People used to say, 'Well, how do you fake that?' Two words - we don't. When you got hit with the chair, you got hit with the chair.
— Diamond Dallas Page
At 31, I decided to learn how to read and, at 32, read my first book: Lee Iacocca's autobiography. Ten years later, with my friend Larry 'Smokey' Genta, I wrote my first book, which was my proudest accomplishment.
P90X and Insanity are awesome workouts for young guys who aren't beat up. DDPYoga is for guys who are beat up. It's the fountain of youth for beat-up guys.
For the first 42 years of my life, I was the guy who wouldn't be caught dead doing yoga.
I always believed I would be in the Hall of Fame when my career came to an end. I just didn't know when.
I worked the bar business in Fort Lauderdale.
Everyone is connected to somebody with some type of addiction. It's so ramped now. Everyone has an uncle, a cousin, somebody who has addiction. We all have addiction.
You rarely see me without a DDP YOGA shirt on. There are times where I wear a regular shirt when I do an interview, and in the middle of it, I go, 'Wait a second. Let me change my shirt.'
In my mind, I always felt like I was worthy. I really felt like, with my career and just the way I did it, it was Hall of Fame-worthy.
I live for inspiring people to do things they think they can't. My goal is to completely eliminate the word 'can't' from the equation.
I don't think I'll ever be out of wrestling, because I was that kid at 8 years old that dreamed of being a world champion.
I was reading at a third-grade level until the age of 30 before I made the decision that I was going to learn how to read.
I'm that guy. The guy that you think I am, I am. Not everybody can say that.
I can bend over and put my head between my legs, stick my foot over my head, and stand one leg.
My first match with Bill Goldberg, it was for the World Title in 1998. Bill had only been wrestling a year. Well, we stole the show. Because I was going to make Bill look as good as he was, and he was great. He had that incredible charisma, personality, and that 'it' factor. Rousey has that same thing.
DDP Yoga was never developed for yoga users: it was developed for people who wouldn't be caught dead doing yoga - the people who really need it.
Some of my biggest victories have come directly after some of my biggest failures.
I have a huge respect for yoga today.
It took eight years for DDP Yoga to become an overnight sensation.
Flexibility is youth.
I was the guy from the Jersey Shore, Springsteen country. We don't do yoga there. And we made fun of anybody who did.
Everything I do, I have a certain amount of pride for.
Through wrestling, my second home was Fort Myers, Florida.
Wrestling is the first reality show. With a reality show, you never what is real and what is not.
You can sit in the chair and do the workout. There's no other program in the world that is like DDP YOGA.
I try to keep my mind full of really positive stuff.
I will greet every person who comes to my workshops and seminars.
Kevin Dunn is great at what he does.
You can meet me - and I won't disappoint. That's how I am.
I'm always like Mickey Mouse with tattoos.
People don't understand, and I do, is what happens after wrestling. What do you do when people stop chanting your name? For me, I already had that with the nightclub business before wrestling and now with DDP YOGA.
The biggest thing I've learned, on the inside of my Hall of Fame ring, normally people put their name. I've put 'Work ethic equals results! DDP.'
My business wouldn't be doing as strong as it is without the support of WWE.
Wrestling is cyclical. And if you look at the '80s, it had an unbelievable run, and then it just fell down. '90s had the biggest run ever because of the Monday Night Wars.
I teach people how to breathe; I teach them how to use dynamic resistance, which is what gets your heart rate jacked up.
I'm not scary anymore.
I'm all about health.
If you say 'I can't,' you'd better add on 'yet.' Once you start to change that inner dialogue, things that would seem completely impossible become possible.
When you become a wrestler at 35 and your career takes off at 40, nobody believes in you. But there are some people out there who watch how I did it, and I did it through intense work ethic.
Everybody has some kind of addiction. It's about how you get around that addiction. First, you have to break the habit like anything. You have to define the hurdle or the objective.
You'll never see me in an airport without a DDP YOGA shirt. It says, 'It Ain't Your Mama's Yoga' on the back and 'DDP YOGA' in the front. Every time I walk around, people see the shirt, and it makes them smile.
I wrote a book called 'Yoga for Regular Guys.' We made the title of the book funny, but it was actually super serious. We were trying to get regular guys to do yoga. It just kept developing from there, and the concept eventually turned into DDP YOGA. I am so passionate about it.
Once I got done with my career, I knew in my soul that I don't have any negative thoughts about myself.
When Dusty Rhodes passed away, that hit me hard because I couldn't call him any more. He couldn't bust my chops. He made a huge difference in my life on so many levels.
I don't need to prove anything in that ring anymore. I've done all that.
I'm a big fan of Denzel Washington, and when I met him, he was just cool. And I was glad.
I used to say Page Joseph Falkinburg - which is my given name - when Page Joseph Falkinburg stopped trying to be this over-the-top professional wrestler, Diamond Dallas Page, and Diamond Dallas Page became Page Joseph Falkinburg, that's when my career took off.
Rock has the ability to make you feel like you're the only person in the room.
Yoga is 'so hum,' spiritual and all that, and I get it, and I respect that, but that's not what I do. What I do with DDP Yoga, we have changed the face of how it's represented. The spiritual stuff for us is about the power of positivity along with giving people that inner confidence.
Vince McMahon made me a much better businessman, and I'm super thankful to him.
