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Pro wrestling has always been ingrained into American culture. It was one of the first things that was ever on television, so everybody watched it. Countless people tell me, 'I got into wrestling because my grandfather watched it.' It was always there.
For some reason, the fans got behind me, and I don't know exactly why that is. I wasn't supposed to main event WrestleMania XXX, but the fans were so vocal about it that the fans had no choice but to put me in the match. I've had a lot of lucky breaks.
I always think of it in terms of music. You're not always going to be a huge rock star in music, but musicians can play until the day they die. With sports, it's different. You can't always do it until the very end, and that's a hard reality of sports.
I remember, the first times watching WWF, Bret Hart was kind of the man, winning King of the Ring, technical master, and he could go for an hour. He had a million different moves he could beat anyone with. Just rugged, dynamic champion. He was so cool.
Ive been chastised for going into mixed martial arts and backing out. But the reason I backed out was the terms - they wanted me ready to fight in four weeks, but youve got to be out of your mind. So I decided to go back to my roots, back to wrestling.
The perks of working in Japan are that you might go for two weeks every three or four months, so you do work an abbreviated schedule. But you really make up for the abbreviated schedule by how hard you have to fight, how much you've got to be in shape.
I think part of my journeys here and the places I was able to be at and the styles of wrestling I was able to experience and the friendships and just the world experience that I garnered before I came here to WWE helped me tremendously when I got here.
Wrestling, for me, was always something I wanted to do, and it, working in IT, was just a way to get financially looked after; I went and wrestled on the side because you don't make any money when you're starting off, and you don't have any name value.
Once I started to retire, I was telling all of the girls in my generation, 'Wow I feel like an outsider in this locker room because this whole new generation of women has stepped in,' and that was one of the signs where I said maybe it's time to retire.
I always really enjoyed Edge's entrance theme. Also Stone Cold. WWE once asked me in an interview, if I had to change my entrance music, whose would I choose, and I said Edge. So they created a video of me using that song, and I was like, 'I'm in love.'
I'm so confusing to wrestling promoters, and I'm used to that, but because I stayed in ECW and learned how to express myself the way, ah, that I could connect with my fans, it made my strong Rob Van Dam character uncompromising... and I owe that to ECW.
In comic books, every character exists in this comic book world, and the wrestlers were the same thing. They were responsible for creating that world and putting it out there - having the confidence to go forward and do that and behave in a certain way.
In our personal and professional lives, we are constantly hit with one adversity after the other, most of which we have no control over. But the four things we have total control over is how we react, how we adapt, how we breathe, and how we take action.
People ask me how I am so fearless on a ladder and how I have no fear in the ring. And the answer to that question is a bit complicated. I used to have no fear, but that is no longer true. With a wife and two girls at home, I'm more afraid now than ever.
I don't know of any wrestler who hasn't, at one time or another, been with a fan. One time I met a woman at a match in Tennessee, and afterward we went to a little roadside motel. We checked in, went to the room, and enjoyed each other for an hour or so.
I learn from everybody I work with, and you learn, every single day. I can learn from anyone. Being fortunate enough to perform in front of a changing live audience, every night, you learn from everybody. Everyone has an opinion and they'll let you know.
So if you ask those people who say they're standing up to boo Roman Reigns because, 'We don't like him,' 'Okay, would you pay to see Roman Reigns get beat?' 'Oh, absolutely! I'd love to see him get beat.' He's doing his job because people pay to see him.
Walmart has stores in almost every city in North America. When they go to same-day delivery, they don't have to build warehouses across North America like Amazon has to do. It is so much cheaper for Walmart to use existing stores as distribution centers.
I've been chastised for going into mixed martial arts and backing out. But the reason I backed out was the terms - they wanted me ready to fight in four weeks, but you've got to be out of your mind. So I decided to go back to my roots, back to wrestling.
I can't say I'm a full-on gamer, since, basically, I just don't have time for it. I know nowadays, gaming can be a lot like social media. People just stay on it all day long. Like they're logged into the Matrix. But yeah, I enjoy it. When I get the time.
I relish any chance to punch A.J. Styles in the face, because he's a man I respect greatly. And I find that I want to punch people in the face that I respect greatly. I like to say it's an island thing, but it's not: it' just something that I like doing.
When I was diagnosed, I believed my illness would be my great, lifelong weakness. Bipolar disorder was to be my impenetrable prison, and I would be locked up with it in a castle Princess Toadstool style. Thinking there was no way out, I let it consume me.
I'm not the coolest person in the world. I'm not the sexiest Diva or the strongest Diva. I know who I am. I'm not the most popular person, and I'm kind of dorky, and I'm someone you can see at your school or as your neighbor, and I think people like that.
When my time to die comes an angel will be there to comfort me. He will give me peace and joy even at that most critical hour, and usher me into the presence of God, and I will dwell with the Lord forever. Thank God for the ministry of His blessed angels.
I felt like I was cheated out of my career in the UFC. In my mind and in my heart, I never lost to a foe. I never lost to an opponent. I lost to diverticulitis. That was my opponent that beat me. A lot of other people might have other thoughts about that.
The Bullet Club keeps New Japan Pro Wrestling in the black. Far in the black. Because of me. I'm a part-timer in that company, and I hold the Tokyo Dome merchandising record and Osaka's. Funkos. Bucks on a career run. This Bullet Club may never be topped.
