July 10, 2024 • 49 mins
In this electrifying episode of; "BARGUMENTS THE PODCAST, hosts Dan "Bass" Levy and Joe Kelly are joined by WWE Hall of Famer, author, public speaker, and the powerhouse behind DDP Yoga and Power Cuffs, Diamond Dallas Page! Get ready for an action-packed discussion as they dive into the greatest moments in wrestling history, debate the best wrestling finishers of all time, and explore the ultimate fitness showdown between yoga and traditional training.
DDP shares his personal insights and experiences from his legendary wrestling career, who really is responsible for the rise and downfall of the WCW and his outstanding Macho Man impression. Whether you're a die-hard wrestling fan or just love a good debate, this episode is sure to entertain and inspire.
Once again, please continue to share the Barguments the Podcast with neighbors and friends, and make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode of the show. And while you are at it, please give us a 5-star rating and share your feelings about Bargumentst by leaving a review on whatever platform you listen to the show.
DDP shares his personal insights and experiences from his legendary wrestling career, who really is responsible for the rise and downfall of the WCW and his outstanding Macho Man impression. Whether you're a die-hard wrestling fan or just love a good debate, this episode is sure to entertain and inspire.
Once again, please continue to share the Barguments the Podcast with neighbors and friends, and make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode of the show. And while you are at it, please give us a 5-star rating and share your feelings about Bargumentst by leaving a review on whatever platform you listen to the show.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Arguments is recorded in front of alive studio audience. What's up, everybody,
Welcome in to another exciting addition ofArguments. I'm your host, Dan
Levy alongside with me as always myco host Joe Kelly. What up Joe?
Hello? Dan. This is thepodcast where we argue about the silliest,
most pointless topics imaginable, just likeyou went with your peep center,
(00:22):
your favorite bar, barbecue or barbariashop. And also we have a guest
today, a former WW superstar,WWE Hall of Famer, public speaker,
author, owner of DDPY and PowerCops, Ladies and Gentlemen, Diamond Dallas
Page. What up, Dallas?What's up? Brother? Thanks? Thanks
for coming on the pot. Howare you, sir? I've been good
(00:45):
man, just been really busy ofbuilding a building, a DDP YO to
retreat down in Panama City Beach.It's like a boutique hotel and got like
seven rooms, seven king sized roomsfor people when they want to come down
and join my retreat for a week. Uh. I took the top floor,
its four floors and uh we werebuild up for about the last year
(01:08):
and a half. So it's gettingclose and getting close. So I'm excited
about you. Ever been to PanamaCity Beach. I've never been, but
I am now. It's super sweet. Uh yeah, it's right down the
road really from did you you rememberthe movie Truman and Jim Carrey of course,
yeah, that was That's an areacalled thirty A, which is about
(01:32):
thirty miles north of there, andPanama City is a That's where we used
to wrestle when we would go toPanama City Beach that we would Uh there
was a club there called Club Lavilaand all these crazy you could fit like
three thousand kids, and you know, and you know for for spring break
(01:52):
and we would be wrestling. Theyput wrestling rings in the pool and you
know, so you come out,you had your enter its, you got
in the ring and it didn't moveor anything. It was completely stable.
I remember one time Sting came in. This is all shot from eight o'clock
at night to eleven in the morningand Sting dropped from a helicopter. You
(02:14):
know, he he did the oldthing where he slides down. I don't
know what they call that, repellingrepelling it was. It was a crazy
stunt that it was so many thingsthat could have gone wrong. With the
wind and everything, but he,thank God, nothing happened to him.
That is unbelievable. Now I wantto I love to talk about more about
(02:35):
that stuff. But the a coupleof things that has always stood out to
me about you. Number One,you went from a bouncer to a wrestling
superstar. Tell people I actually went. I actually went from a bouncer.
I went from a day crew guyto a bouncer, to a bartender,
to a manager to a part ownerof a club, of a club in
(02:58):
Fort Myers, Florida. And that'sthe place that Jacob Snake Roberts walked into.
And it lit something under me.And then he's told because I took
such good care of him. Hetold all the other boys if they were
coming through, like if you workedMiami and then you work Tampa, that's
(03:23):
three hundred miles and so Fort Myersis right there in the middle. And
uh next thing, you know,I'll show you. You can see the
picture. This is a picture ofuh wow. The Bushwhacker put this up
on his U on his uh atFacebook and he said DDP before he was
(03:44):
DDP. That's that's Luke Bushwhacker andTed dbi Assi and a million dollar man.
And later that night we're doing upsidedown to Kila Shooters so awesome.
And before it was before you actuallydid all that was it? I mean,
obviously you mentioned the sagety helped thingsmove along with you. Bubba.
(04:05):
No, no he did it.No he didn't. All he did was
like a fire. Okay, onlydid we see. I tried to wrestle
when I was twenty three. Ihad three matches. I hurt my knee,
and I mean it was horrible asgreen as green as graun and I
hurt my knee and my doctor waslike, does this take about thirty days
(04:27):
off? Maybe sixty? And thenyou go back and do that crazy you
know shit you're doing. And uh, and that's when I first got my
first opportunity at twenty three years oldto run this little rock and roll joint
and the booze, the broads andthe party. You know, I completely
(04:48):
forgot about wrestling, and uh.I went from there to Houston, Texas
and did a bunch of clubs downthere. You see, when you're a
bouncer, what you start at andI'm looking at the manager, Well we'll
back that up when you're about whenyou're going to a nightclub, and it's
(05:11):
so hard, you know, inthe beginning, especially when you're young.
And I was eight keen at thetime. You know, you get chicks.
You know, you're trying to pickup chicks and like, get away
from me. When I started asa bouncer and I was just the fill
it, I was still seventeen atthe time. But they didn't, you
know, they didn't you know,they just said, you know, bege,
you want to talk because I'm sixfour, you know, so they
(05:33):
just assumed I was older. SoI say, we needed a couple extra
bouncers night. You want to work? I said, absolutely, So I
got this shirt on that says Jimmyburn segur it in And the same chicks
who wouldn't take a second look atme were walking up and talking to me
(05:54):
because all of a sudden you hadthe club and d and it changed the
economy. The bartender, but themanager, the manager, I can say
whatever I want on this podcast.The manager fucks everything, you know.
And I'm looking at my manager atthe time, and I'm thinking, man,
(06:16):
John ain't got no game, andhe had some good looking dude.
He's like just a regular Joe.He's got pussy all over him, man,
and I'm like, I want thatjob. And next thing you know,
I've got that job. And I'mtwenty three years old. And like
I said, the booze, thebroads and the party took me in a
(06:38):
different direction. And to be honest, I completely forgot about wanting to be
a wrestler. I would still watch. I forgot about it until WrestleMania happened
and I was we had celebrated thefortieth anniversary. So this is over forty
(06:58):
years ago, right, yeah,yeah, fringing WrestleMania happens and it's such
a spectacle. I was so madat myself for not sticking with it.
And this is like five years later, four or five years later, and
I'm running big clubs now big clubs, right, and I'm so pissed that
(07:24):
myself. I wouldn't even if Istart wrestling, I just keep turning it.
I don't want to even see theshit. Until one night I was
flicking the channels and I see GuerrillaMonsoon and I see this dude the dew
rag and crazy sunglasses and a leathercoat and a boa, and I'm like,
who the hell is this guy?And it was Jesse the body Ventura.
(07:46):
I mean, he captivated me.And then the first guy to walk
through the curtain had a bag overhis shoulder and a fu manchee and it
was Jake Sneak Roberts, And I'mlike, who the hell is this guy?
Like he had swag like before anybodyeven knew what the hell that was.
(08:07):
The way he walked, he walkedwith purpose, and when he got
in the ring, the way heworked in the ring, he made me
believe it was real. And I'vealready know it's a work, you know,
you know it's a work for beinga kid, but when you're actually
doing it, you realize that bigshit hurts, Like hell, yes,
you know. And Jake captivated meand then he cut up promo and I
(08:35):
was like, holy shit, thisguy is real. And then six months
later he walks in my nightclub,and you know, it was like it
was like there was God giving mesigns, you know, or the devil
one of the two give him thesigns of what direction? And like I
(08:56):
said, with Daviyanesty and those guysgive me like a bunch of the boys,
man. So I mean, itwas just crazy how it all came
together one night we were, youknow, after some of the boys ran
and we're sitting in the back drinkingall the all my bartenders counting the money,
and so we do we go back. Why off, it's just like
twelve of them. I mean it'sclub's big, all a thousand people plus,
(09:18):
you know, and a boy inFlorida. Man, I was Diamond
Dallas Page. Here. Here's apicture you guys about picture right, This
is me at my sixty two feetCadillac. There's one diamond doll, another
diamond doll, another diamond doll.By the way, look somewhere I got.
(09:41):
I got holes in my I gotholes in my jeans. In nineteen
eighty eight before there's a Diamond Dallaspage. So I make that night.
