Insight with Chris Van Vliet - DDP on Shark Tank, his final match in AEW, saving Jake "The Snake" Roberts' life

Episode Date: February 12, 2021

Diamond Dallas Page talks with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Atlanta, GA. He talks about his new film "Relentless" on Amazon Prime, how DDPY has changed so many people's lives and the celebrities like Darius Rucker, Corey Taylor, Gabriel Iglesias, and Chris Jericho who believe in, his appearance on Shark Tank, his involvement with AEW, how he saved Jake "The Snake" Roberts' life, making his wrestling debut at 35 years old, the idea that you can achieve anything and much more!  If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to https://chrisvanvliet.com  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram:instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter:twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook:facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube:youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Good to see you. I'm Chris Van Fleet. I'm an Emmy Award-winning TV host, and I'm fascinated with finding out how people are wired to achieve greatness. On each episode of the show, we have in-depth conversations and reverse engineer the habits and techniques. the world's top athletes, actors, entrepreneurs, you name it. If they are the best at what they do, I want to get their insight so we can apply it to our own life. And it's so amazing when you look at everything that DDP has accomplished in his life. And it's even more amazing when you realize that he didn't start wrestling until he was 35 and a half.

And we talk about it a lot here, but he might be even more famous for creating DDPY and changing people's lives through that, than anything that he ever did in the ring. And it wasn't by accident. He was incredibly intentional every single step of the way. And he still is. And wait to you here, his morning routine of the things that he does to stay young and vibrant and healthy and sharp. I mean, he's about to turn 65 and he looks incredible. Share this with a friend. Share it on social media. tag us so that we can share it as well and say hello. I'm at Chris Van Fleet and Dallas is at Real DDP. And if you haven't yet, please subscribe wherever you're listening to this right now.

And if you have an extra, you know, 27 seconds or so, it'd be so appreciated if you could leave a review. Like this one, from Dame to Kill in Canada. He says, Rockstar! Chris Van Fleet is to podcasting as Van Halen is to rock. I don't know about that. He is an absolute rock star. His genuine charm is refreshing, and his interviews are deep.

Chris gets his guests to pour their hearts out, which other interviewers can barely scratch the surface. An authentic and passionate wrestling fan, Chris brings out the best in everyone that he interviews. Subscribing to his podcast is a must. Get with it and click it. I like that. Get with it and click it. Well, thank you so much for taking the time out to leave that review,

and I'll keep reading one out on every single episode until we get to that. of 2,000 reviews. Without further ado, let's get to this. And I'm so excited that we actually planned this interview and we get into it a little bit here. But the first interview that we did was completely accidental. It was completely random.

It was completely serendipitous. Get ready to be inspired by the Hall of Famer, Diamond, Dallas, Page. Bang, there he is. And I love that we, actually planned this interview, unlike the last one where you tried to break into my hotel room. That was the funniest thing. I was telling my girlfriend, Paige, the girl I've been with for last year and a half, her name, first name was Paige and her last name's McMahon.

I think you planned this. Jericho just burst out laughing when I told him. Yeah, because he was introducing her to him. It was funny. I still, like I was telling that story recently. I still can't believe that it was real. I still can't believe, number one, someone was trying to get into my hotel, of all the hotels, all the cities, right,

I just can't believe. And for people that don't know, like this happened like two and a half years ago, for all the people that could have tried to get in my room, it was Diamond Dallas Page. And here I am a wrestling fan. It was so serendipitous. But I was coming from my interview with Joe Rogan.

Right. And I drank so much tea there that by the time I got, my buddy let me out of the car, I realized, man, I got to go take a piss. And then, again, he took off and my wallet was in his car. So the shenanigans that I went through to finally, where I could got everything together. And then, like, DDP, the guy had a camera and he was videoing himself talking to his kid. I'm a diving down his page. I'm not just going to walk off, and I really got good at the bathroom at that point.

Get in that elevator, get up the wrong floor, not knowing it. What the hell is the matter what his door? And you open the door. I go, oh, damn. Sorry, bro. And you go, no, no problem. Big fan. And I was like, I have this YouTube channel.

I'd love to do an interview with you sometime. And you're like, how about right now? I'm like, okay, sure. I was so jacked up after being a Rogan But if you remember when you said no problem Big fan I went you're a big fan awesome Can I use your bathroom? And I got a big so bad

And then I realized That I didn't have my phone And I'm looking through all my She was totally out of my mind And I went downstairs And it was these two big Mexican dudes As I was looking around for my phone, they were looking at me. I'm thinking, they must be fans.

Turns out they weren't fans at all. They had taken a picture of my phone that was left on the ground of the elevator, facing up with a light up. So the light was off for the phone. And I take a picture of it. Look, I go, this your phone? I went, yes. That guy we handed it to him.

It was like super cool guys. You know, anybody could just whip at that phone. You know, it's a big payoff. But they were super cool and got thanked them. And I went upstairs and I was like, I'm so jacked up now. Let's do that interview right now. I love it. And I appreciate you doing that.

Like, you know, most people would have gone, you know, reach out to my publicist, reach out to my assistant. We'll set this up for some time. And then you'd actually never hear from them. The fact that we boom, did it right there and that we've kept in touch ever since. It means a lot to be. well I know as you know I am a people person man yeah it's the biggest reason why I've been successful when at every turn when everybody thinks that's like impossible what are you thinking you know

my wrestling career yeah I tried when I was 23 I had three matches it didn't work out for me in 1979 and I got sucked in. I was already in love with the bar business, so I got sucked into running my first, my first small little rock and roll joint. And I forgot about the dream. And then I came back to it in 1988 as a manager for the AWA, which was ridiculous that I would have pulled that off. I mean, to really understand how impossible it is for an outsider. to get involved in the business. Especially back then. And, you know, my wrestling career was an eight-year overnight success.

