Looking back on a gem of a career: an injury may have ended his ring run, but the consummate optimist is ready to begin the next chapter of his life - Interview: Diamond Dallas Page

Wrestling Digest, June, 2003 by Kevin Eck

ENVISION IT AND IT WILL happen.

Spend any time with Diamond Dallas Page and you'll hear that phrase often. He not only delivers that message to others, but he also lives his life by it. There's certainly no denying that it's worked for him.

Beginning his dream to become a professional wrestler at the ripe age of 35, Page defied the critics by achieving his goal and then slam-dunked the naysayers by winning the WCW world title three times (all after the age of 43) and receiving mainstream notoriety during wrestling's boom period in the late `90s.

Page, however, did not envision the manner in which his career inside the ring would end. He retired last June after a freak accident during a match aggravated some serious neck problems. The injury came just as he felt he was starting to turn a corner in WWE.

Never one for self pity, the perpetually positive Page simply turned his attention to the quest of another dream, this one belonging to his wife, Kimberly, an aspiring actress who formerly was a Nitro Girl and a valet in WCW, With Page no longer under a WWE contract, the couple headed to Los Angeles in August 2002 to pursue acting careers. Page is also working as a professional speaker.

Page recently sat down with WRESTLING DIGEST to discuss his devastating neck injury, his abbreviated stint in WWE, and life after wrestling.

WRESTLING DIGEST: Can you give us the details surrounding your decision to retire, beginning with the "Smackdown" match against Bob Holly in April of last year in which you suffered a neck injury?

DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE: I threw Bobby into the turnbuckle and came running in, and I took a pretty stiff boot from him. Then he followed up with a clothesline that literally knocked me out. He suplexed me and asked me if I was OIL I said, "Yeah, I think I'm all right." Then I go to suplex him off the top and we're going to the finish.

Well, as I'm climbing those ropes, I'm still a little dazed. I suplexed him, and I'm so concerned with laying him flat, which I did, that I didn't land flat. I landed on the top of my shoulders and my neck. Imagine coming down with 260 pounds on your shoulders, and I'm following it with the momentum, and whiplashing myself down into him. My foot came around and jackknifed and hit him right in the groin.

When we hit, I could feel the shocks down my hands. I thought I broke my neck. I rolled around a little bit, and then a couple seconds later I moved my fingers, and I'm like, "Oh, thank God." Then I hear Bobby screaming in pain. I'm thinking: "What the hell is he bitching about? I know I laid him flat." We asked each other if we were OK. I said, "Let's just do it," and we finished the match. We came to the back, and Bobby and I hugged each other and thanked each other for the match.

He said, "Man, I'm sorry about kicking you in the face with that boot." I told him not to worry about it. Then he's rubbing his biceps, and he said, "I know I got you with that clothesline. I thought I tore my biceps, but you got me back." I looked at his huge arm, and my jaw was imprinted on it, but I'm wondering how I got him back. He said, "You kicked me so hard in the groin that I thought my groin was on fire." I could feel my neck seizing up right there. I walked up to the trainer and I told him what the scoop was.

I ended up seeing three doctors. My first doctor said, "Diamond, how much longer do you want to do this?" I told him I'd like to do it another year. He said, "Let me see if I can change your mind." I had built up bone spurs in my neck. They were right up against a wall and no spinal fluid was going up in there. One doctor said I could go back if I got an operation, but the other two said no way. It would have taken me over a year to rehab that kind of injury. If I was 37, I probably would have done it, but not at 47.

Finally it was Vince McMahon and Jim Ross who said, "What are you going to feel like when you're 50 or 60 if you do this now?" They wanted me to become a color commentator, which was an honor for me to hear from them. But I had to turn down the offer. I was burned out on the business and I really did not believe I could give Vince what he wanted. I had already made that mistake once when I did the stalker thing.

WD: Speaking of the stalker angle, in which your character menaced the Undertaker's wife, the manner in which it was booked almost guaranteed that it Wouldn't get over. What are your thoughts on it?

DDP: I don't blame anybody because it was my choice to do it. I had a whole different vision, but when Vince and Shane McMahon gave me the stalker idea, I know they didn't think it was going to be as bad as it turned out to be. I should have said, "Vince, it's a great idea, but not for me, because people aren't going to buy it. Me stalking another man's wife? Have you seen my wife?" But I eventually turned things around. I was told by one of the guys who talked to Vince all the time that Vince thought I'd lost it in the ring. Well, when I started having matches with the young guys like Christian, who were bumping like crazy, I turned Vince around, and it made me very proud. That's why I was so bummed when I got hurt, because I had just turned my career around.