Real Life Heroes: Diamond Dallas Page

This week on Most Heroic, we’re going to be debuting a new kind segment for the column. As much as I adore writing about my favorite heroic characters in fiction, the stories that come from them, and how they should be portrayed in media, I think it’s about time to start talking about heroes in non-fiction. After all, where would our fictional heroes have come from without some real life examples to inspire them? With that in mind, we’re going to start looking at some real life people who have done some incredible actions above and beyond the call of duty.

When I first started thinking about possible candidates for this kind of format, I wanted to focus on finding people that were outside of the mainstream’s perception, so to speak. Instead of focusing on well-known historical figures like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, or anyone like that, I’d like to find people in the modern day who are helping make the world a better place and leading by example in their own lives. That being said, if I do find an intriguing historical example, I won’t exclude them from coverage here.

If you have an idea for anyone who fits these qualifications, please feel free to send me some information on them. I’m always for looking for the best examples in humanity.

Now before I start examining my inaugural pick for this segment, we first need to define what a hero actually is. Dictionary.com has two examples that I like, so for now, we’ll use these as our criterion.

1. A [person] of distinguished courage or ability, admired for [their] brave deeds and noble qualities.
2. A person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal.

With these definitions in mind, it’s time to turn our focus to this week’s subject.

The man we’ll be examining is a former professional wrestler turned fitness instructor named Diamond Dallas Page.

Wrestling Career

Diamond Dallas Page  (aka DDP) originally worked for the American Wrestling Association during the late 1980’s and early 90’s, before crossing over to World Championship Wrestling. At the time, he worked as a manager character, not a wrestler. It wasn’t until 1991 that he decided to really start pursuing an in-ring career as a wrestler. He’d first attempted to become a wrestler at the age of twenty-two, but it hadn’t panned out. At the age of thirty-five years old, most people thought that he’d never be able to succeed, let alone become a big star.

The first few years of his career, he worked as a “jobber,” a wrestler who routinely loses matches, but he didn’t let that get him down. Since he often wasn’t booked for shows, he visited the WCW Power Plant training facility to improve his work in the ring, and learned some of the more psychological aspects of the business from the legendary Jake “The Snake” Roberts. He was so dedicated to improvement that he took the time to have his matches videotaped so he could review and make changes later. After five years of constant training and working the business, DDP’s career started to really take off in 1996.

In 1996, the wrestling world was vastly altered by the formation of a new villainous stable called the New World Order, aka nWo. The nWo was a group of heel (bad guy) wrestlers that behaved like a street gang and worked to try and take over WCW. In one of the most shocking moments of wrestling history, Hulk Hogan himself turned on his friends and joined the nWo to eventually become the leader of the group. With Hogan and Eric Bischoff at the lead, the group grew to a massive size and threatened to overtake the company.

At the time, DDP was a heel himself, and the nWo sought to recruit him into the fold. Two of the original members of the nWo and DDP’s longtime friends and managerial clients, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, personally invited him, by giving him an nWo t-shirt after one of his matches. He accepted it, and shook hands with both of them, appearing to join the group. However, when Scott Hall started to turn away, still holding his hand, DDP hit him with his finishing move, the Diamond Cutter, and quickly escaped into the crowd. His bold refusal to join the nW0 solidified him as a fan favorite, and as one of the few heroic wrestlers left in WCW brave enough to stand up against the villains.

DDP continued feuding with the nWo, and he was eventually targeted by one of the groups’ most respected and dangerous members, and one of the industry’s biggest stars of all-time, the late “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Savage and his valet, Miss Elizabeth, began attacking both Dallas and his wife, Kimberly. DDP was often outnumbered by the members of the nWo, but he didn’t let that stop him.  The resulting feud lasted most of 1997, and it later won Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s “Feud of the Year” award. Here’s a video I found compiling the highlights.

[fresh_video url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtbbfiif4sw”]

The rivalry with Savage established Page as a main-event level talent, and at the tender age of forty-two, his star was on the rise. Then he received an injury that nearly ended his career.