All of a sudden, everybody was like, oh, my God. It's like you came out of nowhere. Not really. Not really. So my thing just fleshed over to, let's hit pause for once. I just keep going. I'm just going to turn my phone off. because I didn't turn it on that.

I feel like Dallas is getting phone calls right. Airplane mode and we won't be interrupted by those flashes. But, you know, it's the main reason I've been able to do everything is because I'm a people person and you were super kind. And anybody who's, you know, I'm going to treat people the way they treat me always. And I don't care if you're running the 7-Eleven or you're the CEO of Apple. You know, it's just people, you know. When I've designed, it'll be in next week.

So the next interview we do, next year or whenever. I mean, I've built, I've got a desk coming in here. It's like, you know, it's about eight feet, and it goes up and down. It's going to have proper lighting. I mean, I've got this amazing, you know, picks behind me. Every picture tells a story, too. but yeah it's just it's fine like this room i love this room just giving me an idea of what this room looks like that over there is like we're oh my gosh the shake sake stuff is then you've got all this

here the big video room all the pictures and magazine covers yeah now this is in your house this isn't in the office no this is this is this is my house is uh in Atlanta is 8700 square feet. Oh my gosh. It's a palace. Yeah, it's, yeah.

And it's mainly the reason people don't get homes like this when they turn 60, but I did because, and I'm building another one down on the beach in Panama City Beach because they're going to be like, like,

wellness centers. Like for the boys, I've got Todd from, war machine. What's what's their new name? The Vikings. Oh, the Viking Raiders? Yeah. But Todd, you know, Todd, focus that.

Oh, wow. You know that, right? Yeah. Yeah. He literally sent me a picture of him diving that, that dive they do between the ropes. Like, that cat's over just over 300 pounds. Yeah. And he has been doing my workout, back when it wasn't DDPY, it was YRG, yoga for regular guys.

Like he goes back that far. Wow. And it's what kept him in the ring. But he knew coming out, like he literally was on his way, you know, from being injured to the hospital and say, you know, after he'd seen his neck and how bad it was screwed up. He's like, can I come see you? You know, when I get done, Tomaso did the same thing, Tomaso Chapa, when Drew McIntyre, you know, the champ. tour his tricep. He came up here.

As soon as he could do other things besides the rehab, he came and spent, he drove seven and a half hours to work with me for four hours and drove back to Tampa. Wow. I mean, it was super tight. All those guys, because they know that, first of all, they look at,

how the hell can he do this shit? I'm going to be 65 in a month and a half. you know, how am I still running like I'm in my 40s? And I can't go out there and bounce around every night anymore. But I can go out there one night and tear it down. Now, I'll be crippled, you know, after something like that. It wouldn't be worth it to me. The stuff I did with Cody last year, that was just fun.

You know, that was just, that was just fun. Is that your official last match, you think? Yes, yes, it's got to be. And Cody, of course, you know, Cody's like, like my nephew. I just got off the phone with them. We talk, we talk every week. And, uh, and, and we had to get on a schedule with Cody because there'd be like months where we went

dark, but I'd see about my performance center, because that's when we film a lot of the AW stuff. So I'd follow to see him. I'm like, listen, bro, like, I need, con, you know, so I know you're crazy busy. I need to be able to connect with you, you know. And, uh, And bottom light, he goes, how about we just schedule it? He goes, what works for you? I roll Friday and 12 o'clock works fine.

He goes, me too. Well, that time could change. Yeah. It keeps us connected as he's going through this incredible ride. And that's why, and I told him, I said, whatever I do for you, if I do anything on TV or hit a diamond cutter, or you need me to do something, sign me in, put me up. I ain't charging you. Because I wanted him to know, I don't want a contract.

I don't need a money. I want to be your voice that you know I want nothing from you. And I wanted him to have that because me and this guy right here, you see that picture of the dream right there? There he is. That's 30 years ago. Wow. Me and I was working with him in Florida championship wrestling.

And then, of course, right next to that is the greatest football. tie the one only nature boy and i'm wearing gold yeah i'm wearing his his strap temporarily you've kind of like become this like you've kind of like become this like father figure in wrestling like looking after a lot of guys who couldn't look after themselves when did when did this start to become a thing always done it you know i've always you know i've always you know i parented myself you know my dad I love him but he was a drunk you know and uh that he's not because he's in a home you know but uh giving the chance he's going to be at the bar having a couple cocktails and uh so and my mom gave us to my grandmother because she had to make money to help support the side of

the family who up north and work at see by the time i was three years old my mom was married divorced and had three kids she was 19 So being bounced around and ended up my grandmother. She was a great lady, but she was afraid for me going through metapause. So kind of raised myself. And I just because I never had any of that, you know, I've always given to people. And it's just been part of what I do. Before there was DDP yoga, before that even existed, when I was wrestling,

I helped Kidman, Disco, Glacier, Canyon, Raven. I mean, I can name 30 guys that either I got original jobs for that never should have, would have never got the offer. Kidman is the best example. There is no way that kid ever would have been able to get in, but he had Canyon. And Kanye would tell me about him all the time. And I'm like, Chris, I've gotten too many guys' jobs right now, and I don't want to keep going back to Eric.

So please, please, just watch this finish. And he put the tape in. And Chris did that frigging, I forget what he called it. Shooting star press. I had never seen, and no one had ever seen anything like that. I pulled the tape out of the deck. I go, okay, I got to walk down the street, up the hill, down the hill, Eric Dixon off an island, across the street from each other, on the other side of the hill.

And Dustin Rose, Michelle Rose, who I thanked in my Hall of Fame acceptance speech, because without Michelle, Cody's mom, once Dusty leaves Florida Championship wrestling, I probably, you know, maybe I don't get to connect with him anymore. But he'd given me his number. He loved me. But when I call up and he'd be on the road, and I didn't bother. I call this being pleasantly persistent.

