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.
Diamond Dallas Page
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.
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.
One of my biggest supporters is Gerry Briscoe.
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 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.
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.
God has blessed me on a lot of levels. Have I worked for it? Absolutely. But it still takes that blessing.
I was the guy from the Jersey Shore, Springsteen country. We don't do yoga there. And we made fun of anybody who did.
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 try to keep my mind full of really positive stuff.
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.
Originally, when I was introduced to yoga, I kept resisting. I kept saying that I wouldn't be caught dead doing yoga.
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'm all about owning your life.
Nobody can pull you down more than you.
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'm always like Mickey Mouse with tattoos.
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.
If you say you can or if you say you can't... you're right.
No matter how bad or negative it gets, I somehow try to find the silver lining.
Bottom line is, work ethic equals dreams, and I am walking proof that that's a fact.
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.
When I came into WWE after Monday Night Wars, it wasn't my greatest time in the business... but they kept bringing me back.
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.
I told people I was going to be a wrestler, and they fell down laughing.
As great as Hulk Hogan was, he still wasn't that great a worker.
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 want to spoil this for anybody but wrestling, sports entertainment, is 'pre-determined.'
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.
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.
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.
One of my favorite things to do when I wasn't competing was to watch the cruiserweights.
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.
All the competitors knew the importance of Halloween Havoc. It was the WCW equivalent to SummerSlam.
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.
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.
Without Dusty Rhodes, there is no Diamond Dallas Page. He took me under his wing and believed in me when nobody did - nobody.
Wrestling and horror just sort of go together.
I always saw myself working a WrestleMania.
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.
I started wrestling when I was 35, but my career didn't take off until I was 40.
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.
When you look at me in the beginning of '96 and at the end of '96, I'm two different people.
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.
That diamond cutter sign became my moniker.
From wrestling, I learned what I'm not going to do again.
I let the WWE control my destiny, and it didn't work out so well.
I'm not going to have anyone tell me what I can do promoting my product.
When I blew my back out at age 42, I said, 'Okay, I've got to be more concerned about food and health.'
