As great as Hulk Hogan was, he still wasn't that great a worker.
— Diamond Dallas Page
Nobody can pull you down more than you.
No one iced their body in professional wrestling before me. I did it because I was 35, 36, 37. I was already what would have been considered an old timer.
I don't think there is anybody, including Jeff Hardy, who puts their body through as much abuse as A. J. Styles.
God has blessed me on a lot of levels. Have I worked for it? Absolutely. But it still takes that blessing.
I can't tell you how many times I hit that mat, especially that first year, where I said to myself, 'Man, this fake stuff hurts like hell. Do I really want to do this?' And every time, I would come back, 'Yeah, I wanna do this.'
Bottom line is don't ever be afraid to fail.
I'm not going to have anyone tell me what I can do promoting my product.
That diamond cutter sign became my moniker.
I'm all about owning your life.
The run that I had - which really was, like, four months in the WWE - it wasn't great. But my opening day was great. My opening day was humongous. And then WrestleMania was pretty much my closing card. I did one 'Raw' after that, but that WrestleMania 18 match that I had with Christian, that was a hell of a match.
Wrestling and horror just sort of go together.
I had some great matches with 'Macho Man,' but the one at Halloween Havoc in 1997 was intense, and Havoc was the perfect venue for a Last Man Standing Match.
If you say you can or if you say you can't... you're right.
The nWo pursued me for a while. To be perfectly honest, I think WCW management purposely kept me off 'Nitro' for a while to keep the nWo from getting to me.
No matter how bad or negative it gets, I somehow try to find the silver lining.
I told people I was going to be a wrestler, and they fell down laughing.
I knew no one had better ring psychology than Jake Roberts.
I would have always liked to have worked with Randy Orton because of the Diamond Cutter and the RKO.
One of my biggest supporters is Gerry Briscoe.
I was sort of like a scout for Eric Bischoff if I saw people who had the talent. Sometimes I wouldn't bring people to him until they had the gimmick, like Raven.
When I came into WWE after Monday Night Wars, it wasn't my greatest time in the business... but they kept bringing me back.
Everybody on top has a ton of haters.
When I blew my back out at age 42, I said, 'Okay, I've got to be more concerned about food and health.'
I let the WWE control my destiny, and it didn't work out so well.
I didn't develop DDP YOGA for yogis. DDP YOGA is its own animal; if yoga was a bicycle, DDP YOGA would be a Harley.
When my career took off like a rocket in '97 - me against the nWo and Randy Savage - I wasn't just a top guy, I was the top guy, and then in '98, I blew my back out.
I always saw myself working a WrestleMania.
Without Dusty Rhodes, there is no Diamond Dallas Page. He took me under his wing and believed in me when nobody did - nobody.
The elaborate sets and the theme of Halloween Havoc as a whole is what I think really caught the attention of the fans. Add in the explosive contests we had every year at the event, and it was definitely the perfect precursor to Starrcade.
If WCW and Eric Bischoff hadn't brought in the cruiserweights, I don't think the company would have ever gotten to where it was.
One thing 'The Very Best of WCW 'Monday Nitro'' really captures, which I remember very well about WCW, was how absolutely electric the crowds were.
In living life at 90 percent, the formula is life is 10 percent of what happens to you and 90 percent of how you react to it.
I don't want to spoil this for anybody but wrestling, sports entertainment, is 'pre-determined.'
I used to run a night club in Fort Myers, Florida called Norma Jean's Dance Club. That was the hottest spot from Sarasota to Cuba.
I stretched my whole career - it didn't save me when I blew my back, and of course, that's where the whole things of DDP Yoga comes from.
People don't understand that, when I was at WCW, if I wasn't wrestling that night, I was down at the Power Plant teaching. I was teaching people how to do stuff, but every time you teach someone, you learn more. The more you learn, the more you teach. The more you teach, the better you get.
How could I not be the underdog, starting at 35 and a half and going from a manager and a fourth-string color commentator to being a wrestler?
Bottom line is, work ethic equals dreams, and I am walking proof that that's a fact.
I live by the business model that there is a better than, a less than, or a different than. Those are the three categories. I chose to be different than. The one that's different than will stand out with the proper work ethic.
Originally, when I was introduced to yoga, I kept resisting. I kept saying that I wouldn't be caught dead doing yoga.
From wrestling, I learned what I'm not going to do again.
When you look at me in the beginning of '96 and at the end of '96, I'm two different people.
I started wrestling when I was 35, but my career didn't take off until I was 40.
If you teach someone your craft, while you're teaching them, you're going to learn because you're going to get better at teaching, which is going to make you better at whatever you're doing.
I challenge anyone to find a better match than me and Goldberg at Havoc '98. There are few matches that were as physical, exhausting, and psychological as that one.
All the competitors knew the importance of Halloween Havoc. It was the WCW equivalent to SummerSlam.
One of my favorite things to do when I wasn't competing was to watch the cruiserweights.
Relationships are everything; a lot of people say it's who you know and who knows you. I believe it's all about who is willing to step up and say they know you. Who's willing to put their name on the line for you.
In our personal and professional lives, we are constantly hit with one adversity after the other, most of which we have no control over. But the four things we have total control over is how we react, how we adapt, how we breathe, and how we take action.