We're talking right, and wrestling ofcourse comes up, and some my my
buddy Smokey, who's my head bartender, walks up, he goes. I
(10:03):
was actually outside of the bar collectingthe drawers with the guys, and my
DJ was playing girls just want tohave fun at Sidney Lapper song, right,
And that was a catapult for wrestlingin nineteen eighty three or four whenever
that was. And I'm watching CaptainLeu Albano up there Nikolai Bolkoff in the
(10:26):
Sidney Laupper video, and I'm thinkingabout I just say to myself, rock
and wrestling. I should have beena part of that. And I'm walking
to the back and Smoky walks upright behind me and he goes, Page
Jet my real name was before Ichanged it in Dallas. Page was Page
Joseph Faulkenberg. And I knew thatname was never gonna draw any money.
(10:48):
Yeah, so I said I wouldcome for him. I would come for
him. Yeah, I'll bring it. So I So, Smoky says,
Paige, what do you mean youshould have been rock and wrestling? You
should have been a part of it. I go, you heard that.
He goes, yeah, I heard. I was standing right behind you,
and he goes, what do youmean. I go, well, I
(11:09):
tried it when I was a kid. He goes, you did now at
the time. I'm thirty thirty orthirty one somewhere around there, and he
says, uh, you wrestled Isaid like three times, dude, I
was horrible. He goes, whatwas your name? I said, Handsome
Dallas Page And he said cool.You can forget about using that Kimmick anymore.
(11:33):
And everybody laughed just like you're doing. And I'm not laughing at you.
I'm just laughing at the quote.No, No, it was funny.
It was funny. And you know, at some point, I mean
I got it so far in myhead. And now we're getting buzz,
we're doing shots and beers and youknow, we're all just getting this start
tied the party. You know,it's two three o'clock in the morning now,
(11:56):
And I said, and I startwriting on this this pad. It
sits in front of my desk,a blogger, you know, the days
of the of the month. AndI just start like writing fonetically because I
couldn't read or write really at thatpoint in my life. So how I
don't understand. I wrote Diamond DallasPage and then I write the Diamond Exchange
(12:24):
underneath it. And I said,you know, I'm too old to be
a wrestler, but I could bea manager. I could be Diamond Dallas
Page. Everybody's like, oh yeah, right, a fantasy time, right,
I said, I could have mywrestlers, could be the Diamond Exchange.
So I'm written it down. Atsome point, I say, you
(12:45):
know what, there's not a lotof good look at women in wrestling.
I said, Miss Elizabeth, Yeah, she's good looking, but she's good
like good looking, like next doorlike good looking next door. Check a
girl next door. Check. Isaid, what if I had a whole
stable little ladies and they were stripperhot? And Smokey was like, oh,
(13:05):
that'll be a stretch because I wasdy the Dallas page by bed and
I just wrote it down. Andthe crazy thing that happened is about a
week later, a local cable station, I didn't know it was local cable
at the time, but a localcable station came in and they had an
(13:31):
hour sequence that they called the Partyor half hour sequence that they called the
Party News Network. And what theywould do is they would sell time on
that little space that they had andthey'd put up like five minute things of
different things that were happening in southwestFlorida. And they wanted to do a
(13:54):
thing behind the Norma Jeans that wasa Namber Club Norma Jeans dance up,
and they wanted to do a thingbehind the voice like because I would do
whole COVID impersonations. You know,Randy Savage, you got to do one.
You got Uh, I really can'treally do Hulk. Yeah those at
(14:16):
those brother but with Randy. Ohyet you know like that good uh so,
uh what ended up happening is II do this thing and they show
me in my sixty two pick Cadillac, they show me at the radio studio.
(14:39):
They they showed me. They thinkit's the real guys, right,
And at some point I tell them, you know, because there, you
know, they see me. I'mwearing in wrestle Mania T shirt. I
mean, I'm a fan, youknow, and my hair is just like
you know, long and blonde likeit was in the day. It was
the best that ever was back then. And at some point during the interview,
(15:03):
as it goes to different sequences studio, club, the road, all
that shit, and it goes toDiamond Dalla's page goes where does the name
come from? And I looked down. I even told them my name or
anything. They just know where doesthe voice come from? And I look
down and I see Diamondalla's page onthat bladder and Dan, I tell you
(15:26):
the guy's honest truth. There's apair of white sunglasses sitting next to the
name. If the sunglasses aren't there, I don't know. If I do
it or not, but they are. And the sunglasses became a mask and
I put it on my face andI said, I said, the voice
comes from Diamon Dallas Page did it. I was born to be a professional
(15:46):
wrestling manager. Blah blah blah.And then I switched, took the sunglasses
off and went back to being me. But some guys saw it, and
he was a sports, you know, radio guy, like you do a
podcast he did on the radio,and he invited me on the show and
I'm like, dude, I don'treally do it, you know, it's
(16:08):
just it's just a game. It'san act, and he goes, who
cares, it's it's it's radio.Nobody knows. And I ended up doing
that show with him, and afterdoing it a couple of times, he
was like, man, I wantyou to come. You know, I
think you should send a video tapeto this guy Rob Russon. So I
(16:29):
made up I made up a videotapewith three guys who wanted to be wrestlers.
Here's one of them, that's BigBad John and another one was ted
E Bahre. He was a midget. He came over with the Diamond dolls
and almost rock hard Rick and uh, I did his video tape. I
(16:49):
sent it to the a w Aand that was a Midwestern territory. And
two weeks later they called me andand uh, he's no one had ever
called me Diamond Dallas page before that. And Rob Russon calls me and he
says, hello, it is DiamondDalla's page there and I'm like, whoa,
(17:11):
yeah, it's the DDPU. Who'sthis He goes, is Rob Russell
from the aw A. Hey,listen, we like your your your tape
you sent us and you know,we want to bring you and your boys
in for a tryout. But we'vegot one question. Were you guys working
And I said, well there's oneproblem there, Rob, but none of
(17:34):
those guys can wrestle. He's like, what why would you send the tape
in? And uh, bottom lineis ringing. They don't call us,
We'll call you. But as luckwould have it, Paul Hayman, who
is you know, just went inthe Hall of Fame last year or this
year, who's big in the Hallof faper his whole life, he's so
(17:56):
good. But he left the AWA, went to the NWA, left a
huge void for a young guy andthat's how I got my first opportunity.
That is unbelievable. WCW, youwere a giant part of that. There's
been a documentary about everything that's goneon with that. That's I remember being
a giant wrestling fan when I wasa kid. When you were talking about
(18:18):
Jesse the body, that's I thinkwhen I was in my peak, when
I was a Kain. I usedto live in West Harvard, Connecticut,
so wrestling, I mean, everythingwas everything was coming out of there.
We got to watch all kinds ofhouse shows because they would prepare for the
pay per views at those house shows. But later on a live I got
out of it. And then whenI was sixteen seventeen, the attitude ereic
came and I got right back inwith the WCW. We'd watch Rob but
(18:42):
we always loved my buddy, andI would always watch w CW Moore because
you guys had all the guys thatI knew, and you had Goldberg and
the nWo and you. For thosethat are watched that are listening to this
podcast, there's been documentaries. There'sbeen a lot of things said and done
you attribute to the actual rise andthe prominence and this is the guy or
(19:03):
these are the guys that managed dothis, and who would you say is
ultimately responsible for the for the shutdownand for it to its ultimate demise.
Well, first of all, EricBischoff, Well, we got to go
to Ted Turner first, because itwas his idea right not only to put
a primetime show on during the week, but do go ahead to head right,
(19:26):
you know, be a bitchoff.We're super tight back then, so
had you got to give Ted.But it was Eric that pulled it off.