And whenever I'd call, Michelle would talk to me. And she'd say, don't worry, Dallas. Cody will call you. I mean, Cody. Dusty will call you. And he did. And knowing him, the way I would really get to know him, in the next 10 years, like, he actually picked up the phone and called this Gibroni.

Like, seriously? It was, it was a stretch, man. It was a stretch. But Michelle, Michelle was amazing. What was I saying right for Michelle? He was talking about Kidman and Eric Bischar. Oh, yes. Yes.

So I bring the tape down to Bischoff. I sit down on the couch. She's watching TV. commercial comes up. And I go, I look at him, I go, you want to see one of the coolest finishes you've ever seen? He goes, sure. I pop it in just to finish, just the finish. He looks like he goes, wow, I was impressive.

He goes, what's he doing now? I said, looking for a job. He goes, 400 a week started with the developmental. I said, done. Walked out, said, enjoy the movie. Walk back to Kenya, I go, he's in. Wow. When it came to Raven, Scotty and I were really good friends when I came in as a manager.

And he was doing Scotty to Body back then. And, you know, it was hey, goy. And he'd be talking like a rap, you know, white little rapper guy, you know. And at some point. I can't remember. I'm pretty sure he left there. And I don't remember if he was doing independence or what. And I was over in Germany.

And I was watching MTV, because that was a base of a lot of my ideas coming up in the nightclub business, because MTV was so hip in the 80s and the 90s. Yeah. And I was watching their, MTV Music Awards and the only bands that I really knew were Bruce Springsteen and Erasmith. Everything else was like Nirvana and Green Day.

And I didn't really know those, that grunge rock, because it had really come to power. And I was folk, I was probably listening to a lot of country and older rock and all the time. But I watch and look at these kids and I'm like, man, I go, that's crazy that I don't notice music. I want to start listening to it. And then we got in the car. My buddy, Tony Powell Grossi picked me up, who was a big, he was a big promoter in New Jersey as a, we used to run nightclubs together. And he actually is the biggest promoter in New Jersey with rock and roll bands, any kind of bands. And he'd pick me and Kim up. And we were driving back to go to my grandmother's house. And I was talking about MTV and how being over there, the only pants

around like this grunge rock. And Tony goes, that's, yeah, he goes, that's like, that's the sound now. He goes, who in wrestling represents that? And I said, no one. Now, I'm thinking Michael PSA rock and roll. You know, Sean Michaels, Rock and Roll Express type, that thing. They had that kind of thing. So, of course, the 80s was a rock and roll express. You know, like, but I was thinking, like, I'll go, yeah, who could do that? And Kimberly says, Scottie could do that. And I went, yes, he could. So when I got home, I told him the idea. I said, you know, me and Hayman, Paul Heyman, uh, were pretty tight back then. We, we talked over the years quite a bit. And I knew what he was doing with ECW, you know?

And he needed talent, but he needed talent that had, you know, some real spark. And that's what he was getting at creating, because he's a genius in our business. He just is. And I remember walking over what the character was, listening to the music,

because he was being listening to hip-hop back then. I'm like, you need to shift gears. You need to listen to this music and blah, blah, blah. And at some point, he'd start, he'd start talking, he'd have it, have it. And then he might go, yeah, boy, and I went, click. And what did you call? You hang out before I go, that's not the character. Learn the character.

Who is he? And then when he called me that one day, and he told me it was Raven, and what about me? What about Raven? Now, that's Scottie, especially back then. What about me? what about Raven? And he had like a troubled youth coming up with the parents

and that, you know, shit that he went through. And he had a lot of darkness, you know, in his soul back then. Today he's amazing. I was blown away. We both grown so much. It's crazy. But he gave it to me. And I said, that's it.

Let me call Paul. So I call Paul up. And I say, listen, bro. you got to see what Scotty's doing. He's doing this thing. It's called Raven Pond. But I couldn't even get six sentences out. He's like, I'm in.

Well, good. I go, but Paul. I got to be straight with you, bro. I'm helping Eric create talent. And I'm going to want him to come back. And I told him that. He was like, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. He figured he just gets excited.

But eventually, of course, he did come. Yeah. And the reason why, I dropped that U.S. strap after that one of us having to Scotty was because I wanted to build him up. I wanted to help lift him up. And I knew what happened, but then they got this airbrain thing for Goldberg just to beat him,

and then I'll have two straps. I don't know what they were doing, building him, but not from Scotty. Because Scotty could have been a main event guy. I mean, he had everything. He could work his ass off. He was so much fun to work with. He was creative as hell.

But again, it's just stuff I did. And I guess maybe, you know, it comes down because, you know, my dad wasn't there. You know, so I became like all of the, you know, guys that, you know, I would look at in super band, that's stand up, dude. Like, Eric Bishop is not really the most social person, but as a businessman, and I'm As a father, he's like 12 on a 1 to 10, 10 sheet, man. The cat is an amazing dad. My brother-in-law, Paul Smith, an amazing dad.

You know, there's just guys that are really, really good at. And I just, me helping people, it became a part of what I did in my real life. And then DDPY just took it to another level. You saw our new documentary, Relentless, right? That was so good. You know, so I watched that, and it was just amazing to me, everything that you've accomplished in your life. You've had a legendary career, legendary life, Hall of Fame career.

