STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
By Diamond Dallas Page

What’s up?

Hey Cutters
What’s up? Man, do I have a busy month coming up. What have I done lately? A lot…Go figure. Last week I went to Las Vegas to see my boy, the Tower of Power, the Man of the Hour, who’s too sweet to be sour, the American Dream Dusty Rhodes do his first motivational speaking gig. Let me tell you, he was great, in public…if you weeell. Dream spoke about teamwork and leadership, and how you can be a main event player, as opposed to a mid-card guy. At some point, he made reference to a story of a guy who never should have made it, according to everybody else, but because of his work ethic, tenacity, and ability to not take “no” for an answer became not just a main eventer, but a World Champion. At that point, he introduced me. Nobody knew I was there because I snuck in after the event had started, because I was running late. Also at the speaking gig were Dusty’s son Cody and his daughter Teal who have enrolled in Howard Fine’s Acting Studio where I have been for the last two years. These are two very talented kids and I’ll keep you posted on their progress.

Haven’t watched much WWE lately, but from what I understand, my girl Amy Weber is in the finals of the Diva Search. Amy and her partner Bernard own a talent agency that booked Kimberly for auditions all the time. Amy is a real sweetheart in person and awesome to look at, so she gets DDP’s two thumbs up. You can check her out at http://www.amyweber.net.

Last Saturday night, I had a hell of a match with my boy Kanyon. It was the best house that these guys have seen in quite a while. There were around 500 people in August in jersey with no air conditioning, which is a hell of a turnout. The people were red hot to boot. As soon as I stepped through the curtain, the DDP chants were deafening. (I am from New Jersey, after all.) Kanyon came up with a great idea of not getting into the ring and me beating him all over the building. After about 8 minutes of carnage where Chris hardwayed his forehead (which means he didn't cut himself he did it for real) and was bleeding like a pig, he pulled out the brass knucks and got me with one big shot to the kisser, rolled me in for the pin and I kicked out. Then he hit me blatantly in front of the ref for a DQ. The people thought they got totally screwed and the bull$hit chant started loud as hell. As the referee announced me the winner by DQ, while I was lying flat on my back, Kanyon made for the back only to have Larry Zbyszko power walk right by him. Larry got in the ring to loud chants of “Larry”. Larry told Kanyon that the people paid good money to see this match and he was going to wrestle. Kanyon was going to wrestle and it’s now a retirement match. If Kanyon loses, he has to retire, and if I lose I would have to re-retire. As Kanyon agreed, I was laying flat on my back as he was laughing his a$$ off. I snatched him, threw him into the corner and proceeded to whup his a$$. I think we surprised a lot of people because they not only got an 8-minute brawl, but they also got a 15-minute match. The people were into all the false finishes (the 1-2 count where they think the match is over) at the end. This was a real testing ground for me because I wanted to see if I still had it. The match I had with Johnny Swinger, Sting in Hawaii and the UPW guys were simple matches. This one was not. This was something you might have seen on a Raw or Nitro. I was really looking to see how my body felt the next day… and it felt pretty damn good. Considering I am sneaking up on my on the 20th anniversary of his 29th birthday I feel pretty good knowing I've got one more good run in me.

That same day, my buddy Smokey (who wrote Positively Page with me) was flown up by Tony Paligrossi’s girlfriend TM as a surprise to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Tony P’s 29th birthday... you do the math. Tony used to run nightclubs with me back in the day and has been one of my dearest friends for over 25 years. I had to be there for his 50th. He had no idea Smokey or I was coming and he popped huge. After that, I took off to Atlanta to see my buddy Terri who took me all over to see all my docs. Yes all the king’s horses and all the king’s men were able to put DDP back together again, so I felt even better. I also got to see my girls, the Leonard girls, Linda, Kimberly, and Brittany. If you’ve been reading this for a while, you know Kimberly and Brittany are like my goddaughters. I also got to spend some time with my boy Eric Watts and one of my favorite little buddies his son Noah... sorry for leaving so soon Noah but DDP had to fly. After that, I flew right back to L.A. because my bros the Los Lonely Boys were in L.A. to film the Sony Walkman commercial. Sony is putting over $40 million into an ad campaign for the Walkman. LLB are the featured artist. The LLB is also on the cover of Track this month and have a huge pull out in Rolling Stone promoting visa. I don’t know if you remember this, but I've been pushing the Boys since I meet them at Willie's Farm Aid. Back maybe they some 22000 CDs and nobody even knew them, I told the world they were the next hottest things... I love it when good things happen to good people. These guys are the Mexican Beatles and they are just that, ungodly talented. Their self-titled CD has already gone platinum and is one its way to double platinum... So if you don't have it go get it.

I brought my buddy Robin DiMaggio with me to the shoot. Robin D has played with everyone from Bowie to Paul Simon as a drummer and he like the LLB is incredibly talented but where Robin's ungodly talent lies is in playing the piano. We just finished cutting his new CD and where about to take it out to shop it. Robin D has been classically trained since the age of two. So remember I said this ... Robin D is going to blow the world up and redefine how people look and listen to classical music. With the long hair and the full sleeve Tattoos he is definitely not what you think of when you think of classical music but that what's going make him so special. Trust when I tell you Robin is one of those guys that chicks want to f*ck him and guys want to be him. Mix that with real talent and you've got money... After shooting the commercial, we all went back to my new crib where we hooked up with my roommate Stone Cold and as usual we had a blast. Around 1:00 AM, Nash called and came over to meet the boys. Like us he’s a big fan. Nash and I dropped them off around 3AM at the Mondreon in Hollywood, which is a little different then when I dropped them off at a tiny Holiday Inn Express a year ago. At the commercial, LLB cut a new song, Johnny Cash’s Walk The Line. It’s AWESOME. The Cash family called personally to tell them how much they liked it. If you haven’t gotten the CD yet, like I said ... get it now. It’s hardcore rock and roll with a TexMex style ... Texicana Rock and Roll. Check out the pictures go to http://www.diamonddallaspage.com.

What’s up next? I leave for Iraq on September 6th. I meet my buddy Rob Dibble in Frankfurt, Germany and we head straight into Iraq for two weeks. We’re both jacked and this guy definitely seems like a twin brother from a different mother. He left me a message that started out in his best Osama Bin Laden accent, “Diamond Dallas Page, I hear you’re coming to Iraq and you’re going to kick my a$$. I don’t think so.” He started laughing and I knew it was him. Be sure to check out ESPN News for clips of Rob and I. Once I get back from Iraq, I’ll head back out to Zurich on October 1st for a match October 2nd against Jeff Jarrett. It looks like DDP is going global again.

For now, wish me luck in Iraq and keep your feet firmly planted on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.
Be Unstoppable, and live life at 90%

Diamond Dallas Page