And like he'd already brought in Hull, he brought in Randy and Vince
was starting to start with the parodiesof I don't know if you remember that
(19:52):
when you show Hold like an oldman and Randy like Randy, like Randy
would hold a grudge, like whenMancho died and I was super tight with
March, you know, after ourfeud, you know he really we both
of course, really respect to eachother. But when Randy died, I
(20:15):
called up Lannie and I said,Lannie, which is his brother. I
said, you know, I don'tgo to many funerals, I said,
but I got to go to batches. I got to be there. And
he said, well he said,be honest. He said, Randy loved
you, but no one's going tobe invited except for the family. I
(20:40):
said, oh, okay, noproblem. He goes, No, he
goes. I got to tell youwhat happened. He goes, I am
Randy's dog, Hercules. They askedthat Bully had he had died, and
he had this beautiful plantation in Florida, and he had this seminole tree in
(21:02):
the middle of it, this hugeseminole tree. And we're walking out there
because Randy wants Hercules Ashes to beat the base of this tree. And
he and he said to me,Lanny says. He said, Lanny,
(21:23):
whenever eything happens to me and I'mnot here anymore. I don't want any
bullshit, over the top wrestling fanfear bullshit. I wanted just to be
family. And I want you totake my Ashes, and I want you
to put him right down here nextHeracules. And lanny impression is amazing,
(21:52):
by the way, it's incredible,Yeah, Lanny says, But Rundy your
as his next your dog, yourdog Hercules. And mart said, if
it's good enough for Hercules, it'sgood enough for me. And I laughed,
(22:14):
so hard at the time that Iwas pretty bummed out, you know
that Randy was gone. But itmade me laugh because I could just see
him saying that awesome and and Isaid, Lannie, please and I tell
that story. So he said,he said, uh, Diamond, you
(22:41):
could tell any story you ever want, because I know it's going to be
told with love and respect to Macho. And he said, much to the
sugar. And I'm sure they're goingto put Randy in the Hall of Fame
now, much to the chagrin ofthe Macho man. Like they were starting
(23:03):
to talk to Manch at that time. And I think Hunter could have pulled
it off because Hunter was the architectof bringing in Ultimate Warrior. I don
a lot, Yes, like theypaid him a lot of money to come
back, just because Warrior wouldn't haveany way, I'm sure because like he
(23:26):
I mean they oh god, theway they did the documentary on him,
like the first one where they justbury him. Yes, So Mach was
so mad over those impersonations, likehe held a grudge. Wow, but
if he but if he loved you, then you you know, you were
(23:51):
golden. So I got to tellyou this story about the manchas you liked
the macho and precupression so all dayso nineteen ninety seven because of the nWo,
Kevin and Scott, who I hadreal relationships with, like we I'm
(24:11):
the one who helped bring them in. I'm the one who made the phone
call to see when their contracts wereup, and they were right around the
same time. Awesome, And soI was kind of like the architect of
putting that together for bish And hedidn't really he didn't really let me,
(24:33):
uh oh good, it's a video. Okay, someone's trying to call in
right now. He didn't. Hedidn't really want to bring Kevin Nash in
because when Bischoff took over as theexecutive producer of the show, Kevin asked
for his release, and Bischoff waslike, what do you planning on doing.
(24:57):
I'm going back in the bar business. Yeah, I'm gonna go back
and run strip clubs. And soEric gave him his release. Well,
next thing you know, he's aWWF and they make him Diesel. Later
on it would be Razor. Butit took those guys to get them over
big time the WWE for them tocome back to w CW. So when
(25:22):
you say who is the success.Well Bischoff, Well, Ted Bischoff.
Absolutely. The next ones are Scottand keV. Right when they came on,
that was the hottest thing ever ever. People are still wearing nWo shirts.
(25:47):
They will be wearing them into thenext fucking millennium. And and those
two together were awesome. They werehilarious, they were good. It was
entertainment early on. Then there's apicture of me and Scott Hall when I
when I created that whole look forScott Man, you're huge. Yeah,
(26:07):
yeah, I created that whole lookfor him. The black hair, the
brush cut he got rid of.I had him get rid of, the
wal with mustache. I gave himthat what was for both of us.
The toothpick. We were leaving awaffle house and on the way out the
door, I grabbed two toothpicks andI gave him one, and we're walking
(26:30):
and we're talking. This is hisfirst show on w CW, so he's
going to go out get a winand and and I'm going to kind of
promo afterwards. I told him atthe end, take the toothpick out and
we flick it into the camera andduring the promo, the toothpick falls out
(26:56):
of my mouth, and I waslike, no, because I knew this
was a great gimmick, but itwas supposed to happen because it was meant
for the bad guy. Yes,you know, and I'm the one who
really created and he tells the story. If he was here, I would
(27:17):
let him tell you. He's likeDally, let me tell the story,
let me put you over. Becausehis wife was pregnant with with Cody is
his son Cody at the time,and he couldn't get a callback from WWF
or w CWOW. So I gotMagnum to get Maggum told me he talked
(27:42):
to Dusty. Didn't you know.They gave him two chances and he didn't
get over. Not fair, youknow, not fair because this guy is
so special. But he wasn't readyat the time. And I understand not
being read at the time and thinkingyou are, but you're not. And
(28:04):
so they had washed him off.And I said, Mags, what if
I could completely change his look?He goes, what do you mean?
I said, what if you didn'trecognize him? He goes, you can
do that. I haven't come up. We can't fly him, though,
I said, he'll drive you livedin Orlando. He drove to Atlanta.
(28:26):
When he got there, I hadalready told him about the thing. He
said, the brush cut, helooked like a movie star. But his
hair was this mousey brown, bullshitcolor because I told him to dye it
black and all that, and Itook him to my hair color, so
he used to do my blood highlightsand shit, and she did it up
(28:47):
and I dressed him up in myclothes and he did not look like Big
Scott Hall at all. No onerecognize him. When he got home from
TV the next day, there wasa call on his machine from the w
w F, so they wanted Whenhe called them up, he said,
(29:14):
when you're done with your contract,pat Patterson told him, we got a
spot here for you. Don't resign with anybody that come with us.
Wow. So that that's that's thereality of they. Yeah, as you
remember, they killed everybody like theythey asked them to come to the nWo.
(29:37):
But if they said no, theypummeled you. If if they decided
we don't want you, they pummeledyou. They beat up. No one
touched them for a year and ahalf until we did that angle. And
I told Kevin the idea first becauseI was going to quit. I wanted
my release because they weren't doing anythingwith me, and I thought that I
(30:02):
was better than that. I knewthat. It's kind of like what happened
with Cody Road when he left wW A wwwwwe and went on the Independent
League and then started AE w right, you know, liked They did not
see it, They did not seehim being the guy, but Cody did.
(30:25):
And look at him now, youknow, it's the same ship that
I did when Ian I was readyto go. Let me ask you,
I was ready to leave. Letme ask you real quick. As a
sidebar, what are your thoughts ofwrestling in twenty twenty four? These days?
It is completely different than when youwere there. Yeah, but I
think it's the next evolution of it, you know. And there's no Vince
(30:48):
McMahon, a lot of new ideas, a lot of new people in charge,
new companies and all that stuff.Yeah. Either it's it's the best
time all ourselves, the boys andthe girls. You know, the boys,
this is the best time for money, you know. And what I
(31:10):
tell them all is like, don'tpiss it all away. You're going to
out need it later. All yougot to do is see all these guys,
I mean Kevin Sullivan. We justsaid. You know, I can't
remember. I think Conrad set itup or someone friend of Conrad set it
up for keV because the hospital billsand his insurance, you know, is
(31:32):
running out, so you need soyou know, I reached down and I
not only donate, but I alsospread the word, like you want to
help keV. Let me tell youa lot of that ship you saw.
He was one of the people youcould say was responsible for the success WCW
(31:52):
because he was he was the bookerthrough a lot of that. And I
talked to him the other day.Well, actually I got I called Flair
because there was an opportunity for himthat I thought would help him make a
lot of money. So I calledhim up and I said, listen,
Nat, you know, uh,this is what these guys are doing.
(32:13):
If you want to do it withthem, you know, you know,
should I give him your number orwhat should I do? So he told
me and he said, hey,you should give Kevin give Gomez a call.
He says, Joe Gomez is agood buddy of all of us,
and he worked in the nineties fora little bit. But great guy,
great guy. And he was visitingKevin in the hospital and he said,
(32:37):
just Nate said, just you know, give him some of your positivity and
uh and uh, just let himknow you care. And I hung up
the phone with Nature and I calledGomez right away and I said to Joe,
I said, can you put thephone up to him? He said
yeah, So I said, Isaid, keV, I just want you
(32:58):
to know I love you. Isaid, I know there were times where
we weren't just at each other's throats. And I said, I know you
didn't believe in me back then,but I know it made me better.