But it's amazing to me to think that there's a lot of people that don't think of you as a wrestler anymore. They're more familiar with your work with DDPI. They're more familiar with your work as like a guru almost. Yeah, it's funny because, you know, Brian, Ryan Alvarez's. Yeah. Right. He writes and has some show on the Observer channel for Meltzer's channel, for those

you who don't know, 12 years ago, and me and Brian are friends from years. 12 years ago, he asked me, and I remember this is, I see 12 years ago would be like 2008. Okay. You know, DDP Yoga has not in any way blown up. I'm still four years away from that actually happening. And he said, so let me ask you, where is Diamond Dallas page five years from now? And where is he 10 years from now?

And I said to him, he was looking up on his podcast that he had way back then. He was one of the first podcasters out there. I said five years from now, I will start to be known as the new Jack La Lane meets Tony Robbins, meets straight Richard Simmons. And he laughed just like you. And I said, honestly, bro, I think 10 years from now, what I'm doing with my program is going to start to dwarf my wrestling career. And he went, well, he went, bro, come on.

And you really think that's going to happen? Like, you had a pretty legendary career. Yeah. I said, yeah, but I'd already known what it did for Arthur, the disabled veteran. I didn't have that form of the video. I mean, his son made one up, which was pretty impressed. But when Steve Hugh remade that video in 2012, my business partner, also the director of the resurrection of Jake the snake. And if you're watching, if you've never seen the resurrection of Jake,

take the same. When you go watch Relentless on Amazon Prime, I will guarantee it says right under. Movies also you'll want to watch. It's a resurrection. If you go to resurrection, you see Relentless there. And by the way, Relentless

is free for everybody. You don't need to pay to watch this. It's free on Amazon. Right. Right. If you've got Amazon Prime and you can get it, even for 30 days, you can go and watch it. And reviews have been amazing. People love it. I'm going to read one review because I find it really funny that we started this.

About six years ago, Steve, you, my business partner, said, you know, I want to create a mini doc that it's not about 15, 20 minutes, but just shows what our company is about. Yeah. And I want to give it to Nathan. Now, Nathan Mallory is the director of Judas, which is Jericho's first really big hit. Sure. And he filmed it at my GDP of a performance center. And I gave him, Nathan, we gave all the assets, whatever I wanted to do, we took care of everything. And I told him, I said, this kid could really.

do some stuff with you. And he's going to work with me for a while, but at some point he's going to be doing his own shit. You know, so I think it's really, you know, great for you guys to get together. And now, since then, Nathan's done four videos,

and he just did that newest documentary that Chris produced, which is called, I'm too old for this shit. Right. And it's about a legendary band, you know, that this had just,

they play again 30 years later, which is pretty crazy. But Nathan did all that documentary on that. He did that whole documentary. My point is that back in the beginning, he starts to do this. And Steve has to do another cut. And then Steve sent it to me and says,

I think this is this something else? He said, tell me what you think. I call him back. Wow, that's really inspiring, man. He goes, yeah, I think it's bigger than just the company. So if you talk about Steve Jobs, what are you going to talk about?

You're going to talk about Apple. And that's it. At least with Dallas Page, you're going to talk about wrestling, and you're going to talk about DVI. So on that note, I get this review up there, and this just made me laugh. And let's see where the hell it is.

The guy writes, admittedly, in this whole first sentence, is a huge compliment to me. It said, admittedly, there are a few moments when I felt like I was watching the most well-produced infomercial ever.

I think this the way said it, I thought it was beautiful. Because anything you're doing it with anybody, it's technically, you know, promoting what they're doing. I mean, that's what documentaries are all about. Sure. But he writes, epitist,

nonetheless, it's pretty damn epic. And in these unstable times, it's quite inspiring to see how the positive intention behind DDPY rippled out into the world to create positive change. Now, this really cracks me up here. He says, I've had the DVD set sitting around my house for quite a while, but I think I'll finally try it out instead of merely having it and pretending that's good enough. Classic. And then he finishes with this. The DDPI crew is making the world a better place.

And this film documents that fact. Wow. So, yeah. Does it seem like it? times we're what we're into but it's all the things we do and you can't document it without having all those stories and everything you know i think that a lot of people think that you just work with wrestlers but then you watch relentless and you're like oh my god dallas has worked with darius rucker with corey taylor with gabriel eglacius and so many other people and you've

not just worked with them you've changed their lives and to me it's just it's super powerful me The emails I get on a daily basis, you know, on our app, which if everybody wants to try the app, it costs you nothing. Like, nothing. So you got no excuses. You got seven days free on the app. Every Monday I do motivational Monday, pump people up for the week. There's over 300 of them up there.

Every Tuesday, I put up a new workout. It could be sitting in a chair. It could be psycho extreme. It could be laying in bed. It could be using a chair. Wednesday, a new recipe, healthy, delicious food. Because of the pandemic, we film what we're eating that night. That's what we film.

And there's new recipes every week. Every Thursday I just added on DDP's tip of the week. That could be showing you how to do Black Crow and working. on it so you put your elbows on your knees but learn how to fall and then I take you there or it could be something I read on Facebook or something I saw that I thought was just amazing and I want you to see it too and then there's fabulous Facebook Friday that's where I just go on to a site that my buddy Chris Cabriano started he was a member who did the program and then 10 people were there and then 100 people were there and then I blinked my eyes and 10.

thousand people were there. Now there's 56,600 people on there. And every week, the 10 days, it goes up another thousand people right now. Wow. Because I'm just reading stories, what people are writing. And then putting my own little opinion on it.

Or great job. Give yourself a 7-5-5, whatever it is. And this week's is really cool. It's about to go up like, you know, pretty, it's up by now. But it just went up. And it was really cool. It was about this couple, you know, because of the pandemic and decided they're going to, they're going to take control of their lives.

