DDP Talks Pull-Apart Fight With Eric Bischoff, Steve Austin's Reaction To Jake Roberts Documentary
I interviewed former WCW World Heavyweight Champion Diamond Dallas Page earlier this month to talk about the DDP Performance Center that opened last week in Atlanta, as well as The Resurrection of Jake The Snake, which has a screening in Atlanta tonight followed by screenings next week in Dallas, Tampa and Philadelphia. During the interview, which will be published next week, Page talked about The Monday Night Wars and noted that he didn't feel that Eric Bischoff was trying to put WWE out of business, but rather that Bischoff simply wanted to win the fight. He went on to talk about Bischoff's fighting spirit.
"I met Eric in AWA, and it turned into a pull-apart fight," Page said. "We were both sh-tfaced, and wound up. We never got near each other. From there, I went out with Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond, and I'm pretty sober. He must have been drinking the whole time, because he got off the elevator a little after us with his wife, the ring announcer Larry, and Chip Shields. He started in on me again, and I went at him again. Everyone was like 'Diamond, go to your room,' and he's like 'let him go!' He was sh-tfaced!
"The next morning I go by his room to see how bad ass he is at 8 o'clock in the morning. I put on my jeans, I put on my boots and I hear a knock. I thought it was the cleaning lady, and it's him. He's got his leather jacket on and his gray hair at the time. I was 31, he was 32, and his hair was halfway down his back and silver. When I opened the door, he's standing there looking like he'd been rode hard and put away wet. He said, 'I heard I was a real asshole last night.' I said he was, and told him I was on my way to his room, and he told me that he saved me the walk. He said, 'there's two ways we can handle this. One, accept my apology and shake my hand.' He had like three teeth in a bridge. He was a black belt, he wasn't afraid of anybody, he would fight at a drop of the hat. He pulls his f-ckin' teeth out and says 'or you can punch me in the mouth. Whatever you think works.' I just started laughing. I was like 'dude, I've been running nightclubs since I was 22. I've heard every excuse to get back in the bar. I've never heard that one. I'd much rather shake your hand.' That was that."
Page went on to talk about their paths crossing when Bischoff was hired by WCW and Bischoff thinking that Page hated him. Page also discussed The Resurrection of Jake "The Snake" and the journey into creating the film.
"The really cool thing about the movie, Stone Cold Steve Austin talks about his admiration for Jake, and Steve Austin is never one to pull any punches," Page said. "He also cuts through all the bullsh-t. Jim Ross is in it, Ted Dibiase, who had one of my favorite matches with Jake Roberts on MSG TV. Jim Duggan, Dustin Rhodes, Chris Jericho, Edge, and all giving their commentary and comments of what is perceived and what is real and where they saw Jake's career either working with him, or as a fan. The whole journey in a nutshell, was to help him walk away from the business with his head held high. That came to fruition, and I'm not giving anything away, because anybody who's a wrestling fan knows Jake's in the Hall of Fame, and I inducted him. But what was the journey like to get there?
"The way Steve [Yu] edited and directed this movie, it was shot like guerrilla warfare. There were cameras all over the house. The direction comes in taking a movie that should take 9 hours to tell, and do it in 90 minutes with the substance in there and the highs and the lows and the failure. When you can grab someone's emotions and make them tear up and choke up and laugh out loud, and then inspire them. And you haven't seen the last cut, bro. The last cut is different than what you've seen. It's even better. Nothing is like seeing the movie with people. When you see it at home, and it'll be on video on demand, it's cool. It's nothing like being in the theater and hearing the people laugh and go through it. I've seen it so many times, and I can't normally watch my stuff more than one time. Because this is such a heartfelt movie, I've seen every cut of it. When we did our first cut, it was shown to me about a year and a half ago. I got two-thirds through and said 'This sucks. This is not the movie. This is not it Steve. You're missing this, this and this.' What's going to be cool is when we do the DVDs and put it all out there. Some people have seen the full-length Scott Hall phone call, things like that. The direction comes into making it 90 minutes and keeping people on the edge of their seats. They are filmmakers, and we're a production company. I love this film, I could watch it a million times."
Make sure to check back next week for our entire interview with DDP. To get more information about The Resurrection of Jake The Snake and screenings for the movie around the country, including the screening tonight in Atlanta, go to JakeTheSnakeMovie.com for dates and times. Also, you can get more information about the DDP YOGA Performance Center by visiting DDPYOGAPC.com.