changed it, you know, 28 years ago. And the main reason I did that was because the cop had pulled me over speeding and came around the side and said license registration. I was like, uh, he went, Alice Payne.
Why do I know that name? And I went, GDP! And he handed me back my license.
Really? As soon as you put the sign up? He knew right away because he grew up with me.
Okay. So I’ve never got a ticket.

[8:04] Since I became Diamond Dallas Page, rock on wood, I’ve never gotten a ticket. There’s a lot of cops.
Watch wrestling. If you were a kid from the, especially the 90s, wrestling was the hottest thing on television, on cable television. So it was a lot of fun. I lived a dream. I’ve lived five lives. All right, Steph, I’m going to test you again here. What is your favorite book of all time? Obviously it’s the Bible, Kevin. Yes. Nailed it. Very good. This time you didn’t say the book We wrote called you met her where but it’s still a really good book That is true and it would make a great gift for friends or relatives on their birthday or for Christmas friends You can order your copy of our book titled you met her where at Kevin and Steph calm and we will make sure to personally Sign a copy for you or whoever you want and as always thank you for listening to tell us a good story.

Behind the Curtain: Pre-Performance Nerves and Mental Preparation

[9:02] Before you went out on stage or to the ring were you nervous were you excited were you mentally thinking?
Okay, I can’t forget this move. I have to remember the sequence of events.
Like, how were you behind stage? Right before that music hits.
I said, I broke my back at 42, ruptured my L4 and L5.
And three months later, I came back. I came up with, they said I was never gonna wrestle again.
Three months later, I would develop DDP yoga.
The infancy, so I would be doing that before I ever went out.
And I’m doing great moves and stretches and holding my foot over my head for like 30 seconds.
And then the other side, doing things like that.
And I had, I normally would have, you know, some really hard rock playing in my headphones.
And I’m not, I’m just thinking about going out there and blowing people away.

The intricacies of wrestling as performance and improvisation

[9:57] Wrestling is predetermined, the finish, meaning the ending. And then there’s a part where the preparation of laying out an outline.
But it’s preparation and improvisation. Okay. Because what worked in one night.
May not be working in another night. Then it’s like the magic trick that you don’t really see the guys talking to each other.
Some of them never do.
They just expect you to remember things, and I hated that.
I never stopped talking out there because I wanted to make sure we were both safe because we’re trying not to hurt each other.
Right. But when that red light’s on, meaning the cameras, it’s coming, it’s coming hard.
So, what’s the longest match you were ever part of?
I had many matches that were over 30 minutes. What? That’s a long time.
That’s so long. That’s endurance there, Dallas.
Man, one of my matches would be like a normal person having anywhere from six to eight car accidents in a day because you can’t fake gravity.
Right. They don’t hit people in the heads with chairs really anymore because, you know, the concussion thing, which I can’t tell you how many concussions I had.

The use of props and the reality of the physicality in wrestling

[11:19] But back then, if I was gonna wrestle you and we were backstage, I would’ve walked up to you and I’m gonna go, listen, I’m gonna say I’m sorry right now.
You know, and his reaction would have been, don’t make it look weak, like, bring it.
Really?
Oh, yes. Sell it. Like I’m gonna hit you in the middle of the chair, not on the edge, which is what you open, but in the middle, it’s gonna sound great.
It’s gonna hurt like, like people say, how do you fake chair shots? I said, you don’t.
Fake is such a strong word to say because 90% of the things we do, what you see, they’re not fake.

[12:03] They’re real impact. going off the top of the rope and landing you on the floor. And the guy moves.
He hits a mat this thick and concretes underneath. Like every single year, even though we’re trying not to hurt each other, there’ll be broken necks, plural, broken backs, toward ACLs and meniscus in our knees, toward rotator cuffs in our shoulders, toward biceps.
Like a lot of the guys, especially the bigger guys, who are really trying to hold on a muscle, it’s like a shark attack.
You’ll see their chest has no muscle there because it’s been torn away.
They don’t have a bicep. They don’t have a tricep. I mean, it’s the same thing in football.
Like what you see, like NFL linemen go through as much abuse as we do because they hit every down.
In practice, they hit. But here’s what blows me away, Dallas.

The grueling schedule of professional wrestlers

[12:59] Professional athletes, NFL, they get an off season.
You don’t. Wrestling continues the entire time. So when you were touring, what were the most number of days you would be on the road in a given year?
You know, it was really bad for those guys in the 80s. But I’m going to wrestle in a month, probably 26 days in a month.
I used to call 37 hours at home.
I also called it Humpty Dumpty Day. Right, grab all the king’s horses and all the king’s men and put DDP back together again.

