Da Real DDP

11.06.2008

Hey Guys, So you might be wondering what have I been up to for the last month so… Well, for starters Angie and I are just flying home from Halloween party in Phoenix that buddies the Weisman Brother's Rob, Randy and Joey invited us to. It was a fun party and got to hang my man Ken Foree who you might remember from Devils Rejects. We stayed at a place I recommend called the Feista Resort Inn which was totally relaxing, the people were incredibly friendly and they have Great beds. In other news we finally finished filming testimonies, workouts, photo sessions and footage for the new "YRG Fitness System" infomercial. Which is the new name of our program because it's not just a workout any more it's a lifestyle that has taken took months... No wait make that Years to prepare and I've got to tell you it is all looking totally Awesome. I am so proud of way the whole thing is coming together. Our target date is to test our YRG infomercial around the middle of January... Nina Resnikoff who is our Ex Producer who is know as the "Infomercial Queen" says our only problem is we have so many great testimonies she having trouble figuring out who's going to be in the 30 minute show... If you going to have a problem this is the one I want to have:) I want to thank my partners and Producers Jim Paratori and my main man Eric Pankowski for believing in my vision and making my dream a reality... it just proves if you are really passionate about something... believe in yourself... work your ass off and continue to move forward no matter how many times you fall down or doubt yourself... Anything possible... Here is a great article that came out in the Baltimore Sun about Arthur, YRG and DDP…check it out here and you feel like sending to someone who you think needs to be inspired ... please send it on... http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/custom/today/bal-to.hs.yoga22sep22,0,3338084.story?page=1 A few weeks back I took my buddies Alan Ludloff and Eric Watts to Knoxville to watch the Tenn Vols beat Mississippi State 34-3. Tennessee Vols strength and conditioning coach Johnny Long has the entire football team doing YRG as part of their practice routine. From what I understand the lady Vols basketball team and volleyballs teams are doing it as well. The picture below is with Watts and Long... we are standing inside the Vols indoor practice field... it must have 60 foot ceilings for kick offs and punts... I popped when Johnny told me that he brings out a projector and speakers and put YRG and DDP on one of the huge walls so the whole team can do YRG right there on the astroturf ... Johnny says he's going to be bringing me in train the guys after the season is over... I expect to give them my talk about "Living Life at 90%"' and then take it right into a kickass Vols workout because you know these players always bring there A Game... which is a good thing because their going to need it... Ha! I'm really looking forward to it. After a tour of the facility... Johnny's wife Misty who is a total sweetheart showed us how to tailgate Vols style. These Guys and Gals can Party... Then Misty hooked us up with sideline passes and one of the coaches even pulled us into the locker room to hear the pre-game speech given by Coach Fulmer. You could really see the players and ass. coaches love Coach Fulmer... I just this minute heard they fired coach Fulmer and I had to add on this to the email I was just getting ready to send out... That is so F'd up to me... Coach Fulmer is a legend... this is a guy went to Tenn and played football for them and was even the captain of the team... He went on to be an assistant coach until he was name the head coach 15 years ago... talk about paying your dues... As head coach... Fulmer record was 150-50... in the SEC... he had one losing season and the SEC the toughest devision in college football... it's a damn shame... I know Johnny and players think the world of the coach and I wish them all the best over these turbulent times... I left Knoxville and headed straight to Tampa Bay. Smokey picked me up at the airport and took me to the hotel where we met buddies Johnny G and Joe Gomez who I consider “the Mayor of Tampa” because of all of his connections. Derrick Brooks hooked us up with sideline passes and 50 yard line seats in the front row. The view doesn't get any better than this... I took this shot from our seat... notice there are no heads in from of us. Tampa defense is tremendous this year and only gave up a TD in the last 2 minutes when the game was already decided. Tampa beat the Seahawks 20-10. The energy was electric considering the Tampa Bay Rays were playing the Red Sox in game 7 in the same city. The place went crazy when they saw the Rays take the lead. After the football game was over they showed the baseball game on the big screen so about 10,000 people who stayed and watched the Rays beat the Red Sox to get to the World Series. So I get back to my Tampa hotel room it was 1:00 am. With the Rays win in game 7 the town was alive and I could have been up all night. But I had to get up at 6:00 am and head to Brooks-Debartolo Collegiate high school with D Brooks. Besides being a 10 time All–Pro linebacker D Brooks is a huge advocate and supporter of education. DB started this own charter high school for kids who wanted to get the best education they can get. These kids actually have to apply to come to this school. I gave an inspirational talk and asked “Who here was going to College”…every kid raised their hand. I've asked that question over years at every school I have talked at and I got to tell you I never saw that kind of response before... After speaking to the kids I took them through a short YRG Workout with D Brooks out there doing it with us. D Brooks does the full YRG workout once a week during the season and in the offseason he does it YRG times a week. DB credits YRG with being one of the key reason he has been able to stay at the top of his game at 35 years Young. Students came up to me afterwards and said they wanted to start a YRG club at the school. Principal Dr. Phildra Swagger emailed me the other day supporting the idea as part of their fitness programs. See more about the school at www.bdchs.org/ After the school event that I went to Steve Kern’s Florida Championship Wrestling which is a Farm league for WWE. I went there to see my mentor Dusty Rhodes and Steve who run FCW. Something cool they are doing now is training seminars. Where anybody with the dream of being a wrestler can come and try out... Guys and Gals who go to these one week seminars have the opportunity to learn from the very best. Steve in the Ring and I can’t imagine someone better to teach microphone skills then the The Dream Dusty Rhoade. To top it off the day I was there these guys and gals got to hear from John Cena and Sgt. Slaughter. The trainers down there are some of the best hands in the business…Tommy Pritchard, Billy