And in five months, because they were so diligent eating, I mean, they were eating for fuel, not for just wanting to pig out. They've been doing that. She lost 83 pounds, and he lost 107. Wow. Five months. Yeah. And they show you the pictures and the story,

and they're super active on the site now. It's just people are coming there and they're helping each other. That's what that site's all about. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Is there something interfering with your happiness or is preventing you from achieving your goals? BetterHelp will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. You can start communicating in under 48 hours. Now, this isn't a crisis line. This isn't

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slash insight. What do you think are like three actionable things that people can do right now that will improve their life? Right now to improve their lives, stand up straight. Like literally, stop slouching. Like literally. your shoulders back, you know, your physiology has so much to do with the way. I'm going to do this with you. Yeah, but it is, you know, it's like to prove their lives is,

you know, they've got to take action. And I'll give you the number one thing. They should read this book, positively unstoppable, because this is about the art of owning it. If I pick one thing for them to do, go join the positively unstoppable.com million dollar challenge because everything's there. It's like you, the people who won last year, none of them, none of them went there for the money.

They went there for accountability. They went there to be around people who have like-minded, like, If you're, when I got Jake to stop drinking, killing, coking and cracking, I took them out of that environment and I put him in our environment. And then Scott Hall came into our environment.

Like, if you do fuck up, fall down and go get high for the day, that'll be it. It won't be for three weeks or a month or a year. Yeah. Like one day and you saw Jake in resurrection, you know, fall down. Yeah, I'm not going to walk around behind him and watch what he's doing. I'm going to expect him to find his own accountability at some point.

But we had a whole team around those guys. You become the five people you hang out most with. You around a lot of people eat all the time and that's their life. You're going to be one of those people. They drink all the time and that's their life. really good chance, you're going to be one of those people, smoke pot. I don't care what it is, whatever it is. They play basketball all the time.

You're going to play basketball. You know, it's whatever they're doing, you're going to gravitate towards. So if you don't like where you are, if you don't, if you have a problem with, you know, your self-worth, which just about everyone does, you know, in some level or another, I've seen the most famous guys in the world. I know them. And there's time where they crack and they lose their self-confidence.

Like everybody does. But the number one thing in my program does, the number one thing. It builds confidence. And I can prove it for one example after another. And I'm talking about thousands of people, tens of thousands.

that positively unstopped, challenge, we do it from January 1st to October 31st. Pick six months in there, whether it's from January 1st to July 31st, or if it's from March to September, whatever it is, those six months, whatever are your best six months.

The third place gets five grand, second place gets 10 grand, first place gets a chance of a million dollars. In one of these positively unstoppable books, we bring you in. We fly the three people in and their significant other, put them up. They get to come to my Christmas party, which this year was a COVID-free Christmas party. Everyone had to have a test. In 48 hours, had to come up negative.

And then they got in. Sure. If they didn't have that test and they didn't get in, nobody got COVID out of it. So bottom line is all these people got these, because it wasn't three, it was four. Out of the thousands of people who started the contest, we narrowed it down the four. I couldn't narrow it down to three. I just couldn't do it. Not until everything I do, Chris, how does that make me feel about me?

That's why when I do something and sometimes I'm going to, oh, God, I wish I would do that. You know, maybe I said the wrong thing and they changed what I said. Like, GDP says, blah, blah, what they call, shoots on, whatever, right? Yeah, that's the only shit I'm really self-conscious about because I don't want that article. That doesn't make me feel good about me. Even no matter what's in the article, you know, they're just pulling the shit out. Yeah. So I really, I'm conscious of that always.

but for these three people, I couldn't pick three. I could only pick four. So instead of splitting third place and giving them both $2,500, I had to give them those $5,000 of my money because I said, no, there's going to be four. But I felt really good about that.

There's all four of them, any one of them good one, physically, with their physical transformation. In a six-month period, someone trying to get in doing FaceTime. Oh, man. You went around the phone call here. Right. All four people could have won their physical transformation.

Now, the second level is mental transformation. And that's where this book is gold. It's platinum. Because the art of owning it is teaching you how to own your inner voice. Own the story you tell yourself and you can control it. It's 100%

in your control. When you say, oh, you made me do that. No, that's not what happened. You let that affect you and then you did that. Yeah. You know, from how you talk to people? I mean, it's just

it's really, I based it on the first chapters called Living Life at 9. percent based on life's 10 percent of what happens to you and 90 percent of how you react to it. And there's so many examples of not just mine. I use people just like I did in this, it's like I did in the documentary relentless. I use their stories. Yeah.

Because all they're doing is following the Yellow Brick Road. Now, when I look at all four of them, Justin Dobbins, who by the way, on his own, 6'7, 698 pounds. On his own, in one year, lost 174 pounds. Wow. Within the six months that he picked, he lost 87 pounds. In 22 months, Justin Dobbins, no stomach surgery. When he started DDPI at 524, 10 months from there,

add on the 174 pounds, so 22 months total, he lost a 401 pounds. That's like two people. And the reason why he did that was because his body was so beat up. Walking was killing him. Yeah. So once he put in our program, now he's strongest. Now, I mean, he's jacked. Like, it's unbelievable.

And he's got a bunch of skin there, too, as you can imagine. So he's really like 270 and 6'7. I mean, the guy's a stud. He's in third place, by the way. Okay? And the other guy, Scotty Boots Jorgensen, he lost like 95 pounds and six months. He looked amazing.

But both those guys, they didn't really document it, like video documenting stuff. They just basically took pictures and talked a little bit, you know, showed like some positioning or whatever, that they were just seeing how bad they were in the beginning. and how good they could be. None of these four people got into this contest to win money.

They got in it to be accountable. So Justin, I remember him going on that DDP yoga site, and that's DDP yoga, one word on Facebook. I can't remember seeing them on there and him saying, I just want everybody to know, I joined the contest, I'm not here to win money. I'm here because I want to continue to, be accountable and I want to help you stay accountable.