If all you are is a pro wrestler, on some level you eventually become, I feel like, a mindless drone. It's tough, man, if you're on the road and you're doing 200, 250 shows a year. It starts to take a toll on your personal life and who are you as a human.
I'd like to see Dolph Ziggler get involved in a really intense, personal feud that will bring out another side of his personality. Because the personality is there, and the wrestling is there, so I'd like someone to come along and bring out his ugly side.
I'm wrestling almost every single day of the week. I'm fighting for so much more. I'm trying to capture a life here, a future. I'm trying to put my kid in college. There are so many things I'm doing. I'm representing the biggest wrestling family on earth.
Not a lot of people get into Brock Lesnar like I did. Brock is every bit as intimidating as you'd imagine he would be times two. No, I mean, he's a shaved gorilla. It's just, he's stronger than strong. I don't even think he even realizes how strong he is.
I watched the documentary 'I Hate Christian Laettner,' and I really hate Christian Laettner. It made me understand why everybody hates Christian Laettner and Duke basketball. I mean, they're just a bunch of preppy white boys from Tobacco Road or whatever.
Stan Hansen was a tough-as-nails freshman middle linebacker when I was a senior at West Texas State. He was a damn good football player, but he developed some problems with his knees. When football didn't work out he asked me about professional wrestling.
Let me ask you a question: If you never ate a balanced diet, what would happen to your body? You know the answer: Eventually you'd grow weak; you might even open yourself to serious illness or disease. We all need a balanced diet if we are to stay healthy.
I first met Bev Shea while in Chicago when he was on Moody Radio. As a young man starting my ministry, I asked Bev if he would join me. He said yes, and for over 60 years we had the privilege of ministering together across the country and around the world.
I think I was always so resistant to coloring my hair because, you know, when my dad was still alive, it's so easy for a second- or third-generation wrestler to just copy their predecessor. The hardest thing you can do is try and carve out your own legacy.
I am the best in the world. It's 1: Cody; 2: Kenny; 3: Okada; 4: Charlotte; 5: Cena, with Ospreay creeping up on the list. It's my responsibility with the event to live up to that ranking. I am unbelievably good at this because of hard work and dedication.
My mind thinks in wrestling. As I'm thinking of things and my mind is being creative, it constantly keeps going back to wrestling. That's my inspiration, and to not be able to express that puts me in a spot where I almost don't know what to do with myself.
In the ring, it's fun to be the bad guy, but 24 hours a day, when you have to talk to kids, and you see Make-A-Wish kids that love you, the bad guy stuff is not fun. I'd rather be a good guy 24 hours a day than a bad guy just for a few minutes in the ring.
People all the time come up and ask how we do this or how we do that, and there isn't any secret to it. You're just getting bashed with something, and you're either a man and you take it, or you're not. People don't realize the toughness of WWE superstars.
My goal is go out, try and be an entertainer, try to have the best match I can but be smart about it. If people are enjoying it, enjoying what I'm doing, then that's awesome because I'm enjoying what I'm doing, and I'm very passionate about what I'm doing.
It wasn't cool that I didn't comb my hair and had books and wore glasses. It was never cool be a nerd and tomboy, and these days, it really is. And I'm like, 'You guys have no idea what I went through.' How many times my mother yelled at me to comb my hair.
When you see me on TV against one of the other girls, they look 10 times better than me, and I'm OK with that. I make a conscious effort not to wear that much makeup and not have my hair so perfectly groomed. That's just not me. I'm not going to be perfect.
I think the whole Flawless thing backfired in my face. I'm just like, 'oh, man! We're out here calling ourselves Flawless, and being the most obnoxious characters, that even I wanted to slap myself sometimes!' Even I would get sick of watching myself on TV!
They try to get me to watch The Condemned and I said NO,NO, NO. It's a sad fact Stone Colduh can't act he should GO, GO, GO. He likes to hang out in baaaaaars, I gave his movie zero staaaaaars. They try to make me watch The Condemned and I said uh NO,NO,NO.
People just don't understand the art form of what we do. It's a mental and physical grind. You can't be a dolt in this industry. On the opposite end of that, you can be the smartest guy in the world and not understand what it is to have a presence on stage.
Being the U.S. champion is a big deal for me. Knowing that my ancestors built this country, it's kind of like, the Irish were treated badly in this country for a long time, with a lot of tacky Irish stereotypes, so to me, it's kind of like a bragging right.
I do not care that the people is for or against me. The important thing is that I am appreciated by a response of boos or cheers. This is the important thing. it is important that people see me as a superstar talent that they want to see. I enjoy being heel.
I'm someone who loses 80 to 90 percent of the time. Even when I lost, I put my body on the line and I told the best story. If I stood out, if my attitude towards fighting was different, I found a way to stay around and keep revamping myself and my character.
To look back and reflect on the career and sort of look at the seasons of it before I got to the WWF, working the territories and Japan and Texas, Puerto Rico, and then the WWF and WCW, then obviously the TNA years - it's been quite a journey, I'll say that.
I watch other wrestlers. I watch movies with Jackie Chan and Jet Li and Tony Jaa. Then there's breakdancing and Capoeira - just anything I see that looks awesome that I think I could adapt in the ring. Just your typical Kung Fu, breakdancing, Capoeira moves.