In early 1998, Kevin Nash hit Dallas with a powerbomb maneuver right on his back. After years of taking rough falls, this last move was the one that broke the camel’s back. The impact of the move ruptured his L4/L5 disc so badly that he couldn’t even walk or bend over. So wrestling was out of the question. Three doctors told him that his career was over.

During his rehabilitation, Dallas discovered that Kimberly was doing power yoga, and getting quite a workout from it. Dallas will be the first to tell you that he was the kind of guy who wouldn’t have been caught dead doing yoga, but he decided to give it a try. It wasn’t too long before he realized its benefits, and he started mixing the yoga with his rehab exercises, along with push-ups, squats, crunches, and Dynamic Resistance to improve his strength and cardio along with his flexibility. This workout regimen eventually became DDP Yoga. ( More on that on the next page.)

Eventually after months of progress, his body was stronger than ever before. He returned to the ring later that same year, and in 1999, he won the World Heavyweight Championship for the first for three separate reigns. DDP ended up becoming a staple of WCW television, and he was known as “the (WCW) People’s Champion,” thanks to his non-traditional entry into the business. His work ethic and passion for the business paid off in the long run, making him a beloved and respected superstar.

When the World Wrestling Federation purchased WCW in 2001, DDP was one of the few major stars to accept a buyout of his contract to wrestle for the WWF. Unfortunately, despite winning the European Championship and World Tag Team Championship, his WWF career never took off they way it should have. He was given some of the dumbest gimmicks/angles of all time, and was told that he couldn’t even do his signature “Diamond Cutter” hand gesture anymore. After sustaining new injuries, Dallas decided to let his contract  expire in 2002, quietly leaving the company after only a year.

Check out the next page to learn about DDP Yoga, and how Dallas has used the workout program to change lives.

DDP Yoga

As much as I like DDP’s work in the ring, here’s where we get to the really good stuff!

After retiring from the wrestling ring, Dallas turned his attention towards yoga. After using his own form of yoga to help him recover from his back injury, he wanted to help show how it can help almost anyone. He first wrote a book called Yoga for Regular Guys, and later developed a series of workout videos for this new workout regimen. It was originally referred to as YRG – Yoga for Regular Guys – but the name was later changed to DDP Yoga. Dallas prefers to not refer to his workout as yoga, because he wants people to be able to tell the difference. With DDP Yoga, there’s not so much “sunrise salutation,” as with other kinds. Instead, you actively engage your whole body to increase your heart rate. This allows the user to approach the fat-burning zone easily, and you gain a great deal in strength, flexibility, and balance as well. Amazingly, most of the workouts only require about twenty minutes a day or less, but that doesn’t make them any less difficult. If you pair the workouts with a healthy diet, you’ll see results quickly.

Now I’m sure you’re asking, “How does a yoga workout make DDP a hero?” Well, that fact on its own doesn’t make him a hero, but it’s what he’s done with it that gets my attention. One of the things that makes DDP’s program unique is the community that he’s built around it. Dallas makes himself available to anyone who has questions about the program and is very interested in the results of everyone who uses it. His radio show, DDP Radio always makes time for caller questions, and his Twitter is always active. He’s constantly traveling around the world doing motivational speaker gigs and seminars about DDPYoga. He also went to Iraq to teach our armed forces the benefits of the program! Whether you’re a WWE superstar or just someone who’s looking to make a lifestyle change, he provides a supportive voice and a sounding board.

To further illustrate this point, I’d like to introduce you to a few people.

First is Arthur Boorman. Arthur was a paratrooper in the first Gulf War back during the 90’s and after too many jumps, his legs gave out and he became disabled. For fifteen years he was completely unable to walk without using canes. His weight ballooned to over 300 pounds and doctors told him he would never walk again. Enter DDP. Dallas encouraged Arthur to try the program and stick with it. Neither of them could have ever expected just how well the program would work. Not only can Arthur now walk unassisted, but he can actually run.  Check out the video below for one of the most inspirational things you’ll ever see!