Kidman, Norman Smiley. Expect some great new talent to come up to WWE from FCW. So what else…There was so much preparation to create all the new YRG Fitness System…. it was even more than I could ever imagine. We are going to have 9 new YRG workout dvds that take YRG and you to the next level. So if you bought the first ones you will be ready to move forward and will love the next generation of YRG. It is a completely different workout with the same basic principles. We shot for 4 grueling days in a row but I lovedit… I was actually watching a dream manifest right before my very eyes. After 4 twelve hour days, not counting travel, the last day of shooting I finished up just in time to get home, pack and take a red eye to Philly. I was going to a wrestling show called Signamania. There are some great pictures on the site. I can never sleep on a planes so when I got to the hotel I totally passed out for all of 3 hours and then my buddy Robbie Kanoff (the Toy King) picked me up and took me to breakfast before the show. Robbie is the man responsible for the first DDP action figure ever... back when no one thought DDP was going to be anything. By the time this action figure came out it was 1997 and DDP and the Diamond Cutter was on top of the world... Thanks bro... I got to the show and the first person I saw when I walked though the door was man I was hoping to talk to…the Nature Boy Ric Flair. There has been a lot said about the heat between Flair and I over the years and I wanted to address it. I walked up to him and said “Ric, you mind if I talk to you for a second?” Of course he obliged, we walked over to a corner and I said “Ric we both know there has been some heat between us over the years” and before I can say another word, he said “Dallas, I’m alright with everything. None of that matters” I said “Ric it matters to me... because you were someone I admired growing up. Before I got into wrestling... like everyone else I loved the Nature Boy and I want to make sure we have don't have any more heat... whatever has been said, I like to let it all go and just start over” he said “ consider it done... there is no heat between us” We shook hands and of course I had to pull him in for a big hug... Ha! Then who walks in right at that very moment…Piper... Classic... Piper and Flair’s relationship is legendary over the year and Roddy and I have always been cool as well. Hot Rod came up to me and said “Dallas, thank you so much for sending me all the YRG Workouts”' ... Then Terry runnels showed up and we got some classic pictures with Terry me Piper and Flair. Very Cool... If you go to the site... there are 4 pictures in a row of us together and Piper says something to me that was pretty funny and someone from the crowd said a comment to what Piper said and we all busted out laughing... I wish I could remember what he said... The signing went great, one of my favorite parts was sitting next to Sgt. Slaughter he's such a class act ... Actually Sarg was on the first radio interview I ever did before I was even in the AWA as DDP… DDP was only a figment of my imagination at that time. Another unexpected special moment at the show was a little girl who could not have been more than 7 years old came up to me and threw her arms open and said “I Love You DDP”…I am thinking there is no way this little girl could have ever seen me wrestle. Then her Dad holds up the “Ready to Rumble” dvd movie and tells me she has watched it over 100 times. Her eyes light up and she says “Give me a Big Hug!” Here's a review from the show. Wrestlingfigs.com had a good write up on the show…here is what they said about it: DDP: May have stolen the show, even from RODDY!!! He was the last wrestler to be there. Signing for every fan and wouldn't leave until every fan got a photo and autograph. What a great guy. He seemed really thrilled to be there and enjoyed himself. The BigKing and I told him how we always liked him and asked him for a quick photo of him holding The BigKing's US title, while all three of us did the "Positivley Page" faces and Diamond Cutter. Interesting note-One of the big sellers of the show for us was indeed Page, but the BigKing couldn't get an autograph ticket in time, which kinda upset him. So after we get our photo, Page also looked at The BigKing's US Title and said "Do you want me to sign it?" He responded by telling Mr. Page he didn't order a autograph ticket. DDP then pulled out a pen and said "Who the ::blank:: cares?" and proceeded to sign it, leaving a great impression on both us. DDP is truley a "Diamond" worthy guest! I don't know about stealing any show from Hot Rod but it was a good time... I left the Philly show and headed across the state line to my home state of Jersey, where I was booked at an indy wrestling show signing autographs and hitting a few Diamond Cutters before leaving the building with 3 of my closest friends. I have been best friends with this trio since I was about 7 years old Kenny Jimbo and Kevin. I partied with my Jersey brothers until 5 in the morning... that was a tough morning or mid morning or whatever time it was when I woke up... after breakfast I hoped in a plane and headed back to Los Angeles, unpacked, packed and next day headed out to Cabo, Mexico with Angella for 8 days... a long over due vacation... the kind of vacation where I don't go or do anything but eat, drink, read and surf... it was beautiful... the resort was called Me Cabo... the place is sweet check out the pictures on the site... you may want to check it out in person... Another cool thing to happen to me last month was my sister Sally and my brother in law Paulie came out to spend a long weekend with me and Angie in the land of LA... the best part besides spending quality time with two of my favorite people on the planet was they came while we were filming a part of the YRG infomercial at a College gym... It's a really cool part of the infomercial where I take a 100 people through the YRG workout... it came out great and having Sally and Paulie it made it that much sweeter. A lot of you have written me know to let me know that you've seen saw me on the tube a lot lately…the AWA Classics on ESPN 2, Ready to Rumble is being played a lot and another movie is being played now on Showtime called Splinter…if you like CSI type shows then you will dig this movie. You can also see me in 2 Yoga movies coming out. One is Yoga: Enlighten Up ... here is the trailer ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKQw0-IlJiY The other is Y Yoga movie. Here is the trailer and link... You can buy this one on line right now if you want... I have quite a few scenes in this movie... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cezCLT60Bs And that's finally it... As always it's been your pleasure ... as well as mine... Get Healthy... Stay Strong... Be Unstoppable and Do your YRG or else! DDP www.DiamondDallasPage.com YRG 4 Life! DiamondDallasPage.com YRGworkout.com YRG 4 Life!