[13:37] You know, and my chiropractor, who was an applied kinesiologist, he was magical and he still is today. I flew him out to eight pay-per-views and ready to rumble. And DDP yoga, my workouts, I call DDP why? Why? Because I want people to stop calling it just effing yoga.
That’s why, because yoga, it’s a piece, absolutely. And it’s really yoga for people who wouldn’t be caught dead doing yoga, because that was me.
Now, I respect and love all types of yoga today.
And I respect them all.
I don’t do them all, I do my own, because my own works for me.
And I can take, can you still see me standing up here, if I can’t see myself?
I can take any point in time, grab either one of my feet, pull it out in front of me, pull my foot over my head, and have a conversation with you at six foot four, 226 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal.

[14:43] And I will be 68 years young in five more months.
Well done, Dallas. Well done, sir. Steph, what is one of the most asked questions we get about tell us a good story?
Do I really get that excited? Besides that one.
Oh, how do we get all these incredible guests? Correct.
And some of our best conversations have been with guests who our listeners have reached out to us and said, you should talk to this person.
To name just a few, Nick Vujicic, Coach Tom Ryan, Carol Motyka were all recommendations from our listeners.
So if there’s someone you would like us to interview and think they might be a great fit for Tell Us a Good Story, please let us know at KevinandSteph.com.
You don’t even have to personally know them. True, but do me a favor, before you submit their names, please make sure they are still alive.
That has actually happened and it is super hard for me to find their contact information.
But regardless, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

Listener recommendations and how guests are chosen

[15:40] All right, listeners, for those of you who couldn’t see what he just did, He literally stood up from his desk, grabbed his left leg, and put it pretty much at the height of his head. Yeah. He’s like a Y here. So and like you said, he’s 67 years old, soon to be 68. Very impressive. All right, Dallas. So Steph had an idea. We’ve done this with a few guests, only a handful of guests. She wants to throw out a handful of wrestlers to see if you have a good story about them. And so I’m sure you probably do on a lot of these. But this is fascinating.
Like you said, you’ve lived five lives. So let us know if you had a good story about any of these people. All right. All right. My first one’s Andre the giant. You know, I, he was out of, out of my league. I only got to meet him once. He was like, he came before me, but when I met Andre, he’d come and made an appearance at 46. This poor guy had the cup or kelp and walk.

[16:36] And when he was in his twenties, he was one of the greatest athletes ever. I saw a lot of people He was a zombie, big and strong, but he could do anything, man.
It’s a shame most giants like that.
They don’t live that long. He died at 46 or 47. Gosh, seven foot four.
He was a beast. How about Jake the Snake?

Jake “The Snake” Roberts as Dallas’ mentor and inspiration

[17:00] Yes. Did you have any stories about any snakes get out of the cages?
Were guys afraid to wrestle him because they’re going to throw the snake on top of them? How did that work?
Well, for starters, you guys have not seen The Resurrection of Jake Snake.
And you need to go on Amazon Prime, and you need to watch that.
We have another documentary called Relentless up there. I’ve seen both. They are fantastic. Yes.
So, Jake was my mentor.

[17:29] I tried wrestling when I was 23, didn’t work out for me, hurt my knee, I had to take some time down, but I got a chance to run my first little rock and roll bar, and that was in 1979.
WrestleMania started happening in the 80s, and I was so mad at myself that I didn’t pay my dues, and I stopped watching wrestling until one night I was clicking the channels, and I watched a guy walk out, and he had a bag over his shoulder, and a cool Fu Manchu.
I mean, Jake Walkwood’s why, like, he just had that presence.
And I’m like, who is this guy? And then I watched his, what we call work.
Like, we don’t call it wrestling. We call it work. We’re working together.
You know, I watched his work in the ring, and I couldn’t see through it.
I’m like, did I miss something? Like, is this real?
Like, Jake was… Then he cut a promo afterwards.
I mean, he was scary. I mean, he was so he was serious as a heart attack, you know, so he stopped me in.

[18:34] To be a wrestling fan again number 30 or 31 I think 30 and, Then by this time, it’s 1986 I’m running a huge nightclub that I own a small piece of in Fort Myers, Florida and Jake Roberts walks in my club when we’re packed one night and, And I was in the office, I reached for my keys to get something.
We had two monitors, front door and a back door.
And I remember, like, I’m a huge fan of this guy at this time.
And I see a guy walk in the door, looks like Jake the Snake Roberts.
I’m like, no way. And I start to go in towards the club, but the club’s got a thousand people in it.
So I run around the outside of the building, and I walk up to my doorman and I go, go, Johnny, did a guy walk in here and look like Jake the Snake Roberts?
Like, yeah, Paige, everybody thinks it’s him.
So I’d run, but I can’t take it off to go in there like the biggest fanboy ever.
And I see him and I slow down. Yeah, I’ll be cool.
You know, a little fanboy all over Jake Roberts. Worked my way over to him, and at some point, I got to him, I went, hey, man, are you Jake the Snake Roberts?