And I want you to know Ilove you. And freaking Goment said he's
(33:23):
actually I hear Kevin's voice and he'slike, I'm in you know, you're
right. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't see it, but you
did and good for you. AndI'm so proud of you and what you
did. And I love you.And freaking Gomentz he goes, he just
(33:43):
took the traeout. Wow, sohe could talk like that. That made
me cry, like, oh mygod, But you know he's doing better,
he's doing better, and YO,hopefully he'll completely kick out. So
back to the people who made adifference, like Sully was part of that,
(34:05):
but the biggest part of it wasBischoff, Scott and keV. And
then no one knew who the thirdguy was going to be. There was
no plan going into that, noplan. And me and bish were out
for a couple of beers as always, and he said, guess who wants
(34:28):
to be the third guy? Isaid me, which meant nothing, you
know, But when he said Hulk, I said, Wow, that is
the best. Wow, that isthe best. And Red and Yellow was
(34:51):
getting a little long in the tooththere, but you're talking about one of
the greatest entertainers to me, likethe guys I really love to watch coming
up, you know as a youngman. You know Nature Boy and Dusty
Rhodes, Superstar, Billy Graham,you know, rigging like Hulk. I
(35:16):
mean, how could you not likebe like pulled into all of that hulkism,
you know. So he was hewas, he was away. I
mean, he for me, he'swrestling. But it's often as I was
a kid, I was a kidin the eighties and again I was in
Hartford, Connecticut and whole Cogan,Like I said, when you Todd wrestling,
(35:37):
you cannot say hul Kogan And Ifeel like right now everybody else has
the Rock or Stone Cold. EvenRitt Flair was there too, But for
me, it was like that wasthe Marquis. He's yeah, imman mitzick
Man put it on the map.But he didn't do it alone. No,
he did it with Ronnie Piper.Yes, he did it with Randy
(36:00):
Savage. He did it with AndreSure he did. You know. It
was like who's the next guy?You know? Sure, but you know
Hult coming over and flipping man wC W ted. I should say Turner
(36:20):
Broadcasting got flooded with the phone callsof pissed off parents because mister USA no
longer no longer say your prayers.Yeah, oh my god. You know
(36:43):
when he cut that promo like it, it was right in tune with what
the Rock would do later because itRocky sucks chance. And then he wins
the title and turns heel with VinceMcMahon and he got to say everything he
wanted and before he knew it,they loved him more than ever. Let
(37:10):
me ask you this question, atwhat point in your career, when you
guys are doing it, did somebodysay to you, I know it's the
NBA Finals of playoffs, but wegot Tennis Rodvid what because you hit him
with the chair? You were inthe last dance. They show that highlight
of me with a chair, it'syou with the chair. Yeah, we
(37:31):
were in the back before that moment, getting ready to come out because I'm
going to walk out because what theydidn't say in the last dance Red and
Black was the babyface n w O. Right, what the company should have
been is turned to the nw O. If if if w c W becomes
(37:59):
the n w O, I don'tknow if w w FO wins that war,
but they had put so much moneyinto this stupid new design that they
had looked like a spaceship for WCW. There was millions and millions of dollars
(38:22):
put into that and that was notthe way to go. And bish knew
it, but he couldn't stop it. You want to know, really killed
the company more than anyone fucking AOLand really time Warner with Jamie and I
really believe after watching it and seeingit all play out, that Brad Siegel
(38:47):
was the number one guy even beforeJamie Kilner, because I believe that him
and that guy who came in atthe end, which I didn't know about
the guy who was working for Vince. Like, if you're gonna tell me
that you don't think those two guyswere in cahoots. When you're gonna they're
(39:08):
gonna sell the w c W brandfor four point three million dollars, I'd
have bought that shit right now,you know, Hell yeah, hell yeah,
Vince Richonfon. You know, ifthey did all they had to do
(39:29):
was give him a couple of months, he would have had it on a
different network. No, we're notdoing that. That was Brad Siegel.
You know. I used to thinkthat just Jamie Kildner was his comeback.
I don't blame the guy from thew W if I can't remember his name
because he's the other company. ButSiegel, I blame that fucker and bring
(39:50):
in Jamie Kilner After watching it andseeing him squirm, you know, I
thought he was one of us,and Jamie Kilner is a bad guy.
But after I realized the whole story, like, wow, that piece of
shit, you know so, andI'm not for me because I knew my
crew is going to ender the WWF. It didn't end the way I thought
(40:13):
it would, but I knew itwas. So it wasn't like it took
me out of a job, butit took all those other guys, all
the people who worked for the company. Yeah, all of those people.
So I'm sure Brad got some kindof magic payoff somewhere, y know,
to make that just go away,because how do you do that, you
(40:37):
know, after you know, thirtyyears being the number one show now,
So I believe there was a lotof manipulation there, and it was what
it was. Man was what itwas. Well, listen, I don't
have you for that much more timebecause you got place to be, uh
first and foremost. Let me juststroy you with a couple of arguments.
It is what we do here.Besides the Diamond Cutter, what's the greatest
(41:00):
intersure of all time? Well,I got to say the RKO because Randy
took it to different places. Youknow, it's the most imitated move ever,
I would say, so, Iwould say, so ever, like
(41:20):
there's so many twist of fate,diamond Cutter bringing you know whatever, diamond
cutter. I love that. Codyout of respect, Cody calls it the
Cody Cutter. He puts the cutterin it, you know, And that's
(41:42):
what I would like to have seenRandy to do. But Randy made it
his own and he's gonna he's ayoung thoroughbred still at forty two or whatever
he is. But what a stud. One of my favorite wrestlers ever,
Harrock. I mean to me,he's one of the he's one of the
(42:06):
true, unbelievable greats. But hedoesn't get all the credit he deserves because
I mean that cat had it alland still does today. And at one
point I told him because his shoulder, all those cutters, I said,
you know, Randy, something youmight want to think about, bro,
because if I can go back intime, I'd taken it from here or
(42:29):
from here just to balance out thetombs. Sure, you know so.
And he would jump much higher thanme. And he did it for way
more years than I did. Yeah, So it's really good feel that ship.
And at the end he was bigger. It wasn't like he was losing
weight. At the end, hewas a bigs. That's a man's man.
(42:52):
I'll tell you what, if youget a chance, watch on a
and a watch my biography. Watchrand it's Randy's. Randy's is amazing and
I love what Cody said. Youknow, Randy could be a little bit
of a prick. I never sawthat side of him, but when he
(43:13):
was younger because he got so muchso fast. But we're who was right
there with him through all of that. When he came back and they said,
you know, Randy's cattle. He'sa family man, not kind of,
he's a family man, he's adad. And Cody's like, Okay,
I've got to see that though.It's kind of like me and Lext,
(43:35):
like I I literally had Lex heretoday. Every week Lex comes,
we're trying to get him out ofthe wheelchair like Lulu Lex Luger and we
have we've every week it's got alittle bit better, a little bit better,
a little bit better. And today, I mean every single time I
(44:01):
film him, it's another workout.I take him to another level good And
it's really going to be cool onthe DDP Yoga app when he does get
to that spot where he can walkwithout the walker, and that's really hard
(44:23):
walker and the walker right now,but when he gets there to walk on
his own, like, people aregoing to get to see every workout that
he did if they can get outof the chair and stand. They're paralyzed.
Of course you can't do anything aboutthat. But there are plenty of
people who are in wheelchairs who canstand upright. They just lost the heart.
(44:46):
And the more you don't stand upand walk, you don't use it,
you lose it. So uh,look for look for some you know,
some stuff to come out about lexIt's gonna be pretty amazing. B
why and the muscle cumps. We'llget to that here in a second,
last one. I'm gonna throw atyou in terms of what what time is
it? What time is it?What time is it? I said,
(45:07):
forty nine? Almost done with you? You got it? This is it.
If you give me the star inthe reboot of any action movie,
what would it be? Oh?God, anything that freaking Semester Stallone did?
Nice? Yes, because to me, I love the stuff that they
(45:29):
did with him and Arnold and howtheir good buddies and but back in the
day like crazy competition I love.I'm the biggest fan of Semester Stallone,
and he graced me with hold onsecond, I gotta go. I tell
(45:50):
you, We've got to get myI pad because I'm on my phone right
now, and oh, what's right? We're not filming it. I forgot
justiped up the phone. I wantto I want to arrange you something.
Have you seen the Butterbean video yet? Yes? Amazing? Crazy right?
Okay, so this is this wasone of my like favorite moments. I
(46:19):
get a hell, I get atext from not text on uh on Instagram.
I get a text from Instagram fromthe rock and he puts it up
with my thing. Incredible work,my brother, respect to you all.
(46:44):
Left you a voicemail and he leftme the coolest voicemail about Butterbean. Wow.
But this but this one right hereis Sylvester Stallone. This is the
second thing he's put up there Me. That was me and Rogan talking about
him and he and he put usover really good. But this one he
(47:04):
writes, congratulations to butter Bean,a real warrior, and I am capital
letters stunned by Diamond Dallas Page andhis extraordinary healing abilities. Wow, that
was like, that guy's one ofmy heroes. You know. That is
(47:29):
one of my mentors. He doesn'tknow it, but he's one of my
mentors. I met I met himwhen I used to work on a radio
show here in Chicago. If Igot any man cowed for I've told you
this before, unknowably. I washis bodyguard coming into the radio station,
and the station it was six o'clockin the morning and they said, hey,
go get Sly, he's downstairs,and I went to was it was
(47:49):
only me. It was an emptymerchandise mark when I went down there to
go get him. And when Igot out of the limo, somehow the
inside of that merchandise mart was packedwith people and I was I was swatting
people away because they were all tryingto get moved signed gloves to get the
ever. He's like, hey,man, you're actually pretty good at the
security thing. And I was like, ah god. I was like,
(48:10):
I appreciate it. But he's like, you're actually pretty good at this.
I was like, oh, I'mfor higher if you want. But he
was. He was definitely a reallycool guy. Uh. Last, but
not least d DP yoga, themuscle, the power cuffs that you guys
have going on is some of thecoolest stuff that you've been doing. And
the fact that you've been helping everybodyand if anybody wants to go ahead and
learn more, if you have peoplethat I want to do advanced stuff,
(48:31):
beginner stuff DDP yoga dot com.That's where you'll find all that stuff.
And he keeps coming out with coolstuff, and you're helping out wrestlers that
we looked that we looked up towhen I was a kid. So,
Dallas, I wish I could haveyou all longer. You're the best.
