Diamond Dallas Page has helped out countless people on their journey to recovery and perhaps none are as close to him as Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts.
WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard to promote his new podcast with Roberts, DDP Snakepit. During the conversation, DDP explained how this wasn’t just another wrestling podcast. In addition to sharing that they will be reviewing the STARZ series Heels on a weekly episodic format, DDP also talked about how far Roberts has come during his very public issues with alcohol and substance abuse and that the show provides some life advice and motivation too.
“I brought Steve Yu [DDP’s producer] up because when we were filming these first two episodes — and he’ll be there for all of them — afterward he said ‘Wow, I was really blown away by how inspirational Jake was.’ And that’s who Jake’s become, like, he’s that guy who’s come from the darkest pit of hell and has turned his life around. When I first went down to film [for The Resurrection Of Jake The Snake] and you see him with his t-shirt turned around and he’s 300 pounds and can’t even get out to the chair and his brain is so f-cked up with junk and crack and coke and pills and booze, me and Steve drove away that day,” DDP explained, “and he goes ‘so, what do you think?’ I said, ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to have a real conversation with my buddy again.’
“Because Jake’s one of the smartest guys I’ve ever known, Jake is brilliant. And he’s insanely brilliant when it comes to wrestling… he’s Yoda. And after eight years of sobriety and defogging, Yoda is back. Now, he still has a few short memory things from a lot of hits to the head but that sumbitch is as sharp as a tack right now. All he cares about is helping other people,” he stated, “because there’s nothing that makes you feel better, nothing. I mean, I’ve been lucky enough to make a living out of it you know? But eight years it took to get there.” [laughs]
Diamond Dallas Page then spoke about mastering the Diamond Cutter, which was originally the finishing move of Johnny Ace, aka WWE’s John Laurinaitis. DDP previously spoke about how he borrowed the Diamond Cutter from Laurinaitis by reinventing the Ace Crusher, but only learned about how Laurinaitis began doing his move “outta nowhere” like DDP did only a few years ago.
“Johnny Laurinaitis is number two in that company, in WWE, right now. He’s head of all of that talent and is one of Vince’s [McMahon] very good friends. Him and I were super tight, I helped him big-time when we were younger and vice-versa, we helped each other. He started taking [his Ace Crusher] out of nowhere after he saw me doing that [with the Diamond Cutter] and then he came up with a bunch of ways but he never told me.
“I didn’t realize until like probably eight years ago and I saw a compilation of Johnny Ace and it was all these different ways to do the Ace Crusher and I called him up and I go, ‘Hey motherf-cker, you never told me that you started doing the Ace Crusher out of nowhere’ and he goes ‘Hey, I saw what you did, you saw what I did. We came up with it together.’ I go ‘you son of a b-tch…’ and we were just laughing, I’d never seen it. It was a huge prop to me, that the guy who gave me that, took that because it’s all about how you make it the next part of that move. What makes you go ‘Oh!’ and if you watch or listen to DDP Snakepit, you’ll find out how Jake came up with [the DDT], in his words, how he came up with it. It’s really cool to listen to.”
Diamond Dallas Page spoke more about his relationship with “Yoda” and how he, Jake and co-host Conrad Thompson offer a “fly on the wall” perspective with their new show. Read more about the dynamic of the show and how they mastered their own respective finishing moves at this link.
The first episode of DDP SnakePit is available now on your favorite podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also watch our full interview with Diamond Dallas Page at the top of this post.
Read More: Diamond Dallas Page: I Told John Morrison ‘Bro, Go To AEW, You’ll Be A Huge Star There’ In 2019