A casual conversation at a bar begins

[19:46] Who wants to know? I said, the guy who runs this place. He goes, yes.
What can I do for you? So what are we drinking?
And we got pretty pie, dot, not. We had a good time.
He would tell all the boys. You know, that’s what we call ourselves.
The boys, the girls call themselves the girls.

[20:06] If you worked Miami one night and then you work Tampa the next, that’s 300 miles. Okay.
Fort Myers was right in the middle and the WWE in the 80s would work Miami and Florida probably three or four times a year, at least three. The guys would come through. One night, Ted DiBiase came by, the Million Dollar Man. Can you see that? That’s the Bushwhackers. Later that night, after the club had closed, We’re doing upside down to peel.
But Jake had told them, you got this cool guy, he’ll take care of you.
Nobody paid for anything.
But the guys kept coming in and that was part of me wanting. I stuck with her.
I should have paid my dues. And that’s where I came up with the idea of becoming a manager.
As opposed to at 31, I thought I was too old to wrestle. even though four years later, I would start my journey as a wrestler at 35.
At the time, I thought I was too old to wrestle. And later, Jake, yeah, he would just become my mentor.
And if it wasn’t for Jake, we’re not talking right now.
I would say without Jake, the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes, there is no Diamond Dallas Page.

Stone Cold Steve Austin and Dallas Page’s roommate adventures

[21:25] How about Stone Cold Steve Austin? Was he your roommate?
Yeah. He was? Yes. He was wrestling a couple years before me, but when I became a wrestler, he had come in and he saw my work ethic and my heart.
He didn’t drive with many people, but he would drive with me.
Back then, we drank beers and drove. We just did. I would have ice bags on my knees and on my back, and I would have ice bandages around the ice bag, And he would have me put his beers inside my face on the ice bag.
And one of my favorite stories of him was, I’ve got this gorgeous condo in L.A., and my first wife and I had split up and still best friends today.
But we had moved on, and I just got this condo. And I called them up, and I said, listen, I don’t want to really talk about this, but me and Cib split up.
I got an extra room. I know you want to come out and do the Hollywood thing.
I said, if you do, I got room for you.
Don’t tell me right now. Think about it. Let me know.
I hung up the phone, he called me back, he said, kid, that room still good?
I said, yeah. He goes, I want it.

[22:50] So I had my friend Marlon give him the keys and the thing for the garage and all that stuff.
And when I get back to my house, there is everywhere.

[23:05] Clothes, there’s Petunia cups, there’s fly. It looked like a bomb blew up.

Wrestling legends and a safe haven at Dallas Page’s house

[23:12] And he was watching football when I walked in.
I went, Steve, great to see you, bro. I’ve been living with Mrs. Clean for the last 13 years.
I said, bro, you gotta pick up your, yo, you’re.
Oh, sorry, bro, sorry, bro, sorry.

[23:34] Steve, that had to be the safest place on the vlog. in Stone Cold Steve Austin in the same room.
No one’s going in there breaking in or anything. There’s no crime in there.
No. There’s a big star today in wrestling. He has been for over a decade.
His name is The Miz. Yes. And, well, he’d done real world for MTV, but in the wrestling world, he was no one.
But my friend, Rich Bassman, had a little independent league that wrestled all over Vegas, you know, in Nevada.
And I said, Rick, I’m just gonna go to TNA, Impact Wrestling, you know, just cause I wanted to show people what I can do at 49 years old.
And I said, can you send me one of your boys? He said, sure.
So he sends me this guy named Mike and he goes by The Miz.
And we go and we work out and he’s pretty good. And you know, I’m having him do a bunch of stuff for me.
And at some point I go, so what do you want to do?

[24:29] He goes, what do you mean? I said, let me, let me teach you some stuff.
What do you, what do you want to learn?
So we worked for a while. And then on the way home, when he dropped me off, like he has no idea I live with Stone Cold Steve Austin. No, I said, I said, you want to come in for a beer?
He’s like, absolutely.
And when we walked into the house on the porch was Steve and Kevin Nash.
So he walked into like, oh my God, you know.
He tells the story all the time. He was going to be one of the biggest, one of the biggest names in the business. Yes, it’s like wrestling heaven there in that house.