I appreciate it. It was itwas your pleasure. Such a good right
(48:54):
in my nuts. For Joe Kelly. My name is Dan Levy. Thanks
a lot for Diamond Dallas Paige forjumping on the podcast. Anything else you
want to get out there, sir, No, Boddy, I'm good.
I gotta get to I'm actually I'mdoing it podcast next with jbl and Jerry
Briscoe. Oh my god, awesome. I'm looking forward. I'm gonna get
(49:15):
on living in five minutes. Greattalking to you bout We'll talk later,
see you man. Thank you muchfor Joe Kelly. My name is Dan
Levy. Again, thanks for listeningto arguments. We'll do it again soon.
Take care everybody,
Arguments is recorded in front of alive studio audience. What's up, everybody,
Welcome in to another exciting addition ofArguments. I'm your host, Dan
Levy alongside with me as always myco host Joe Kelly. What up Joe?
Hello? Dan. This is thepodcast where we argue about the silliest,
most pointless topics imaginable, just likeyou went with your peep center,
(00:22):
your favorite bar, barbecue or barbariashop. And also we have a guest
today, a former WW superstar,WWE Hall of Famer, public speaker,
author, owner of DDPY and PowerCops, Ladies and Gentlemen, Diamond Dallas
Page. What up, Dallas?What's up? Brother? Thanks? Thanks
for coming on the pot. Howare you, sir? I've been good
(00:45):
man, just been really busy ofbuilding a building, a DDP YO to
retreat down in Panama City Beach.It's like a boutique hotel and got like
seven rooms, seven king sized roomsfor people when they want to come down
and join my retreat for a week. Uh. I took the top floor,
its four floors and uh we werebuild up for about the last year
(01:08):
and a half. So it's gettingclose and getting close. So I'm excited
about you. Ever been to PanamaCity Beach. I've never been, but
I am now. It's super sweet. Uh yeah, it's right down the
road really from did you you rememberthe movie Truman and Jim Carrey of course,
yeah, that was That's an areacalled thirty A, which is about
(01:32):
thirty miles north of there, andPanama City is a That's where we used
to wrestle when we would go toPanama City Beach that we would Uh there
was a club there called Club Lavilaand all these crazy you could fit like
three thousand kids, and you know, and you know for for spring break
(01:52):
and we would be wrestling. Theyput wrestling rings in the pool and you
know, so you come out,you had your enter its, you got
in the ring and it didn't moveor anything. It was completely stable.
I remember one time Sting came in. This is all shot from eight o'clock
at night to eleven in the morningand Sting dropped from a helicopter. You
(02:14):
know, he he did the oldthing where he slides down. I don't
know what they call that, repellingrepelling it was. It was a crazy
stunt that it was so many thingsthat could have gone wrong. With the
wind and everything, but he,thank God, nothing happened to him.
That is unbelievable. Now I wantto I love to talk about more about
(02:35):
that stuff. But the a coupleof things that has always stood out to
me about you. Number One,you went from a bouncer to a wrestling
superstar. Tell people I actually went. I actually went from a bouncer.
I went from a day crew guyto a bouncer, to a bartender,
to a manager to a part ownerof a club, of a club in
(02:58):
Fort Myers, Florida. And that'sthe place that Jacob Snake Roberts walked into.
And it lit something under me.And then he's told because I took
such good care of him. Hetold all the other boys if they were
coming through, like if you workedMiami and then you work Tampa, that's
(03:23):
three hundred miles and so Fort Myersis right there in the middle. And
uh next thing, you know,I'll show you. You can see the
picture. This is a picture ofuh wow. The Bushwhacker put this up
on his U on his uh atFacebook and he said DDP before he was
(03:44):
DDP. That's that's Luke Bushwhacker andTed dbi Assi and a million dollar man.
And later that night we're doing upsidedown to Kila Shooters so awesome.
And before it was before you actuallydid all that was it? I mean,
obviously you mentioned the sagety helped thingsmove along with you. Bubba.
(04:05):
No, no he did it.No he didn't. All he did was
like a fire. Okay, onlydid we see. I tried to wrestle
when I was twenty three. Ihad three matches. I hurt my knee,
and I mean it was horrible asgreen as green as graun and I
hurt my knee and my doctor waslike, does this take about thirty days
(04:27):
off? Maybe sixty? And thenyou go back and do that crazy you
know shit you're doing. And uh, and that's when I first got my
first opportunity at twenty three years oldto run this little rock and roll joint
and the booze, the broads andthe party. You know, I completely
(04:48):
forgot about wrestling, and uh.I went from there to Houston, Texas
and did a bunch of clubs downthere. You see, when you're a
bouncer, what you start at andI'm looking at the manager, Well we'll
back that up when you're about whenyou're going to a nightclub, and it's
(05:11):
so hard, you know, inthe beginning, especially when you're young.
And I was eight keen at thetime. You know, you get chicks.
You know, you're trying to pickup chicks and like, get away
from me. When I started asa bouncer and I was just the fill
it, I was still seventeen atthe time. But they didn't, you
know, they didn't you know,they just said, you know, bege,
you want to talk because I'm sixfour, you know, so they
(05:33):
just assumed I was older. SoI say, we needed a couple extra
bouncers night. You want to work? I said, absolutely, So I
got this shirt on that says Jimmyburn segur it in And the same chicks
who wouldn't take a second look atme were walking up and talking to me
(05:54):
because all of a sudden you hadthe club and d and it changed the
economy. The bartender, but themanager, the manager, I can say
whatever I want on this podcast.The manager fucks everything, you know.
And I'm looking at my manager atthe time, and I'm thinking, man,
(06:16):
John ain't got no game, andhe had some good looking dude.
He's like just a regular Joe.He's got pussy all over him, man,
and I'm like, I want thatjob. And next thing you know,
I've got that job. And I'mtwenty three years old. And like
I said, the booze, thebroads and the party took me in a
(06:38):
different direction. And to be honest, I completely forgot about wanting to be
a wrestler. I would still watch. I forgot about it until WrestleMania happened
and I was we had celebrated thefortieth anniversary. So this is over forty
(06:58):
years ago, right, yeah,yeah, fringing WrestleMania happens and it's such
a spectacle. I was so madat myself for not sticking with it.
And this is like five years later, four or five years later, and
I'm running big clubs now big clubs, right, and I'm so pissed that
(07:24):
myself. I wouldn't even if Istart wrestling, I just keep turning it.
I don't want to even see theshit. Until one night I was
flicking the channels and I see GuerrillaMonsoon and I see this dude the dew
rag and crazy sunglasses and a leathercoat and a boa, and I'm like,
who the hell is this guy?And it was Jesse the body Ventura.
(07:46):
I mean, he captivated me.And then the first guy to walk
through the curtain had a bag overhis shoulder and a fu manchee and it
was Jake Sneak Roberts, And I'mlike, who the hell is this guy?
Like he had swag like before anybodyeven knew what the hell that was.
(08:07):
The way he walked, he walkedwith purpose, and when he got
in the ring, the way heworked in the ring, he made me
believe it was real. And I'vealready know it's a work, you know,
you know it's a work for beinga kid, but when you're actually
doing it, you realize that bigshit hurts, Like hell, yes,
you know. And Jake captivated meand then he cut up promo and I
(08:35):
was like, holy shit, thisguy is real. And then six months
later he walks in my nightclub,and you know, it was like it
was like there was God giving mesigns, you know, or the devil
one of the two give him thesigns of what direction? And like I
(08:56):
said, with Daviyanesty and those guysgive me like a bunch of the boys,
man. So I mean, itwas just crazy how it all came
together one night we were, youknow, after some of the boys ran
and we're sitting in the back drinkingall the all my bartenders counting the money,
and so we do we go back. Why off, it's just like
twelve of them. I mean it'sclub's big, all a thousand people plus,
(09:18):
you know, and a boy inFlorida. Man, I was Diamond
Dallas Page. Here. Here's apicture you guys about picture right, This
is me at my sixty two feetCadillac. There's one diamond doll, another
diamond doll, another diamond doll.By the way, look somewhere I got.
(09:41):
I got holes in my I gotholes in my jeans. In nineteen
eighty eight before there's a Diamond Dallaspage. So I make that night.
We're talking right, and wrestling ofcourse comes up, and some my my
buddy Smokey, who's my head bartender, walks up, he goes. I
(10:03):
was actually outside of the bar collectingthe drawers with the guys, and my
DJ was playing girls just want tohave fun at Sidney Lapper song, right,
And that was a catapult for wrestlingin nineteen eighty three or four whenever
that was. And I'm watching CaptainLeu Albano up there Nikolai Bolkoff in the
(10:26):
Sidney Laupper video, and I'm thinkingabout I just say to myself, rock
and wrestling. I should have beena part of that. And I'm walking
to the back and Smoky walks upright behind me and he goes, Page
Jet my real name was before Ichanged it in Dallas. Page was Page
Joseph Faulkenberg. And I knew thatname was never gonna draw any money.
