WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett spoke on his My World podcast about a wide range of topics.
During it, he talked about how a WCW World Championship match helped inspire Diamond Dallas Page to create DDP Yoga. That match was at Slamboree in May 2000 featuring WCW Champion David Arquette, Jarrett, DDP and three cages stacked on top of one another.
“We both knew we had our work cut out. The triple cage is a great concept. Dealing with this triple cage and how we were going to make sense of it and just the storyline of it with David, a non-wrestler, but the belt being hung. If you’re familiar with DDP Yoga, I’m about to tell you folks this in a lot of ways is where the origins of where DDP Yoga came from. We were walking through the match and having the discussion.
There’s one level, two level, three levels, but there’s a hole in the cage up between the first and second level. Dallas backed up and one of his legs dropped straight through the top, so half his body went down. It really threw his hips and back and threw him out of whack, and he’s got to have a match in 24 hours. He went to work and flew in his doctor. He was coming off a back injury. DDP Yoga, I won’t say it’s the origin of it, but it’s certainly a huge step in the progression of Dallas really wanting to change how he dealt with his body. To this day, I do DDP Yoga. I’m a huge fan. I’m a big supporter of it and a big believer of it.
Me and Dallas were both climbing each corner of the small cage on top, and Arquette had already got up there and there’s a guitar in his hand. Is he going to nail DDP or me?’ Jarrett said. “That was the story. He chose to nail Dallas, and I climbed on up. We shook hands, I grabbed the belt, and I’m the champion again. That was the finish, the storyline. I could remember getting real comfortable up there on top, and me and Dallas had a good brawl. It’s not the easiest psychology to lay out, but I was comfortable. Dallas was comfortable.
We laid out the best match possible. We were instructed that Kanyon had to take the bump off the top. To jump right into it. Owen fell the year before. I didn’t really, at the time, certainly go there or connect the dots. I can remember specifically thinking, do we really have to have Kanyon [jump off the top]? It just felt like a big payoff match, like telling too much stories. It was such a protected bump through boxes and all that stuff. People seeing it live we’re not going to [react heavily], and even if they would’ve bought into it, then you distract from the finish of the match. It was a lose/lose situation, and I can remember thinking that and probably voicing that to Dallas that day.”
H/t to
Wrestling Inc for the transcription.