DDP on How He Took a Lot of His Wrestling Approach From Jake Roberts

– During a recent interview with The Ringer, WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) discussed how he took a lot of his approach to wrestling from fellow WWE Hall of Famer Jake Roberts. Below are some highlights:

DDP on his approach to wrestling: “I would say I stole a lot from Jake [Roberts]. I’d be the first to say it, but Jake loved how I made it my own. And I never even realized that until I’d watched one of the matches. … It was just instinctively, I was around him so much. There was a guy on the road one time who had 40 VHS tapes of Jake that were full-hour tapes, 80 hours of just Jake, and he brought them in a box and gave them to Jake. And I go, ‘Man, I want to tear through that.’ He goes, ‘You can have it,’ and wish I still did. But I watched every minute of all of those tapes.”

His thoughts on Roberts: “I’d be the first to say it, but Jake loved how I made it my own. And I never even realized that until I’d watched one of the matches. … It was just instinctively I was around him so much. There was a guy on the road one time who had 40 VHS tapes of Jake that were full-hour tapes, 80 hours of just Jake, and he brought them in a box and gave them to Jake. And I go, ‘Man, I want to tear through that.’ He goes, ‘You can have it,’ and wish I still did. But I watched every minute of all of those tapes. There’s a little piece of [“Macho Man” Randy] Savage in me, there’s a little piece of ‘Mr. Perfect’ Curt Hennig, there’s a little piece of Terry Funk in me, there’s a lot of Jake, and I just love those styles of work in the ring because all of them were believable as hell. And to me, that’s the most important thing, that people don’t see through your work. … I think Jake Roberts was one of the most realistic people ever in a place where everybody knows it’s predetermined. Jake made it real.”

On helping Jake through one of his tougher moments: “He’d come down one night, and he was, like, so mad. He punched a marble table and a marble counter, and I was like, ‘Dude, what are you doing?’ He goes, ‘I’m such a loser.’ I’m like, ‘Stop saying that.’ He goes, ‘I’m such a loser, Dallas. I’m so pissed at myself.’ And I pull him aside, and I go, ‘Come here. Let me show you something.’ We walk in the bathroom off the living room, and I said, ‘What do you see?’ He goes, ‘A loser.’ I go, ‘Stop saying that … look at the shirt you’re wearing.’ And the shirt was a skeleton, was waving a flag, and wasted youth on the flag. I said, ‘Every time you wear that shirt, you catch it in the mirror. You tell yourself what you wasted. You wear shirts with Manson on it. Would you want your kids to be around Manson? Hell, no.’ I go, ‘What are you doing? The story you tell yourself is everything, bro. You should have positive energy on there or ‘Unstoppable’ or ‘Never give up.’ I go, ‘That’s what you should be wearing.’ And he goes, ‘You know, you’re right.’ And he went upstairs for 20 minutes, and he came down, and Jake’s an artist, and he drew this banner and wrote through it, ‘My history is not my destiny.’ I was like, wow, that’s powerful. And that became the story he told himself.”