Joe Rogan - How Diamond Dallas Page Became a Pro Wrestler

Go back to that shot of me and what you were called there. It's so funny because back then there is that that Right there I am 31 years old That is if you guys want to read a really great like super detailed like insanely long It's called a letter to my younger self. It's the players tribute and So when we're writing this Joe, it's so fucking long I'm like I've let me cut back on some of it. They're like no No, we need more detail and then it goes to 9,000 words and then they want more detail That's a 1980s head of Cops looking for my what the fuck? I'm a manager that so so let me let me give you the backstory of it So let me back up back up. That's the money picture right there He was trouble that but that's none of a bit just major trouble so let me go back to where friggin now, so I I do this radio spot and When they're doing it not radio this TV up when I do the radio spot They're filming me in my car and ready to do in radio spot I'm wearing a WrestleMania t-shirt and I know cuz I have this footage still and I put it up on my motivational Monday's for my very first one a power a power of what's possible and then they fill me at my office All right. Now, let me just digress the week before I'm going around at night. I'm grabbing the drawers You know like the money drawers and I'm watching video that's up on girls Just want to have fun Remember that with Sidney Lauper and it adds Captain Lou Albano on it Who's like one of my favorite managers ever super character that a bunch of movies Lou was just super friggin fun to watch He's in that video and I'm picking up the drawers and I'm not talking to anybody but myself and I say I look up at that video and I go rockin wrestling I should have been a part of that and I walk into my office now other bartenders gonna come in count their drawers right now and Smokey comes in my head bartender. He comes he goes page check because my real first name is Paige Joseph Falkenberg and my dad Yeah, all right. That's that name's never gonna draw any money Paige Falkenberg is gonna tough sell Exactly. Am I the Dallas page that makes sense. They work, right? But my dad's page one and he said I'm freaking you know You're page two and I'm like no as a little kid He said he didn't like that So Dallas Cowboys was my team that I love the most when I was a little kid I don't know because of the stars or whatever and Landry and all that shit and He ends up Nicknamed me Dallas. So I always loved that name. So I just put them together. It's kind of creative, right? So I tried that as handsome. So so bottom line is Smokey comes in the back and he goes page check. He goes, uh What do you mean rockin wrestling? You should have been a part of that I said, well, you know, I tried it when I was a kid he goes you did. What was your name? I said handsome Dallas page You forget about using that gimmick anymore and everybody laughed, you know, and now we're drinking after hours So I can't get it out of my head Joe and I just start scribbling and I write diamond Dallas page I said, you know, where'd you get the diamond? I just figured my birthday April and it just kind of flowed It was a diamond month April's diamond. Yeah, April 5th is a diamond and I I love classy Freddie Blassie and I love the way that name float classy Freddie Blassie I thought diamond Dallas page it kind of flows I go what about if my name was I'm too old to be a wrestler now Try was 22 or 20 was 23 22 and now I'm 31 So you're gonna be a manager or something? I'm gonna be mad here Jimmy hearts a manager I could be diamond Dallas page Jimmy heart, you know, it's got the heart foundation. I could have the diamond exchange Whoa drink drink shot shot So now we're getting pretty fucked up And it's so I say I say, you know You know, there's not a lot of really good-looking women in wrestling today I go miss Elizabeth's beautiful, but she's girl next door beautiful What if I had a whole stable ladies and I called them diamond dolls and they were stripper hot It was like oh that'll be a stretch. Whoa shot shot drink drink and so the end of the night comes around and I'm like diamond now's page the diamond exchange the diamond dollars. I go man. That's fucking be a double D bad And I went did I just make that up try steal that for somebody and I just wrote it down a Week later here. I am with the party news network and they're interviewing me and at some point they say So where does the voice come from? Joe if there's not a pair of white sunglasses there at the time I don't know if I do it, but they're sitting right there Next to that shit. So I grab them when I put them on and I say your sunglasses Yeah, they're my sunglasses. They'll wrap around. I mean if they weren't there I don't know if I say that if I go into character right because I could put a mask on I go the voice comes from Deep freeze it's lights out now ladies. I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to the ladies on TV Now you must be get back to the limo get back to the Here with a program here like I was saying the ice man put you in a deep freeze it's lights out pay attention, mr. Bernstein Oh my god, this is fucking classic. You got a motley crew t-shirt on with no neck. Yes. Look at this guy rock-hard-rich And then Jack Bernstein has his own show in Jersey on as a podcast and country music But he's a big was a big jock for a long time great pipes Over Man he's peeling down the walls of my mind with his bare hands One of my diamond mines collapse collapse collapse. We had to bring in cranes. We had to bring in trace We even brought in planes because we were afraid at the bottom of that mine laid this big big man big John John right Jack we are bringing today. Oh my god. This is fucking classic. What year is all this? How that should be getting a word started. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Look at this girl Satin exchange This man is loved by women all over the world. They love to cuddle him He is the Ted e bear if you wouldn't mind they're taking off take off that jacket there Teddy bear show the fans what you got Show them what you got here. Oh boy, Teddy Awesome wrestler there diamond Dallas and those ladies unbelievable Oh Listen listen listen for Teddy. Yes Teddy bear. Do you have anything to add to this? Oh my god, so oh my god, so What year is all this this is? 1987 oh my god, I'm fresh out of high school. That's two years out of high school for me So what happened was I do this promo where they got that they're doing this show like we just went ahead of it Okay, so for you. I'm doing the news network and they say where does the voice come from I look down and I always say just don't think it ink it like write it down. It's right in front of me This is your spot I grab those sunglasses. I put them on and I go the voice comes from diamond Dallas page I was born to be of a fester rest of manager. It's big. It's bad. It's normal genes voice I took them off and I kept talking I radio jock who is a was a great fighter. His name is smitty and smitty sees this So this is like a week later, right? I get a phone call from the girl in the front desk. She says, um page. Um, there's a Someone a call for diamond dallas page I pick up the phone I go. Fuck you smoky and I hang up the phone, right? Because I think it's smoky ripping me, right? He calls back. She goes. It's not smoky his name smitty. He's got a radio show. He wants to talk to you I go. Hello. He's like, yeah, I want to bring you on the show He goes, you know, i'm a boxer who has his own show about boxing, but I want to start doing wrestling I go he goes I want to have you on the show. I go bro I don't really do it. I was just making that shit up, you know, and he's like who cares? It's radio And i'm like man. I don't know he goes i'm gonna have captain lu albano on like, what's the odds of that? I'm gonna have captain lu albano on the show. I want you to be my co-host I go do I get to talk to captain lu he's like absolutely I go i'm in So I do that show and I do another one with sergeant slaughter and he says to me he says, you know You got to do something with this diamond dallas page thing. You're a natural. I go smitty do what? I don't know what the fuck to do. I mean, it's just something in my head And he says I got this friend of mine named rob russin who's a boxing promoter who now is working for the awa up in minnesota I'll give you his address send him a tape or something So I think about it and I write those storylines for those guys And then I make that tape and I send it to the awa No, bullshit joe two weeks later. I get a phone call Hey, uh, this is diamond dallas page and i'm like, uh, yeah, uh, this is rob russin from the awa We've seen your tape. We want to bring you and your boys in for a tryout Because but we've got one question, you know, we've shown the tape around and everybody kind of likes your stick You know, it's fresh got energy. He said but No one's ever heard of you. Where are you guys working? Well rob, we got one problem. Um, none of those guys can wrestle He's like what he goes. Why would you send us a tape? I go. It's like a secret society Like no one can figure out how to fucking get in so, you know Why they're training I could you know manage and like yeah, don't call us. We'll call you And two weeks later god just aligned this for me at some for some reason For some reason just to be where I am today But paul haman who's one of the biggest stars is, you know, a character on ww television was called paulie dangerously at the time He left the awa Went to the nwa Which was going to get bought by ted turner Left a huge spot open for a young guy that could talk they brought me in all those clothes You saw me in I was wearing that shit in fort myers, florida And I said to my buddy kurt church who was my head bouncer at the time I hit the floor And I and when this was starting to happen, I go dude. Can you imagine if I ever have a reason to dress like this? And if anything I got way more tapered down, you know, I wasn't living the gimmick but uh Man, it was beginning everything and then dusty roads had come into florida for florida championship wrestling Dusty took me under his wing man and He gave me every break that ever meant anything to my career early on. That's why it was so important for me To be there for cody Because i'm not getting choked up just thinking about it without dusty roads. There is no diamond dollars page He gave me every break I ever had and for me to watch his son Do what they did last weekend? Do you remember your first match? My first yeah, my first match, uh was a tag match. So So i'm managing now, okay three and a half years And then I finally get the call because dusty who went to wwe And he did his polka dotted gimmick with him. He came back to run the wcw and You know, he's nwa world champion. He's like one of the smartest guys ever in our business and um I developed a relationship that was super tight with him when we were in florida But it was his wife michelle Who really kept it going when he wasn't because when i'd call up just to check you and dusty once in a while She'd say don't worry dallas dusty will call you back and knowing how bad he is at calling someone back I know that that's why I thanked michelle on my whole fame speech because I know without her I don't know if it ever would have kept going the way it did but Dusty, you know, he brought me in and I managed the free birds Michael psh and jimmy jam garvin, which was such an education such a good time Michael's still one of my best friends today and I helped scott hall who was big scott hall come in Changed his entire look from blonde hair and a big walrus mustache Adam dye his hair jet black and give him this brush cut beard that like nobody had the five o'clock shadow And no one knew who the fuck he was And I brought him in and what has happened and as you see all the crazy clothes I wore Well five months in magnum ta who's dusty's right hand man comes up to me and he's like Listen d. Um, we're gonna keep you at the color commentators box I'm also doing color commentating with eric bischoff who would later run the company um, and he said uh He said we can't let you manage anymore I'm like what what did I do wrong? He goes it's not It's not anything you're doing wrong, bro. He goes he goes You just speak with the hair and the wrap and the dolls and those crazy clothes He goes you're taking too much attention away from the boys and they're the ones who draw the money And I was like so fuck are you telling me magnum that i'm too over the fucking top for wrestling? And he goes as a manager kind of he said but You know what we should have done is put you in a pair of tights and boots and see if you could do this shit I had seven months left in my contract, bro I said fuck this. I never got in this business to be a manager. I wanted to live the dream Well, i'm gonna do it And I went down there and they beat the fuck out of me now Did they teach you how to do it first? No, what they do is they blow you up This is what it was not done. The nxts Is is different? Um like down their performance center, but the original power plant My one of my another mentors a guy named jody hamilton who was the assassin and he really taught me a lot And sort of this guy's sarge, but in the beginning they want to run you off So they want to see if you'll quit. Oh, absolutely. It's like get you to quit It's a different level of seal training