Sharing and Disregarding the Podcast

[25:11] If you like what you hear, please tell someone about us. As soon as this episode is over, go tell your spouse, your closest friend, a parent, a coworker, or share one of our posts on social media. However, if you don’t like what you’re hearing, please do not. Don’t tell anyone.
Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anybody. Just disregard this message.
Don’t worry about it. Forget about us.
Yep. Go on with your merry day. And to get more information about us or our entire catalog of episodes, be sure to check us out at kevinandsteph.com.
Thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[25:41] So for all of our guests, Dallas, I like to give a list of fun facts to let listeners know what you’ve done, what you’ve accomplished.
And Steph is not aware of any of these. So you’re gonna see her genuine reaction, Dallas, and this will spur in some conversation.
You’ve already taken a few of my fun facts away, but that’s okay. Ah, ah, ah, ah.
So like he said, Steph, Dallas did not start wrestling until the age of 35.
He was the oldest rookie in pro wrestling history. And Dallas, if I’m off on any of these, please let me know. Close enough.
The oldest one who really made it big. Okay.
Dallas won his first WCW World Heavyweight Championship on April 11th, 1999 in Tacoma, Washington.
It was a four corner match that involved him, Ric Flair, Sting, Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
Wow. So Dallas, yes sir. Correction. No, I have a story for you off of that.
Please, that’s what I was gonna ask. Tell us about that.

Dallas’ Inspirational Story and Determination to Become World Champion

[26:35] So my favorite story to tell is, Dusty Rhodes, ever since we met and bonded as brothers in 1989, he would always be there for me to talk about psychology of the business, because that’s really what it is, getting people to emote.
Good, yelling, screaming, booing, cheering, chanting your name, getting people to get involved.

[27:01] We had so many talks about so many things. One night, I was just picking up a storm, Because the writers, the bookers, weren’t giving me an opportunity to be a top guy.
Like, even get to the middle, they weren’t, I’d worked my way to the bottom of the middle, they just didn’t see it.

[27:23] And it frustrated me. And I can remember saying, Dusty, you know, I know I’m never going to be you, or Flair, or Hogan.
I know I’m never going to be the world champion.
I was excited, I was like, Dallas, enough!

[27:38] What did you just say? And now I feel kind of stupid, I’m like, it was known as the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes.
I said, well, Dream, I said, I know I’m never gonna be you, or Rick, or no, Dee, what did you say after that?
I said, well, I know I’m never gonna be a world champion. Then what the hell are you doing aboard Dallas?
It’s hard as you work as much as you come in this business.
If you don’t believe you could be the world champion, you need to get the hell out of my business right now.
And I feel like he reached into the phone and just slapped me.
And he kept yelling at me. But I can’t tell you a thing you said after that.
But I can tell you exactly what I did.

Fulfilling the Dream: Winning the World Championship

[28:19] There was a ledger pad next to the phone and I grabbed it and I pulled it over and I wrote on it, Diamond Dallas Page will be the heavyweight world champion being in five years or less, and I’m dating it.

[28:35] It was four years, four months, and 14 days later, that I step in the ring with the nature boy, Ric Flair, the immortal Hulk Hogan, and the franchise of the company, The Stinger.
Well, that night I stepped in a ring with the nature boy, who is, to me, the greatest ever, in our business, because he could do everything at its highest level.
He took the diamond cutter in the middle. And two years earlier, I beat Randy Savage on the same pay-per-view the day after my 41st birthday.
And Randy Savage was a guest referee and he handed me that world title.
He was like, you are the kid. And it was like, because that’s like being awarded your Oscar.
It wasn’t just somebody who was a nobody, not even, no one gets the world champions, nobody at the bottom of the barrel. It was the highest levels of the barrel.
What it proved to me, and inside my Hall of Fame ring.

[29:46] It says, work ethic equals dream. Explanation point, DDP.
That’s what it proved to be. So when you win that title, how is it behind the scenes?

Behind the Scenes: Reactions and Respect from Peers

[30:01] I mean, your life changes from a fan perspective, but how is it behind the scenes?
Is there jealousy? Are people like super happy for you? How does that work?
Everybody, outwardly, no matter what.
I mean, I get a steady ovation, people hugging me.
Now, one of the things I did during that match, his whole kind of really bad knee, he had to go in for surgery.
He had me do the Bret Hart figure four lock on the ring post, which put him out.
Okay. And so he was back there ahead of me.
And when I walked into our locker room, he was sitting there like the warlord that he is.
I mean, he’s one of the greatest of all times and on every level.
Wasn’t like the technical wrestler that Blair was, but he got the people just as involved.
And people believed him, and saw him as just what he is. He’s an icon, you know?
And here’s his knee braces laying on the ground, and he’s in his shorts, and he looks up at me, and he goes, this is the way this business is supposed to operate.
That someone like you, that no one thought could ever be anything in this business.

[31:13] Works so hard that you transcend the business and you are the world champion.
He goes, that’s what this is supposed to be about. He got up and hugged me.
It was super cool. That’s a powerful moment for you in your wrestling career.

Powerful Moments and Encouragement to Follow the Podcast

[31:32] No kidding. It was as powerful as Dusty jumping up my butt.
Completely different.
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