[fresh_video url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448″]

If you aren’t moved by that, then I seriously think there’s something wrong with you. But if you’re still not impressed, I have two more  people I’d like you to meet.

Jake “The Snake” Roberts is one of the most unforgettable superstars that the wrestling world has ever produced, and not just because he often brought a six-foot python to the ring with him. He was a great worker in the ring and innovated the DDT finishing move, but he was known best for how he could speak. Jake is often cited as one of the greatest mike-workers in the business, and for good reason. His promos were intelligent, and had a sort of dark poetry to them. They implied how just how deadly he could be to his opponents. Jake was a master at manipulating the reactions of the crowd, and he used these skills to get inside the heads of both his opponents and the audience itself. Jake became one of Dallas’ most important mentors, helping him learn the psychological side of the business.

Scott Hall was one of the most respected in-ring workers of the 90’s. During his time in the WWF, he performed under the name Razor Ramon and became a four-time Intercontinental Champion. In 1994, his ladder match with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania X is often cited as one of the greatest matches in the pay-per-view’s thirty year history. When he made a surprise return to WCW in 1996, he became the spark that led to the arrival of the nWo. He also became a multiple time tag team and United States champion in his second stint with WCW.

However great both Scott and Jake were, they also had some vicious struggles with addiction. Both alcoholics and drug addicts, they became consumed by their vices as time wore on, gaining weight and allowing their bodies to fall into disrepair. Multiple stints in rehab didn’t seem to help either man for very long.

In late 2012, Dallas reached out to Jake to try and help him get back in shape by using DDP Yoga, and he offered Jake a room in his home in Atlanta. Jake accepted the offer to move in, and after months of working with the program, he’s lost over sixty pounds and has been sober for almost an entire year, barring a few slip-ups. The journey to sobriety hasn’t been easy, but the changes he’s gone through are clearly visible. He’s also been able to repair his relationship with his children. Earlier this year he was inducted into the Cauliflower Alley Club Hall of Fame. He’s shooting for an appearance at the 2014 Royal Rumble, and I can’t wait to hear his music play after that buzzer sounds.

At the beginning of this year, Dallas was informed that Scott was in a particularly dark place and he and Jake called him to try and help him. Scott told them that he was a dying man, and he was drinking vodka for breakfast. Jake and Dallas persuaded him that there was a way out, and told him how Jake had found success thus far. Impressed with Jake’s results, Scott also accepted the offer to live at the Accountability Crib and lived with them for five months. After some time passed, Scott was also able to repair his relationship with his estranged son Cody, and the rest of his family. They recently moved out of Dallas’ home and into their own apartment, and Scott is now managing Cody’s wrestling career.

Another experience that both Jake and Scott were able to share was the the support directly from their fans. Both Jake and Scott needed to have some surgeries earlier this year, and since both of them were without health insurance, they were unable to afford it. Their workaround was using IndieGoGo to raise money for both surgeries. The results were staggering. Jake’s goal was $9,200 dollars, and the fans raised $7,000 in twelve hours. Scott’s surgeries were more substantial with an $80,000 goal, but they raised a grand total of $110,000. I wish that I had known about these at the time. I would have happily given.

So let’s take a moment to recap. Dallas was able to achieve his dream by succeeding in one of the most difficult industries on the planet through hard work and dedication, even though he was in his forties, came back from a career-threatening injury when everyone he’d never wrestle again, developed a new health regimen that is helping to improve the lives of thousands of people all around the world, goes out of his way to help anyone he can, and invited two of his closest friends that needed his help to live with him and helped them to improve their lives by remind them of the reasons they still have to live.

I leave it up to you to decide your own opinion, but that sounds a hell of a lot like a hero to me!

I’m Jesse Blume, and in my humble opinion, Diamond Dallas Page is Most Heroic indeed! BANG! 

P.S. In case you were wondering, yes, I use DDP Yoga myself.