Diamond Dallas Page Talks To Us About RAW Return, Conversation With CM Punk, DDP Yoga, More

As noted earlier, I spoke with "Diamond" Dallas Page earlier this week about his return on RAW this past Monday night. Here is the full interview. Also, make sure to learn more about DDPYoga by clicking here.

When he found out about the appearance: "I found out about a couple of days before. Johnny Ace called me up and asked if I could make it. I was in Louisville at a Fright Night fanfest -- I do a lot of those because I was Billy Ray Snapper in Devils Rejects, which was like the Reservoir Dogs when it comes to horror. So I was working for five straight days, then I had to catch a flight at 4:00 in the morning to go to Laredo [the site of last night's RAW]. I had already been up early the past three days with no sleep, but it was worth it."

The crowd reaction to his return: "If I didn't know they were on a tight time frame and [if] it was all about me, I would have really taken some time there. But I know they were on a time frame so I didn't want to do that... I can get my sh-t across and do what we needed to do because sometimes less is more. That time that we [Page and Slater] had, that little moment back and forth, and they [fans] started chanting 'DDP,' and I gotta tell ya, I was a little set back by it. I mean, the pop that I got when I came out was amazing. They started chanting 'DDP' and it got louder and louder... I was like, 'Wow.' Maybe I did make a real impression to some people... maybe I did do something right over all those years. Because you can't make people do that, you know?"

Criticism from some fans for not wrestling a match: "Those same people that complain about me not wrestling a match are the same people who would complain that I went too long, or I didn't do this, or I didn't do that. Those are the reasons that my critics could never carry my jock. [laughs] If I would have come out and squashed [Slater], what would that have proved? If I would have had a match, they would have said, "Come on, three weeks in a row," blah, blah, blah.

How his angle with Heath Slater was done: "I think the way they did it [the angle] with Doink was awesome! I thought it was great booking. Michael Wallstreet [Rotundo] was the agent on that, Johnny [Laurinaitis] came out there and we walked through it. I had a couple of different ideas and Johnny was the one who came up with the whole thing at the end and I just came up with how I'm going to do it. Michael came back with the handshake thing because he knew I did that [with Scott Hall on WCW Monday Nitro] ... you've seen many people do that, but you never saw anyone do it before I did that with Scott Hall. I wanted to bring something back from the old school, you know? And Heath did it great.

If people backstage were talking to him about wrestling or DDP Yoga: "It was a combination of things, because a lot of guys grew up watching me. One of the things Heath said was, 'I'm getting to actually work with a lot of the guys I grew up watching.' That's the same with baseball -- any athlete.

"The feeling is much different than it used to be. They really created something for the guys. I mean, Johnny [Laurinaitis] does a team meeting thing and it's fun. I was like, 'Wow, this is a pretty interesting comradery thing.' You know?

"With me, you know, Sheamus came up to me and we hadn't talked since WrestleMania. Chris Jericho, he's amazing. I couldn't afford Jericho, he's a million dollar guy, but he's barked about DDP Yoga because it really helps him and it's the only workout that he does. So, when I have Sheamus come up to me and say, 'You know, Chris [Jericho] really puts this over. Can you tell me more about it?' Well, you know what? I'm sending it to them. [Laughs.]