(10:48):
Yeah, so I said I wouldcome for him. I would come for
him. Yeah, I'll bring it. So I So, Smoky says,
Paige, what do you mean youshould have been rock and wrestling? You
should have been a part of it. I go, you heard that.
He goes, yeah, I heard. I was standing right behind you,
and he goes, what do youmean. I go, well, I
(11:09):
tried it when I was a kid. He goes, you did now at
the time. I'm thirty thirty orthirty one somewhere around there, and he
says, uh, you wrestled Isaid like three times, dude, I
was horrible. He goes, whatwas your name? I said, Handsome
Dallas Page And he said cool.You can forget about using that Kimmick anymore.
(11:33):
And everybody laughed just like you're doing. And I'm not laughing at you.
I'm just laughing at the quote.No, No, it was funny.
It was funny. And you know, at some point, I mean
I got it so far in myhead. And now we're getting buzz,
we're doing shots and beers and youknow, we're all just getting this start
tied the party. You know,it's two three o'clock in the morning now,
(11:56):
And I said, and I startwriting on this this pad. It
sits in front of my desk,a blogger, you know, the days
of the of the month. AndI just start like writing fonetically because I
couldn't read or write really at thatpoint in my life. So how I
don't understand. I wrote Diamond DallasPage and then I write the Diamond Exchange
(12:24):
underneath it. And I said,you know, I'm too old to be
a wrestler, but I could bea manager. I could be Diamond Dallas
Page. Everybody's like, oh yeah, right, a fantasy time, right,
I said, I could have mywrestlers, could be the Diamond Exchange.
So I'm written it down. Atsome point, I say, you
(12:45):
know what, there's not a lotof good look at women in wrestling.
I said, Miss Elizabeth, Yeah, she's good looking, but she's good
like good looking, like next doorlike good looking next door. Check a
girl next door. Check. Isaid, what if I had a whole
stable little ladies and they were stripperhot? And Smokey was like, oh,
(13:05):
that'll be a stretch because I wasdy the Dallas page by bed and
I just wrote it down. Andthe crazy thing that happened is about a
week later, a local cable station, I didn't know it was local cable
at the time, but a localcable station came in and they had an
(13:31):
hour sequence that they called the Partyor half hour sequence that they called the
Party News Network. And what theywould do is they would sell time on
that little space that they had andthey'd put up like five minute things of
different things that were happening in southwestFlorida. And they wanted to do a
(13:54):
thing behind the Norma Jeans that wasa Namber Club Norma Jeans dance up,
and they wanted to do a thingbehind the voice like because I would do
whole COVID impersonations. You know,Randy Savage, you got to do one.
You got Uh, I really can'treally do Hulk. Yeah those at
(14:16):
those brother but with Randy. Ohyet you know like that good uh so,
uh what ended up happening is II do this thing and they show
me in my sixty two pick Cadillac, they show me at the radio studio.
(14:39):
They they showed me. They thinkit's the real guys, right,
And at some point I tell them, you know, because there, you
know, they see me. I'mwearing in wrestle Mania T shirt. I
mean, I'm a fan, youknow, and my hair is just like
you know, long and blonde likeit was in the day. It was
the best that ever was back then. And at some point during the interview,
(15:03):
as it goes to different sequences studio, club, the road, all
that shit, and it goes toDiamond Dalla's page goes where does the name
come from? And I looked down. I even told them my name or
anything. They just know where doesthe voice come from? And I look
down and I see Diamondalla's page onthat bladder and Dan, I tell you
(15:26):
the guy's honest truth. There's apair of white sunglasses sitting next to the
name. If the sunglasses aren't there, I don't know. If I do
it or not, but they are. And the sunglasses became a mask and
I put it on my face andI said, I said, the voice
comes from Diamon Dallas Page did it. I was born to be a professional
(15:46):
wrestling manager. Blah blah blah.And then I switched, took the sunglasses
off and went back to being me. But some guys saw it, and
he was a sports, you know, radio guy, like you do a
podcast he did on the radio,and he invited me on the show and
I'm like, dude, I don'treally do it, you know, it's
(16:08):
just it's just a game. It'san act, and he goes, who
cares, it's it's it's radio.Nobody knows. And I ended up doing
that show with him, and afterdoing it a couple of times, he
was like, man, I wantyou to come. You know, I
think you should send a video tapeto this guy Rob Russon. So I
(16:29):
made up I made up a videotapewith three guys who wanted to be wrestlers.
Here's one of them, that's BigBad John and another one was ted
E Bahre. He was a midget. He came over with the Diamond dolls
and almost rock hard Rick and uh, I did his video tape. I
(16:49):
sent it to the a w Aand that was a Midwestern territory. And
two weeks later they called me andand uh, he's no one had ever
called me Diamond Dallas page before that. And Rob Russon calls me and he
says, hello, it is DiamondDalla's page there and I'm like, whoa,
(17:11):
yeah, it's the DDPU. Who'sthis He goes, is Rob Russell
from the aw A. Hey,listen, we like your your your tape
you sent us and you know,we want to bring you and your boys
in for a tryout. But we'vegot one question. Were you guys working
And I said, well there's oneproblem there, Rob, but none of
(17:34):
those guys can wrestle. He's like, what why would you send the tape
in? And uh, bottom lineis ringing. They don't call us,
We'll call you. But as luckwould have it, Paul Hayman, who
is you know, just went inthe Hall of Fame last year or this
year, who's big in the Hallof faper his whole life, he's so
(17:56):
good. But he left the AWA, went to the NWA, left a
huge void for a young guy andthat's how I got my first opportunity.
That is unbelievable. WCW, youwere a giant part of that. There's
been a documentary about everything that's goneon with that. That's I remember being
a giant wrestling fan when I wasa kid. When you were talking about
(18:18):
Jesse the body, that's I thinkwhen I was in my peak, when
I was a Kain. I usedto live in West Harvard, Connecticut,
so wrestling, I mean, everythingwas everything was coming out of there.
We got to watch all kinds ofhouse shows because they would prepare for the
pay per views at those house shows. But later on a live I got
out of it. And then whenI was sixteen seventeen, the attitude ereic
came and I got right back inwith the WCW. We'd watch Rob but
(18:42):
we always loved my buddy, andI would always watch w CW Moore because
you guys had all the guys thatI knew, and you had Goldberg and
the nWo and you. For thosethat are watched that are listening to this
podcast, there's been documentaries. There'sbeen a lot of things said and done
you attribute to the actual rise andthe prominence and this is the guy or
(19:03):
these are the guys that managed dothis, and who would you say is
ultimately responsible for the for the shutdownand for it to its ultimate demise.
Well, first of all, EricBischoff, Well, we got to go
to Ted Turner first, because itwas his idea right not only to put
a primetime show on during the week, but do go ahead to head right,
(19:26):
you know, be a bitchoff.We're super tight back then, so
had you got to give Ted.But it was Eric that pulled it off.
And like he'd already brought in Hull, he brought in Randy and Vince
was starting to start with the parodiesof I don't know if you remember that
(19:52):
when you show Hold like an oldman and Randy like Randy, like Randy
would hold a grudge, like whenMancho died and I was super tight with
March, you know, after ourfeud, you know he really we both
of course, really respect to eachother. But when Randy died, I
(20:15):
called up Lannie and I said,Lannie, which is his brother. I
said, you know, I don'tgo to many funerals, I said,
but I got to go to batches. I got to be there. And
he said, well he said,be honest. He said, Randy loved
you, but no one's going tobe invited except for the family. I
(20:40):
said, oh, okay, noproblem. He goes, No, he
goes. I got to tell youwhat happened. He goes, I am
Randy's dog, Hercules. They askedthat Bully had he had died, and
he had this beautiful plantation in Florida, and he had this seminole tree in
(21:02):
the middle of it, this hugeseminole tree. And we're walking out there
because Randy wants Hercules Ashes to beat the base of this tree. And
he and he said to me,Lanny says. He said, Lanny,
(21:23):
whenever eything happens to me and I'mnot here anymore. I don't want any
bullshit, over the top wrestling fanfear bullshit. I wanted just to be
family. And I want you totake my Ashes, and I want you
to put him right down here nextHeracules. And lanny impression is amazing,
(21:52):
by the way, it's incredible,Yeah, Lanny says, But Rundy your
as his next your dog, yourdog Hercules. And mart said, if
it's good enough for Hercules, it'sgood enough for me. And I laughed,
(22:14):
so hard at the time that Iwas pretty bummed out, you know
that Randy was gone. But itmade me laugh because I could just see
him saying that awesome and and Isaid, Lannie, please and I tell
that story. So he said,he said, uh, Diamond, you
(22:41):
could tell any story you ever want, because I know it's going to be
told with love and respect to Macho. And he said, much to the
sugar. And I'm sure they're goingto put Randy in the Hall of Fame
now, much to the chagrin ofthe Macho man. Like they were starting
(23:03):
to talk to Manch at that time. And I think Hunter could have pulled
it off because Hunter was the architectof bringing in Ultimate Warrior. I don
a lot, Yes, like theypaid him a lot of money to come
back, just because Warrior wouldn't haveany way, I'm sure because like he
(23:26):
I mean they oh god, theway they did the documentary on him,
like the first one where they justbury him. Yes, So Mach was
so mad over those impersonations, likehe held a grudge. Wow, but
if he but if he loved you, then you you know, you were
(23:51):
golden. So I got to tellyou this story about the manchas you liked
the macho and precupression so all dayso nineteen ninety seven because of the nWo,
Kevin and Scott, who I hadreal relationships with, like we I'm
(24:11):
the one who helped bring them in. I'm the one who made the phone
call to see when their contracts wereup, and they were right around the
same time. Awesome, And soI was kind of like the architect of
putting that together for bish And hedidn't really he didn't really let me,
(24:33):
uh oh good, it's a video. Okay, someone's trying to call in
right now. He didn't. Hedidn't really want to bring Kevin Nash in
because when Bischoff took over as theexecutive producer of the show, Kevin asked
for his release, and Bischoff waslike, what do you planning on doing.
