Known the world over from his three reigns as the WCW (World Championship Wrestling) World Heavyweight Champion, his roles in the movies “Ready To Rumble” and “The Devils Rejects” and most recently, his current lawsuit against rapper Jay-Z, Diamond Dallas Page has captured the world’s attention in and out of the ring with a positive attitude and an unbreakable drive to succeed in any facet of life.

Already making a name for himself in the literary world in 2000 with his autobiography “Positively Page,” Page has written a new book, “Yoga For Regular Guys,” in an attempt to educate the world about yoga, the form of exercise that saved his career after a devastating injury.

“Yoga changed my life in a way that, at 42 years old I ruptured my L4 and L5 so badly in the lower part of my back that three separate doctors told me my wrestling career was over,” said Page, via telephone in Los Angeles. “Just so you understand, your discs are like jelly donuts and when you keep banging the hell out of them, it’s like stepping on that jelly donut. Now what comes out of that jelly donut runs down around your nerve areas. Simple things like sitting down are excruciating.”

Sick of seeing her husband in pain, Page’s then-wife, Kimberly Page, suggested that he try yoga as a way to rehabilitate from the near-crippling back injury he sustained from years of bumps and bruises in the ring.

“My wife at the time, Kimberly, was trying to get me to do yoga, to help heal my body.  I was like, ‘Yoga? That crap is for sissies,’ I was wrong,” Page says. “I learned probably the most valuable lesson when it came to adaptation; I had to become pliable; I had to become flexible, so to speak. Not just in my body, but in my mind, to the thought of doing yoga.”

While performing the yoga exercises themselves prolonged Page’s wrestling career, the concept of actually considering yoga as possible rehabilitation for his injury opened up his mind.

“Once I did become flexible in the mind to the thought of doing yoga, I realized what a great workout it was,” said Page emphatically. “I was back in the ring in three months. The doctors told me three months before this, my career was done.”

Now some of you may be thinking: why would a 42-year-old man with a bad back want to get back into a wrestling ring? Unlike many professional wrestlers, DDP didn’t begin his career until his mid-thirties. Blessed with a body that refuses to age and an unmatched work ethic, Page was determined to make the most out of his professional wrestling career, despite injuries and naysayers that said he’d never amount to anything.

“My career didn’t break until I was 39-years-old. I didn’t blow to the roof until I was 40. I was just on the ride, 40, 41, 42; I was in one main event after another. I had just finished doing the stuff with Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman, where we shot the angles on The Tonight Show with Hogan. We followed that with the Jay Leno stuff. I was doing Hollywood Squares; I was doing everything,” said Page. “That’s what you work so hard for- to get those accolades and be able to increase your brand and they told me it was over.”

“I didn’t start wrestling until I was 35 years old. I tore my rotator cuff at 36 and they (WCW) fired me. They hired me back at 37 because I set a good example and because I had a great workout, but no one ever thought I’d be shit. It all comes down to believing in yourself and work ethic. I just kept working my ass off and eventually it came through.”

Slowly but steadily, Page garnered an almost cult-like following, amassing legions of loyal “diamond cutters” on every road trip that acknowledged his ability and respected him even more for his hard work in the ring. It was only a matter of time until someone else noticed.