Obviously, you'd like your titles to be defended at major pay-per-views. I think most fans would agree with that although it doesn't mean that always has to be the case.

No matter what lifestyle you choose, when it comes to eating, we should all as consumers have a choice to make informed decisions. We shouldn't be misinformed or mislead.

WWE is the biggest entity in professional wrestling and if you want to prove yourself to be one of the greatest or one of the best, then that's the only place you can do it.

Listen, things change, that's part of life. Part of what makes you great is being able to move when you need to move. Being limber, agile and roll with the punches so to speak.

I love food and don't want to sacrifice my enjoyment to be healthy. You can enjoy food and can be mindful and healthy while you do it but it just takes a little time and effort.

As I go around the country and I'm seeing all the fans in the WWE Universe, there's a lot of young kids and they're off to the wrong start, because they're being fed the wrong food.

Guys like Samoa Joe, no matter what it's been, what promotion, every time we are in the ring there is such an easy storytelling and psychology in there. We always had good matchups.

The more you control where your food comes from instead of relying on restaurants, fast food joints, convenience stores and other processed sources, the better off you're going to be.

One of the things people always ask me is, isn't it expensive to eat healthy or vegan? It can be, but isn't it expensive to live in a nice house or drive a nice car or wear nice clothes?

I always mention Bobby Roode. We just click on a lot of different levels. We grew up appreciating the same type of wrestler and same type of wrestling. We are similar students to the game.

I always say men's facial hair is kind of like women's makeup. We know how to contour our face real nice and give ourselves nice angles and make our nose look not quite as crooked as it is.

Right before I came back to TNA, I had made the decision to just sort of step away from wrestling. Therefore I really walked into TNA holding nothing back and let the chips fall where they fell.

At the end of the day everyone has different goals. Some people, like myself, are trying to keep size on. Some people might come in and have the opposite. So, one size doesn't fit all for nutrition.

Pay-per-views bring conclusion to storylines and what has been going on from television. It is important to give viewers satisfactory pay off over storylines and that is why pay-per-views are important.

For me, from day one, I don't think I realized that I was considered undersized, but I knew I was good. I had certain tools in my toolbox that other guys didn't have, like agility, quickness and explosiveness.

I think the reality of the situation is if you're WWE and you're looking for talent, you're going to want the best guys out there, and you're gonna look at Ring Of Honor, because that's where the best talent is.

As for regret, more than anything else, my regret lies in that the WWE Universe never really got the real Austin Aries. Outside of commentary, they missed out on the chance to hear and see me be me, and do what I do best.

From the moment I became a free agent, the WWE opportunity was the one I wanted. Obviously, there were strong plays made by some other companies, but in the end, when WWE offered me an opportunity, I could not turn it down.

Nobody walks through life as a pure babyface per se or a pure heel, we all have shades of grey, and there's some days we're a little better than others, and some days we're a little more ornery. And I think that I just embody that.

At the end of the day all I've ever asked for is to be allowed to succeed and fail on my own merits. Not based on what somebody else wants me to do or thinks I should do. Or, what they want me to say or what they think I should say.

I think that there is a lot of people that miss what pro wrestling can give them too. I don't watch a ton of it. I watch enough to see what is going on. I think it is also good to not be watching it because your ideas are your ideas.

You can have a favorite band, but when they sign with a major label... maybe a new producer says, 'You can't do that, take this down a notch.' And you'll keep listening, but you'll always think their first album was their best album.

I'm not going to lie. I'd love to have the mic in my hand opposite of Dixie Carter in the ring and say my piece, say what's on my mind. And if she's willing to sit there and listen to it, I think it could make for some great television.

Is it supposed to be a championship for a certain style of wrestlers? For wrestlers under a certain weight limit? I think over the years the one thing that has held the X-Division from being in a certain spot is that it doesn't have a definition.

When I first started training, I guess the fact that I was undersized, it just didn't register initially. Obviously, I knew I wasn't huge and there were some bigger guys in the territories at the time, but I guess I never looked at it as a hinderance.

As long as I can get Bobby Heenan in my corner, then I'm a happy man because, to me, Bobby Heenan is one of the most underrated performers of all time. He's in my top five of all time performers because I don't think people realize just how good he was.

At the end of the day, you can change coaches and managers and players, but if there's something intrinsic, something wrong, then you have to look at what the common denominator is, and, usually, you've got to look at the ownership because everything runs from there.

I think there's a balance of fan interaction. I think sometimes there can be a little too much interaction. I know when I was a kid, the mystique of wrestlers and stuff was something that was kind of big, and if I got to hang out with them all the time i think that mystique can be lost.

As for my daily, it usually consists of a smoothie in the morning with banana, spinach and blueberry and veggie protein powder, then some kind of tofu or tempeh scramble with veggies. Later, I may have some type of rice and beans, salad with lentils, sweet potato, nut butter sandwich and another smoothie.

I don't have a lot of free time with the amount of traveling that I do, but most of pro wrestling isn't catered to me. I am not a kid. There are a lot of guys that complain to me about the product, but it's like, well, you are not a kid. It is catered to sell t-shirts and merchandise to kids and their parents.

I think if you're trying to be mindful of eating well on the road, it can be difficult no matter what. Your choices at midnight or one o'clock in some of the smaller towns when we are getting out of shows aren't going to be the best choices for eating healthy no matter what your dietary choices or restrictions are.

I think that once I started connecting dots of where my food was coming from and the reality of that, as opposed to maybe what you think it is as a little kid, and the realities of how my food was getting to my plate and what the real effects of that are. When I started connecting those dots, I couldn't disconnect them.

I figure no matter what interview I do, the real good 'journalists' are going to find the completely irrelevant quotes that will drum up some controversy and stick it on their page to get some clicks and completely miss the real context of what the interview is about. That's what we do nowadays and call it 'journalism.'

I think it's funny, if you look at Brian Cage, the guy calls himself 'The Machine.' 265 lbs and spends a lot of time in the gym and eating chicken breasts. The guy comes in Impact Wrestling and instead of going after a guy like Moose or Killer Kross, who is he beating up? A bunch of guys half his size? Walking around like he's a big man.

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