(24:57):
I'm going back in the bar business. Yeah, I'm gonna go back
and run strip clubs. And soEric gave him his release. Well,
next thing you know, he's aWWF and they make him Diesel. Later
on it would be Razor. Butit took those guys to get them over
big time the WWE for them tocome back to w CW. So when
(25:22):
you say who is the success.Well Bischoff, Well, Ted Bischoff.
Absolutely. The next ones are Scottand keV. Right when they came on,
that was the hottest thing ever ever. People are still wearing nWo shirts.
(25:47):
They will be wearing them into thenext fucking millennium. And and those
two together were awesome. They werehilarious, they were good. It was
entertainment early on. Then there's apicture of me and Scott Hall when I
when I created that whole look forScott Man, you're huge. Yeah,
(26:07):
yeah, I created that whole lookfor him. The black hair, the
brush cut he got rid of.I had him get rid of, the
wal with mustache. I gave himthat what was for both of us.
The toothpick. We were leaving awaffle house and on the way out the
door, I grabbed two toothpicks andI gave him one, and we're walking
(26:30):
and we're talking. This is hisfirst show on w CW, so he's
going to go out get a winand and and I'm going to kind of
promo afterwards. I told him atthe end, take the toothpick out and
we flick it into the camera andduring the promo, the toothpick falls out
(26:56):
of my mouth, and I waslike, no, because I knew this
was a great gimmick, but itwas supposed to happen because it was meant
for the bad guy. Yes,you know, and I'm the one who
really created and he tells the story. If he was here, I would
(27:17):
let him tell you. He's likeDally, let me tell the story,
let me put you over. Becausehis wife was pregnant with with Cody is
his son Cody at the time,and he couldn't get a callback from WWF
or w CWOW. So I gotMagnum to get Maggum told me he talked
(27:42):
to Dusty. Didn't you know.They gave him two chances and he didn't
get over. Not fair, youknow, not fair because this guy is
so special. But he wasn't readyat the time. And I understand not
being read at the time and thinkingyou are, but you're not. And
(28:04):
so they had washed him off.And I said, Mags, what if
I could completely change his look?He goes, what do you mean?
I said, what if you didn'trecognize him? He goes, you can
do that. I haven't come up. We can't fly him, though,
I said, he'll drive you livedin Orlando. He drove to Atlanta.
(28:26):
When he got there, I hadalready told him about the thing. He
said, the brush cut, helooked like a movie star. But his
hair was this mousey brown, bullshitcolor because I told him to dye it
black and all that, and Itook him to my hair color, so
he used to do my blood highlightsand shit, and she did it up
(28:47):
and I dressed him up in myclothes and he did not look like Big
Scott Hall at all. No onerecognize him. When he got home from
TV the next day, there wasa call on his machine from the w
w F, so they wanted Whenhe called them up, he said,
(29:14):
when you're done with your contract,pat Patterson told him, we got a
spot here for you. Don't resign with anybody that come with us.
Wow. So that that's that's thereality of they. Yeah, as you
remember, they killed everybody like theythey asked them to come to the nWo.
(29:37):
But if they said no, theypummeled you. If if they decided
we don't want you, they pummeledyou. They beat up. No one
touched them for a year and ahalf until we did that angle. And
I told Kevin the idea first becauseI was going to quit. I wanted
my release because they weren't doing anythingwith me, and I thought that I
(30:02):
was better than that. I knewthat. It's kind of like what happened
with Cody Road when he left wW A wwwwwe and went on the Independent
League and then started AE w right, you know, liked They did not
see it, They did not seehim being the guy, but Cody did.
(30:25):
And look at him now, youknow, it's the same ship that
I did when Ian I was readyto go. Let me ask you,
I was ready to leave. Letme ask you real quick. As a
sidebar, what are your thoughts ofwrestling in twenty twenty four? These days?
It is completely different than when youwere there. Yeah, but I
think it's the next evolution of it, you know. And there's no Vince
(30:48):
McMahon, a lot of new ideas, a lot of new people in charge,
new companies and all that stuff.Yeah. Either it's it's the best
time all ourselves, the boys andthe girls. You know, the boys,
this is the best time for money, you know. And what I
(31:10):
tell them all is like, don'tpiss it all away. You're going to
out need it later. All yougot to do is see all these guys,
I mean Kevin Sullivan. We justsaid. You know, I can't
remember. I think Conrad set itup or someone friend of Conrad set it
up for keV because the hospital billsand his insurance, you know, is
(31:32):
running out, so you need soyou know, I reached down and I
not only donate, but I alsospread the word, like you want to
help keV. Let me tell youa lot of that ship you saw.
He was one of the people youcould say was responsible for the success WCW
(31:52):
because he was he was the bookerthrough a lot of that. And I
talked to him the other day.Well, actually I got I called Flair
because there was an opportunity for himthat I thought would help him make a
lot of money. So I calledhim up and I said, listen,
Nat, you know, uh,this is what these guys are doing.
(32:13):
If you want to do it withthem, you know, you know,
should I give him your number orwhat should I do? So he told
me and he said, hey,you should give Kevin give Gomez a call.
He says, Joe Gomez is agood buddy of all of us,
and he worked in the nineties fora little bit. But great guy,
great guy. And he was visitingKevin in the hospital and he said,
(32:37):
just Nate said, just you know, give him some of your positivity and
uh and uh, just let himknow you care. And I hung up
the phone with Nature and I calledGomez right away and I said to Joe,
I said, can you put thephone up to him? He said
yeah, So I said, Isaid, keV, I just want you
(32:58):
to know I love you. Isaid, I know there were times where
we weren't just at each other's throats. And I said, I know you
didn't believe in me back then,but I know it made me better.
And I want you to know Ilove you. And freaking Goment said he's
(33:23):
actually I hear Kevin's voice and he'slike, I'm in you know, you're
right. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't see it, but you
did and good for you. AndI'm so proud of you and what you
did. And I love you.And freaking Gomentz he goes, he just
(33:43):
took the traeout. Wow, sohe could talk like that. That made
me cry, like, oh mygod, But you know he's doing better,
he's doing better, and YO,hopefully he'll completely kick out. So
back to the people who made adifference, like Sully was part of that,
(34:05):
but the biggest part of it wasBischoff, Scott and keV. And
then no one knew who the thirdguy was going to be. There was
no plan going into that, noplan. And me and bish were out
for a couple of beers as always, and he said, guess who wants
(34:28):
to be the third guy? Isaid me, which meant nothing, you
know, But when he said Hulk, I said, Wow, that is
the best. Wow, that isthe best. And Red and Yellow was
(34:51):
getting a little long in the tooththere, but you're talking about one of
the greatest entertainers to me, likethe guys I really love to watch coming
up, you know as a youngman. You know Nature Boy and Dusty
Rhodes, Superstar, Billy Graham,you know, rigging like Hulk. I
(35:16):
mean, how could you not likebe like pulled into all of that hulkism,
you know. So he was hewas, he was away. I
mean, he for me, he'swrestling. But it's often as I was
a kid, I was a kidin the eighties and again I was in
Hartford, Connecticut and whole Cogan,Like I said, when you Todd wrestling,
(35:37):
you cannot say hul Kogan And Ifeel like right now everybody else has
the Rock or Stone Cold. EvenRitt Flair was there too, But for
me, it was like that wasthe Marquis. He's yeah, imman mitzick
Man put it on the map.But he didn't do it alone. No,
he did it with Ronnie Piper.Yes, he did it with Randy
(36:00):
Savage. He did it with AndreSure he did. You know. It
was like who's the next guy?You know? Sure, but you know
Hult coming over and flipping man wC W ted. I should say Turner
(36:20):
Broadcasting got flooded with the phone callsof pissed off parents because mister USA no
longer no longer say your prayers.Yeah, oh my god. You know
(36:43):
when he cut that promo like it, it was right in tune with what
the Rock would do later because itRocky sucks chance. And then he wins
the title and turns heel with VinceMcMahon and he got to say everything he
wanted and before he knew it,they loved him more than ever. Let
(37:10):
me ask you this question, atwhat point in your career, when you
guys are doing it, did somebodysay to you, I know it's the
NBA Finals of playoffs, but wegot Tennis Rodvid what because you hit him
with the chair? You were inthe last dance. They show that highlight
of me with a chair, it'syou with the chair. Yeah, we
(37:31):
were in the back before that moment, getting ready to come out because I'm
going to walk out because what theydidn't say in the last dance Red and
Black was the babyface n w O. Right, what the company should have
been is turned to the nw O. If if if w c W becomes
(37:59):
the n w O, I don'tknow if w w FO wins that war,
but they had put so much moneyinto this stupid new design that they
had looked like a spaceship for WCW. There was millions and millions of dollars
(38:22):
put into that and that was notthe way to go. And bish knew
it, but he couldn't stop it. You want to know, really killed
the company more than anyone fucking AOLand really time Warner with Jamie and I
really believe after watching it and seeingit all play out, that Brad Siegel
(38:47):
was the number one guy even beforeJamie Kilner, because I believe that him
and that guy who came in atthe end, which I didn't know about
the guy who was working for Vince. Like, if you're gonna tell me
that you don't think those two guyswere in cahoots. When you're gonna they're
(39:08):
gonna sell the w c W brandfor four point three million dollars, I'd
have bought that shit right now,you know, Hell yeah, hell yeah,
Vince Richonfon. You know, ifthey did all they had to do
(39:29):
was give him a couple of months, he would have had it on a
different network. No, we're notdoing that. That was Brad Siegel.