And I was like, wow. Yeah. So the girl Caitlin Kay, she won 10 grand. She was like 75 pounds. The year before, she did, she lost 33 pounds. And the girl who won it was a girl named Candy MacArthur Herndon. And you've got to see her video, bro, because her mental transformation was off the hook. and she filmed herself

day one with her face and the desperation she got in on the very last day at six months which is April 30th and she started then and she couldn't believe it because she has Hashimoto's disease

because the doctor said you're never going to be able to lose weight on your own. You need to get that stomach surgery. And bottom line is she'll have 17 pounds that first month. Wow. She would end up losing 87 pounds total in six months and look beautiful, like beautiful. And she's just like, none of those people came into it to win money. They came in to be accountable. So if you ask you, that's the one thing I would do, like,

besides stand up, breathe, go sign up for positively and stopple.com. It costs nothing. And it'll be in a really cool group of people. The thing that I'm so curious about is people that function at the level that you function at, start their day with a routine. So I'm very curious, Dallas. What's the first 30 minutes of your day look like? Once or twice a week, I just roll over and hug my old lady and just hang with her for about 10, 15, 20 minutes. You know, but as I, if she's seen that dead sleep because she doesn't sleep well at a time, I completely even leave her. alone. I roll out of bed.

There's a thing called ashtac anthin. And it's the number one health. It's God, how do I explain it? Except for it's red

algae that they put in chocolate that's the highest antioxidant you can eat. My buddy who many people sell it, but who has the purest of it all. I thought one of those in my mouth, put one in the pocket. I walk, I go to take my elevator down to the bottom of the floor,

and I walk into my hyperbaric chamber room. I get in the chamber, I zip it up, it blows up, takes me to 12 PSI, which is 30 feet below sea level. I've got my mask on, breathing in 100% oxygen, and I get on my phone. And I go through whatever emails came in later, whatever text is, whatever my day is going to look like, What's my schedule?

Chris Van Pelt, set an alarm. Like, I've got four alarms. Cody, 11, 359, make sure your phone's on, set an alarm. I leave my phone off. If I see it, I see it. But if I'll always check the texting, but if I have a call or a schedule deal, like I've got to alarms going off to 730. And so then I know what I've done and what I'm going to do.

So like with you with the hyperbaric chamber and the oxygen, are you planning to like, is your goal to live to be 120, 30, 40, something like that? I tell everybody that I've been saying this for the last 10 years. I'm not training and preparing for 65 because that will be here tomorrow. I've been saying this for the last 10 years. I've been preparing for 75, 85, 95, 95, and even 105. and I'm planning, and you guys would see me sitting here this whole time. You might see me do it occasionally, but you don't stand here and talk to you and take my foot

and pull it out in front of me and have a conversation with you and then open all the way up and sit here and talk to you. This is 6.4, 226 pounds of unstoppable muscle. Wow. You know, that my court is so strong. That's why when I said I can go out there and go out and do about a 20-minute match and tear it down, I'll be 65 in a month and a half. I won't do that, you know, because, you know, I know what the, I know what the, I know what the,

pay off. I know what the, what damage it could do. And because right as soon as I get off, out of my high blood sugar, and I could be in there an hour, hour and a half. Then I get out and I go upstairs. My girl gives me an amazing shake. That's a protein shake. I drink that.

I lay on my beamer pad, which Kevin Nash turned me on to. My hands were so numb at night. I'd have to wake up and do this to get the, you know, just the blood circulating. Wow. Nash, it's not a Beamer Pad. It's a rip-off of the Beamer Pad, which is a third to tenth of the price, maybe 20% of the price. Beamer pad is like 6 grand. I pay $1,200 for this thing, and I've gotten it for $700.

And if you just look up, Beamer blood flow video, when you see what happens to your blood, being on this pad twice a day 15 you go start at 8 minutes I go to 22 minutes when I'm watching TV or I'm on my phone while I'm on the pad in five days zero zero numbness and when you see the blood and then I can do my brain mapping

which most people have no idea what the fuck that means and all I know is Now, you know, I do stuff like on once a week. I have a friend of mine who has a huge complex that's anti-aging. So he sends me for cost, IV bags, vitamin C, blue to thyroid, NAD, NAD, NAD, my brain is so sharp. I'll forget little shit here and there, but I just read for a script. it was five pages. I had 80% of the dialogue.

In two days, I knew it all. Wow. I could recite it to you both sides right now. I don't know if I got the part, but I blew the director away. And, because we're doing all this stuff now, you know, the zooming stuff. And I won't know until February

because they have to, they wait until they need you and that's like, okay, come now. Yeah. But it's a great, great part. If I get in and I'll come back to you and talk about it because it's really, really cool. So I'm constantly training to hold back to hands of time. So I want to springboard up that Brian Alvarez question that he asked you 12 years ago. And I want to ask you now, where do you see DDP 10 years from now?

10 years from now, I'll be training the top athletes, well, three years from now, I'll be training the top athletes in the world that are coming back from injury. I'll be training a very small group of guys who understand preventative maintenance. Like, if you do my program at the level, just at the level that the 65-year-old guys do it, just at that level, the chance of your 22 or 28-year-old self, the chance of you getting injured has at least come to 50% of that. Wow. And it's a huge difference.

It's a huge difference. Look at Chris Jericho. Yeah. You know, look at Chris Jericho. You know, AJ Styles, DJ, that's south of it five days a week, man. You know, frigging Drew Bacquitire, works it into his workout every day he works out.

You know, Chris Jericho. He got to do something. I want to know what Chris Jericho's doing because he can drink like a Viking. On top of that, he's got some kind of... He's a rock star. What are you guys? He is. You know, there's a guy when he says he's going to do something, he does it.

Yeah. And he does it at his highest level. Yeah. And he's having fun. Every one of the things that he learns to do, play music, wrestle, and do podcasts. He would do for free. Yeah. Now, he makes a lot of money doing all three of them.

