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My whole intention at 'WrestleMania XIV' was to drop the belt to Steve, but I was going to make everybody sweat it out and make them think I wasn't. Obviously, I got that accomplished. That's extremely unprofessional, but that's exactly who I was and what I was doing.
When I started, you didn't focus so much on production, certainly not - gosh - down to the finest little detail of how you shifted your eyes or how you turned to somebody. A lot of the shots were far away from a still camera. There weren't as many close-ups and intimacy.
I suppose a lot of people don't understand that one of the things that drew me to hunting was the peace and the solitude, the mushy spiritual stuff, strangely enough. The quiet away from 75,000 roaring fans. The fans, that's very wonderful - I get a great charge from that.
If you have 100 acres worth of food, and you've got 500 animals out there, the young ones and the old ones are going to starve to death because they can't compete. When they starve, they start to eat things they shouldn't be eating and spread disease not only to them but to us.
My years in the WWE, a lot of stuff came out that you're not even aware of because they come out with it so fast, and there's so much of it. It's tough, certainly, to have any hands-on association with it, so I was happy to be able to have some input into the 'Deuce Brand' watch.
As badly as everybody feels like I'm a sellout for one thing or another, I guess, ultimately, when it came to wrestling, I just wanted to wrestle where I want to wrestle. And something had to be bigger and more important than the money, and for me, it was the time inside that ring.
I like learning new stuff, also, and I can sit there and watch shows on National Geographic and the Discovery Channel or stuff like that and learn something new. I think once you've gone through such a long stage of learning one thing, you're not as well-rounded as you'd like to be.
As a wrestling fan, I can remember years ago seeing my first Street Fight between Wahoo McDaniel and Tully Blanchard, and I remember thinking to myself that I will really think I've made it when I can come to the ring in jeans and cowboy boots with my hands taped and stuff like that.
I don't pass myself off as a Bible scholar or a pastor or someone who knows all the biblical facts cover-to-cover. I'm just a guy whose life was changed by it. And that's about the extent of it. So I'm not easily offended when people struggle about where they're at with their faith at all.
If I'm appearing on 'Raw,' then I'm usually there to help sell tickets to something, and that's when you see the 'HBK' Shawn Michaels come out. At panels, I can be more open and honest and show some more humility. They don't want me talking about my family on TV, but I can in a panel setting.
There were times that we'd be in the locker room there before everyone else, and a guy would walk in, say, 'Is this the Kliq locker room?' So we'd draw with a sharpie on the back of a program and write 'Kliq locker room'. I can promise you that none of those signs were ever on WWE letterhead.
That's what I love about my faith and Christianity. It's the polar opposite of darn near everything I experienced in the wrestling business. I still love the business, and I'm thankful for everything that it's provided, but the idea that it deals in the truth is the furthest thing from reality.
You see the standard hunting show; it's an outdoor television show. A lot of times, it's just a guy sitting in a tree, waiting on an animal. I don't think it does it justice, and I don't think it captures the enjoyment and the splendor of the incredible outdoors and the feeling of being out there.
I enjoyed the theatrics and the physical demands of everything that went on in the ring. But I was, initially, a relatively shy kid. I think that's probably what attracted me to hunting is that it was such a polar opposite of the other, and it was that opportunity for peace and quiet and to decompress.
I think I was given a gift to wrestle. And I think when I came back, I had a much better appreciation of that. And I believe the way I went about doing it made me better at it. I didn't identify myself with the job as I did so much in the '90s. In the '90s, I didn't know who I was other than 'the wrestler.'
It wasn't until 2002 when I returned to WWE and until I had physically been out there - it was during the match when Kevin Nash blew his quad. That next morning, I was sitting on the plane, reading my Bible and the Book of Joshua, and this feeling came over me that I was back here for a reason. God built me to be a wrestler.
Confidence is one of those things that no one ever wants to talk about in this industry because confidence and ego run neck and neck. But you have to understand, those are things that you have to have in order to make it to where Edge has made it. You've got to have a certain amount of ego and confidence in yourself to get there.
I've always wanted to be a rebel. I've never wanted to do what everybody else is doing. Man, I've got news for you, that is what I am really doing now, and it's the coolest thing ever. I got to know the person of Christ. I see him as one of the greatest rebels of all time. That's what really appeals to me. It's hope. It's victory.
The whole thing about me being The Showstopper - and Mr. WrestleMania - is that it was something I said once, and it took on a life of its own from there. Truthfully, I think the idea of going out and stealing the show is something you ought to do every time you wrestle. But if you focus only on that element, you end up doing almost too much.
Man, I have absolutely zero ability into narrowing absolutely any of my favorites into just one, but I have to say, I gotta go between Undertaker and Triple H. Other than all the obvious reasons, but the biggest one for me, those are the only two guys, I could make a mistake and it would be okay. I could put the trust of the match, the story, and absolutely everything into their hands and let go of my control. I'm a control freak (laughs). Those are the only two guys I can let drive and take my hands off the steering wheel.