You know. I used to thinkthat just Jamie Kildner was his comeback.
I don't blame the guy from thew W if I can't remember his name
because he's the other company. ButSiegel, I blame that fucker and bring
(39:50):
in Jamie Kilner After watching it andseeing him squirm, you know, I
thought he was one of us,and Jamie Kilner is a bad guy.
But after I realized the whole story, like, wow, that piece of
shit, you know so, andI'm not for me because I knew my
crew is going to ender the WWF. It didn't end the way I thought
(40:13):
it would, but I knew itwas. So it wasn't like it took
me out of a job, butit took all those other guys, all
the people who worked for the company. Yeah, all of those people.
So I'm sure Brad got some kindof magic payoff somewhere, y know,
to make that just go away,because how do you do that, you
(40:37):
know, after you know, thirtyyears being the number one show now,
So I believe there was a lotof manipulation there, and it was what
it was. Man was what itwas. Well, listen, I don't
have you for that much more timebecause you got place to be, uh
first and foremost. Let me juststroy you with a couple of arguments.
It is what we do here.Besides the Diamond Cutter, what's the greatest
(41:00):
intersure of all time? Well,I got to say the RKO because Randy
took it to different places. Youknow, it's the most imitated move ever,
I would say, so, Iwould say, so ever, like
(41:20):
there's so many twist of fate,diamond Cutter bringing you know whatever, diamond
cutter. I love that. Codyout of respect, Cody calls it the
Cody Cutter. He puts the cutterin it, you know, And that's
(41:42):
what I would like to have seenRandy to do. But Randy made it
his own and he's gonna he's ayoung thoroughbred still at forty two or whatever
he is. But what a stud. One of my favorite wrestlers ever,
Harrock. I mean to me,he's one of the he's one of the
(42:06):
true, unbelievable greats. But hedoesn't get all the credit he deserves because
I mean that cat had it alland still does today. And at one
point I told him because his shoulder, all those cutters, I said,
you know, Randy, something youmight want to think about, bro,
because if I can go back intime, I'd taken it from here or
(42:29):
from here just to balance out thetombs. Sure, you know so.
And he would jump much higher thanme. And he did it for way
more years than I did. Yeah, So it's really good feel that ship.
And at the end he was bigger. It wasn't like he was losing
weight. At the end, hewas a bigs. That's a man's man.
(42:52):
I'll tell you what, if youget a chance, watch on a
and a watch my biography. Watchrand it's Randy's. Randy's is amazing and
I love what Cody said. Youknow, Randy could be a little bit
of a prick. I never sawthat side of him, but when he
(43:13):
was younger because he got so muchso fast. But we're who was right
there with him through all of that. When he came back and they said,
you know, Randy's cattle. He'sa family man, not kind of,
he's a family man, he's adad. And Cody's like, Okay,
I've got to see that though.It's kind of like me and Lext,
(43:35):
like I I literally had Lex heretoday. Every week Lex comes,
we're trying to get him out ofthe wheelchair like Lulu Lex Luger and we
have we've every week it's got alittle bit better, a little bit better,
a little bit better. And today, I mean every single time I
(44:01):
film him, it's another workout.I take him to another level good And
it's really going to be cool onthe DDP Yoga app when he does get
to that spot where he can walkwithout the walker, and that's really hard
(44:23):
walker and the walker right now,but when he gets there to walk on
his own, like, people aregoing to get to see every workout that
he did if they can get outof the chair and stand. They're paralyzed.
Of course you can't do anything aboutthat. But there are plenty of
people who are in wheelchairs who canstand upright. They just lost the heart.
(44:46):
And the more you don't stand upand walk, you don't use it,
you lose it. So uh,look for look for some you know,
some stuff to come out about lexIt's gonna be pretty amazing. B
why and the muscle cumps. We'llget to that here in a second,
last one. I'm gonna throw atyou in terms of what what time is
it? What time is it?What time is it? I said,
(45:07):
forty nine? Almost done with you? You got it? This is it.
If you give me the star inthe reboot of any action movie,
what would it be? Oh?God, anything that freaking Semester Stallone did?
Nice? Yes, because to me, I love the stuff that they
(45:29):
did with him and Arnold and howtheir good buddies and but back in the
day like crazy competition I love.I'm the biggest fan of Semester Stallone,
and he graced me with hold onsecond, I gotta go. I tell
(45:50):
you, We've got to get myI pad because I'm on my phone right
now, and oh, what's right? We're not filming it. I forgot
justiped up the phone. I wantto I want to arrange you something.
Have you seen the Butterbean video yet? Yes? Amazing? Crazy right?
Okay, so this is this wasone of my like favorite moments. I
(46:19):
get a hell, I get atext from not text on uh on Instagram.
I get a text from Instagram fromthe rock and he puts it up
with my thing. Incredible work,my brother, respect to you all.
(46:44):
Left you a voicemail and he leftme the coolest voicemail about Butterbean. Wow.
But this but this one right hereis Sylvester Stallone. This is the
second thing he's put up there Me. That was me and Rogan talking about
him and he and he put usover really good. But this one he
(47:04):
writes, congratulations to butter Bean,a real warrior, and I am capital
letters stunned by Diamond Dallas Page andhis extraordinary healing abilities. Wow, that
was like, that guy's one ofmy heroes. You know. That is
(47:29):
one of my mentors. He doesn'tknow it, but he's one of my
mentors. I met I met himwhen I used to work on a radio
show here in Chicago. If Igot any man cowed for I've told you
this before, unknowably. I washis bodyguard coming into the radio station,
and the station it was six o'clockin the morning and they said, hey,
go get Sly, he's downstairs,and I went to was it was
(47:49):
only me. It was an emptymerchandise mark when I went down there to
go get him. And when Igot out of the limo, somehow the
inside of that merchandise mart was packedwith people and I was I was swatting
people away because they were all tryingto get moved signed gloves to get the
ever. He's like, hey,man, you're actually pretty good at the
security thing. And I was like, ah god. I was like,
(48:10):
I appreciate it. But he's like, you're actually pretty good at this.
I was like, oh, I'mfor higher if you want. But he
was. He was definitely a reallycool guy. Uh. Last, but
not least d DP yoga, themuscle, the power cuffs that you guys
have going on is some of thecoolest stuff that you've been doing. And
the fact that you've been helping everybodyand if anybody wants to go ahead and
learn more, if you have peoplethat I want to do advanced stuff,
(48:31):
beginner stuff DDP yoga dot com.That's where you'll find all that stuff.
And he keeps coming out with coolstuff, and you're helping out wrestlers that
we looked that we looked up towhen I was a kid. So,
Dallas, I wish I could haveyou all longer. You're the best.
I appreciate it. It was itwas your pleasure. Such a good right
(48:54):
in my nuts. For Joe Kelly. My name is Dan Levy. Thanks
a lot for Diamond Dallas Paige forjumping on the podcast. Anything else you
want to get out there, sir, No, Boddy, I'm good.
I gotta get to I'm actually I'mdoing it podcast next with jbl and Jerry
Briscoe. Oh my god, awesome. I'm looking forward. I'm gonna get
(49:15):
on living in five minutes. Greattalking to you bout We'll talk later,
see you man. Thank you muchfor Joe Kelly. My name is Dan
Levy. Again, thanks for listeningto arguments. We'll do it again soon.
Take care everybody,
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