But, you know, he's doing something he loves to do. Yeah. You know, that's the key. We don't have a ton of time left, but I want to be respectful of your time. I'm really curious. How much did Shark Tank change your life and change your business? Arthur was the first thing when we went, that's a stable veteran video went viral.

He's still the biggest still component because he looks like that's impossible. Yeah, yeah. But if he can do it. But if he can do it, so can I. And he came with us to Shark Tank, too. I never went there for a deal. I went there to get us awareness. And I only offered him 5%.

And it was so much fun. We had the biggest flash. You get to see it in relentless. Because we film when we talked about that. Yeah, you guys are like, lose. Ah, you guys are cheering and I love it. You have to remember. We filmed for an hour.

We don't know what they're going to use. And there's a few times where I got in, like, in, like, especially the woman's face with a short hair. She goes, Barbara? I'm going to have to pass. You're a lot. You're a lot. What she said? You're a lot like the naked cowboy.

He was there. And I looked at right. And I said, barbs. He said, I'm nothing like the naked cowboy. Nothing. I mean, I got a little. stiff in some people's face, you know, a couple times. And they didn't show any of that.

So that was, I mean, I was, if I edited it myself, I could have edited it better. Yeah. Like I said, we made, we made a million dollars in five days. Wow. You know, I mean, it's our business, starting in May of 2012, has just continued to grow and grow and grow and grow. I could do nothing right now for the rest of my life. Sure. If I die tomorrow, it'll triple. It'll triple. When I die 40 years from now,

it will have already quadrupled. You're going to die 80 years from now, Dallas, whatever you've got going on. Whatever it is, whenever God calls me to come, I'm ready. I really am. I've lived five lives. I've been so blessed. I've never been happier. in my life. The girl that I was right now, we've been together close to a year and a half now. She sent me something when we were just getting to know each other like really well, just through writing each other and talking.

It took a long time where we actually got back together. We dated nine years ago. And she sent me a thing of us, I think, one's true love is fun. someone who speaks your language so you don't spend an eternity translating your soul. Wow. Well, I found that person now. So now I kind of really want to.

I'd like to be around, but if I'm not, I'm not. But I'd like to be around because I am myself, like everybody kind of hides a little bit of themselves. They hold that in. Nothing. Yeah. And I'm as free as I've ever been. I feel great.

my business is helping people on different level every day. What time are we at right now? We got like less than five minutes. All right. Let me read you something that's super powerful. Make this the last story. And then I got one question to end things on. This has been amazing.

Okay. I got to read this to you. This is the kind of shit. I don't get this every day, but I get this every week or two. Something like this. This is the extreme version. So it's something like this.

One day my phone's going ding, ding, ding, because for some reason I let Twitter notifications on there. And it must have been something that God put together or something because I don't leave that on. So I just said, I just turned it off through my pocket. But when I went to bed that night at 12 o'clock, 12.15, 1230, 30, somewhere around there. I, I'm going to read that. And this guy writes, on DM me.

sir, I'm not even sure how to address you, Mr. Page, Dallas, DDP. In March of this year, I was at my absolute heaviest. My diet was poor, my body was falling apart, and I was having some serious health issues. I got to the point where my doctor saw me for a visit, and he said something along the lines of, I didn't think I was going to see you again. I really thought you were going to die between visits. A week later, my wife comes in and a bedroom,

tells me, our marriage is over. She has an important friend of the 90s to leave with as much dignity as I can muster. I moved out of my house and into the apartment. The pandemic had taken hold, so I was experiencing health issues that medical professionals thought would kill me. The virus was wreaking havoc on my body while my entire life was falling apart. A friend of mine sold me a cop of YRG, my early ship. a few years ago, but I didn't really suck my teeth to know because I was too busy with work and living a life that was killing me. Since there was nowhere to go but up, I put in a copy of Fat burner. I hurt, but it was a good distraction from an incredibly broken heart. One of my colleagues had noticed that I was making a change and asked me what I was doing.

When he heard I was doing YRG, he told me, you know, DDP got a new. book out, you might like it. Now, it's important. Positively Unstopped was the name. The art of owning it is a tag, right? He writes, after work, I stopped by Barnes & Noble and picked up positively owning it. That's what he got out of that. That book made me see my situation, truth.

That book made me see the truth in my situation. Yes, my wife dropped kicked my heart into my ass. Yes, she was just someone new. Yes, I just started over at 35 years old. All those things considered was my responsibility to react to take charge. I couldn't change what had happened, but I could take control of where I was going. At this point, I'm reading, if it's five more pages, I'm reading that, you know? Because I'm like, wow.

I couldn't change what had happened, but I could change. I could take control of where I was going, my diet, my exercise, my lifestyle. All became contingent on what I was doing instead of looking at my sudden lifestyle changes as something that happened to me. I drew from the inspiration from positively owning it. I love that. began seeing my situation as an opportunity to be excited about the changes in my life. I was becoming strong. I didn't see dieting is becoming depressed about what I could eat, but jazzed about what I could eat.

Through your wisdom and encouragement, I began listening to my body. That is pivotal and so insightful. I paid attention to what my body ran well on. What my body didn't react well to, this is heavy. And what foods affected my mood in different ways. Restrictive diets don't work. And because I was listening to what my body was fasting for, I didn't have to go on a restrictive diet.

I substituted garbage for high octane fuels. I left my home in April 4th, 2020, at my heaviest. When I waited as a doctor last week, I had shed 60 pounds in four months time. My blood pressure had improved. My mental clarity, my stamina, my mood. You want to know why you're so depressed. Stop eating shit. He got that.

