Due to his recent health issues, Diamond Dallas Page will not be appearing at the Shock Pop Comic Con in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this coming weekend. Instead, Jake “The Snake” Roberts will be appearing.
Prior to being hospitalized, DDP spoke with the folks at the Miami Herald to promote the appearance. Below are highlights.
On building the DDP Yoga Performance Center in Atlanta: “The WWE has their Performance Center in Orlando. I loved the name of that. I didn’t want to call it a studio because it’s not a studio. It’s a soundstage studio. It’s more of a corporate headquarters, but when I heard Performance Center, I said, ‘That’s the name.’ It’s not just our corporate headquarters. It’s also our production headquarters where we do all of our filming and our editing. Our first film we ever made got accepted into Slamdance. What are the odds of that?”
On traveling for 12 hours before making it to his hotel the night before the Royal Rumble and taking a limo to the arena to keep it a surprise: “We stayed on this bus. Bubba [Ray Dudley] was losing his mind. He was stuck on this bus for seven hours. He said, ‘It’s like going to jail. I can’t take this.’ It was so worth it. For me, I never had the exit from wrestling I should have. Walking away, being on top. I had such a great run. I retired and then went to TNA to show I could still go. Though TNA is not WWE, so getting to come back two months from 59 and go out there and move in that ring and hitting the Diamond Cutter out of nowhere like I was doing it every night. People were like, ‘Man, you didn’t miss a beat.’ I was more worried about going from the top rope to the floor because my knees can’t take that kind of impact anymore. The way I got thrown out I caught myself and made it to the floor. I thought, ‘Thank God! I blew the roof off, and it’s over.’”
On wanting to feud with The Rock and seeing the McMahon’s at the Royal Rumble: “At the Rumble, Philly loved me. They were awesome. Philly don’t like the good guys. They like the bad guys. There are certain good guys they love, and I was lucky I was one of them. With Florida, when I showed up in WWE in Tampa and took the stalker mask off, the place went bat s—. It was probably one of the biggest pops in Monday Night Raw history. I never wanted to do that gimmick. I wanted to do ‘People’s Champion’ vs. ‘People’s Champion’ [with The Rock]. I think if my exit from wrestling would have been where I wanted it to be, I don’t think I would be the type of businessman I am today. Everything happens for a reason. I’m really happy the way things turned out. When I showed up to the Rumble, Stephanie [McMahon] gave me a big hug. Triple H gave me a big hug. Vince [McMahon] gave me a good handshake with a, ‘Good to have you here Diamond.’ It wasn’t like when you’re coming from WCW 13 years ago as the enemy. Now it’s like I’m part of the family.”
Check out the complete interview at MiamiHerald.com.