My mood. My body was stronger than it been since I was 25. I still have a very long way to go. But now I know I'm equipped for the battle, not just to win, not just to fight, but to win. I'm sure you hear this a lot, Mr. Gowles. But your work has absolutely saved my life. Your workouts are encouraging and tough. Your book is incredible.

This is heavy. Diamond Dallas Page took me from someone who was falling asleep, standing up in the shower, to someone who can finally look at himself in the mirror and be proud of who he's becoming. You are doing God's work, sir. as a kid this is beautiful

as a kid who stayed up late on Monday nights to see the NWO did a heaping helping of the diamond cutting and remembers hating Dennis Rodman for interrupting

BDT almost getting in the wolf back I can't imagine a better spirit on earth to inspire my journey. Now, this is

what Albert calls critical mass. Oh, my God. Yeah, that's a big dude. 552 pounds. What do you think I did after I read that? What do you think I did? Knowing you, you probably immediately called him because that's

what you would do. I didn't have his number, so I hit him back at 12.31 in the morning, send me your number. 1232, he sent it back. 1232, I called. And we talked for 45 minutes to an hour. Can't remember exactly.

And I gave him my email. And I said, get off the DVDs, get on the app, watch the first video on the dashboard, go to the menu. I'm not going to write all this down. Go to the menu. Go down to user guide. Watch the video. Scroll down to the list.

You do everything on the list, everything. And you call me back. And are you email me? And I'll call you back. And if you continue to put the work in, I'll talk to you once a month. Wow. that was he's been totally working out now doing the program for nine months he is 146 pounds down

wow that's incredible and this is what you do this is what you do dallas you change people's lives that's what i do that's what i do it's yeah that's what i do i end every interview i'm a big gratitude person. I know that you are as well. And I'm very, I end every interview by asking, what are three things that you're grateful for in your life right now? Number one, Paige McMahon. For real, I'm so grateful to God for, you know, finally putting me with someone that we each speak each other's language. You know, that's very important. I'm so grateful that I'm have the health that I have.

Because really, that's number one. Page would be number two. And I'm grateful that, you know, in these really hard times that, you know, God has blessed me to be able to do what I do, you know. It's crazy. You know, I've been able to live this dream and still help my boys. You know, still help. You know, like when Todd gets in here, or, you know, Jake comes back through or Jimmy Garvin.

I mean, I can't believe Jim Garvin does my program. And he's lost a bunch of weight and he feels so much better. I mean, so many of the guys, the more old-timers I can get, Brian Blair, you know. He's at the CEO of Collier Flower League club that doesn't take any administrative. administration fees. Like, you get put in the CAC, you gotta fly yourself out and put yourself up. Paying doing shit for you.

The money that they were raised, good to help the boys who really need it. So, those are my nine, two charities are disabled veterans and the CAC. We just started another program called

Watch what happens with the warrior purpose that we started for veterans and what we're doing for veterans. And anybody who's listening to this, that is a veteran, knows a veteran. Like, I never do more than 30% off on my program ever because I know how much work I put into it and what I'm constantly putting into the app

and what it costs me to do everything I do. So I never do more than 30%. That's only for Christmas time. And then it goes back to 20 or 15 or 10, wherever it's at the time right now. 20, but if you're a veteran, it's always 50% off. Wow. Always.

Always every single day. You know, 365. So it's just giving back, man. So I'm grateful that I have the ability, you know, and the stick toitiveness to have really stuck with something. Because in wrestling, I was an eight-year overnight success. DEPI, eight-year overnight success. I'll leave you with this last thing. Are you fam boy, do you like watching any of the superhero stuff, movies or any of that stuff?

Do you like any of that? Yeah, of course. We've got one coming out on Netflix, probably around, probably going to be summer, but I'm thinking it could be spring. Most likely summer. It's called Guardians of Justice. And no one has ever seen anything like it. and it's an Adi Shankar experience, and he's a genius behind it,

but I'm also one of the producers and creators of it, but Adi is the real brain behind it all. So that's something for people to look at. When that hits, you can really get lucky, because you never know what's going to hit when it comes to that shit. But I think it's going to be pretty amazing. And then that would change my life again. well you're pretty amazing you're an inspiration to me you're an inspiration to everybody and i just

want to say thank you for everything that you've done and then everything you're continuing to do well thank you bro no i'm a big fan of yours and uh our chance meeting at the hotel uh it's colbert at our colbert city in century city california right there in la we're going to see each other for a lot, man. So keep up the great work. Love what you do. And I appreciate you having me on. Everybody, again, relentless, it is on Amazon Prime.

Go there. You can't leave a review on Amazon Prime. You have to get off, go to where the Amazon app is, where you buy shit. Then you can go there and pull up a $5.00's page. And relentless, tell us what you thought, you know? and everybody's opinion is valid, good, bad, or indifferent. So I have a great day, buddy. Got to rock.

It's been your pleasure. Bang! That man is passionate. Love it. Big thank you to Diamond Dallas Page for the amazing conversation. And a bigger thank you to you for listening and hanging out with us all the way until the end. If you're new here, make sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss it. out on any future interviews.

And perhaps you're one of the many thousands of people that DDP has helped with DDPY. He is changing people's lives. And I can't encourage you enough to check out Relentless on Amazon Prime. It's such a great look at who Dallas is and the amazing work that he's doing. Share this with a friend, who you know will be inspired by this and take a screenshot and tag us on social media so we can say hello. I'm at Chris Phamfleet and Dallas is at real DDP. And I'm still blown away by that first interview that we did. Like literally was trying to break into my hotel room.

Crazy. But I will leave you with a quote from Muhammad Ali that DDP told me during that first interview. It's all about the idea of repeating affirmations to yourself. I mean, think of how many times Muhammad Ali would say, I am the greatest. And Ali's famous quote is, it's the repetition of affirmations. that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

Be great, be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley?

How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this.

Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.