Whether it's an $11 flip-flop or a $2 key ring or a $2,000 dress, they're all done with integrity. They're all done with a design sense. As long as the creativity exists, then I don't think it's a sellout. A sellout is putting your name on any piece of crap and then expecting people to buy it because it's got your name on it.

The center stone on my ring is the diamond from my mom's original engagement ring. My parents have been married 25 years! My dad bought her a new ring a while back, so she kept her original diamond to pass down to me or my sister someday. It is so special having an heirloom ring because I will get to pass it down one day, too.

Even when I go out to the ring, yes, I am the big, bad heater monster, but I'm out there showing young girls that I can still be athletic just because I'm a big, bad heater. I can still go out there and cut promos like the other pretty girls and wear my hair down and put makeup on and do everything that they say that you can't.

I run, but boxing conditioning is different, so you have to get used to running in the ring. Boxing movements are very different. Swimming is one of the best because every single muscle is working. I swim a lot. I train very hard at things that mimic boxing. I have to do mostly sport-specific training, such as lots of sparring.

Madison Square Garden, November 1984. I don't recall taking too much fear into the ring. I knew I could fight. But I got a big shock. They put me in with this rough, tough veteran called Lionel Byarm. He tested me to the limit. But I fought my heart out and, in the end, I prevailed. The story of my life, in my very first fight.

I've had fans do some pretty awesome things... I once had a fan do a mock proposal for me in Mumbai, inside a McDonalds... and I've had fans give me some precious things. I had one fan give me her mother's ring; I've gotten some pretty intense stuff. And I always get drawings and scrapbooks from fans, which is also pretty cool.

End-of-the-world stories tend to ring true. I've always been drawn to them, but as I wrote my own, I found surprising pleasure in creating a world that is so radically changed, yet where there's so much meaning and value in every small and ordinary thing we have, and take for granted: hot showers, enough food, friends, routines.

In my office in Jerusalem, there's an ancient seal. It's a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there's a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu.

Nicole and I got into wrestling through diva search. It used to be this competition WWE would put on. I found them when I saw the Divas wrestling in the ring, and I kind of just knew it was our calling. I felt like this was exactly what we are meant to do in life. Not only are the girls so glamorous, but they are also very tough.

I wear jewellery that I never take off. I have a ring and two necklaces. I always have them on and get scared when I have to take them off for photo shoots. The ring is my mum's mum's mum's, and she gave it to me for my 18th birthday. The necklace is the same one that my sister has. She's called Hannah, and the name is the chain.

Many Republicans have always reminded me of professional W.W.F. wrestlers. They come into the ring all pumped up and acting like they're invincible and that they're going to destroy their opponent. Then they get hit once and fall down and roll around in agony and suddenly seem immobilized by pain, calling for the ref to intervene.

I worked for a big corporation for a decade for the majority of my youth. Now I really like the opportunity to essentially play my music on as many brands and stuff as I can, and Ring of Honor and Impact have been exceptional. They have been exceptional about that; there has been no pushback. It's all lined up exactly how we hoped.

For Brie and I - we were just 'model tired.' I was told to get a boob job; I was told to lose weight. Brie and I had a big struggle... Brie and I legit hopped in our cars, went to Georgia, jumped in a ring, and said, 'Hey, you're going to sign us. We want to be here.' I know everyone thinks it was really easy for us, but it wasn't.

While I was boxing professionally, I never thought about my looks. The furthest thing from my mind was 'messing up my pretty face' when I was on my way to the ring to meet my opponent. Yet, people I'd meet along the way would always ask me if I was worried about my looks. Then they would go on to say that I was 'too pretty to box.'

I know that the classical world has resisted film composers throwing their hat into the classical concert music ring. And you know I don't think that's totally without justification. I think sometimes it seems to me there is a built in automatic prejudice against the whole idea of it. And it's very difficult to overcome that stigma.

As any opera fan knows, lawyers and judges do not fare well in most operas. Just consider the productions of 'Andrea Chenier,' 'Aida, Norma,' 'Billy Budd,' 'Peter Grimes,' 'The Crucible,' 'Lost in the Stars,' 'The Marriage of Figaro,' 'The Makropulos Case' and Wagner's 'Ring' cycle. Around 1810, the theme of justice emerged in opera.

Undertaker certainly is a cornerstone of WWE, and just as I say to myself that I really would have liked to been able to get to know and certainly get in the ring with Andre the Giant, just because of all the respect and folklore that went around with Andre, I think The Undertaker has that same sort of respect and folklore around him.

I think if you look at NXT, the one guy who seems like he would belong in a WrestleMania main event is Nakamura because of the aura and the buzz that he gets. He is able to grab the attention of people who don't really know who he is right away with his mannerisms and entrance - by the time he gets to the ring, you are kind of hooked.

It's not just the physical aspect of boxing, it's the whole fighter mentality that has been ingrained in me through the years as a competitive athlete. One of the hardest things you'll ever do is to box - to get into the ring and to face off with somebody whose whole goal is to knock you out, to hurt you, and to be able to fight back.

Growing up in wrestling, I would see my uncle put on his mask before he walked into auditoriums. The kids would run up to him and ask for autographs and pictures, and seeing him lacing up his boots in the locker room and putting on his mask before heading to the ring, that was all so real to me. That was the modern day superhero to me.

If I didn't have a gig, I used to ring up all the comedy clubs across the country and go, 'If anyone drops out, I can be there.' Normally, someone would ring you up the day of. It's just perseverance, being scrappy, being a hustler. The first few years, a lot of it was under-the-table work, so that was good. I think I can say that now.

I captured Tag Team, Intercontinental, Rookie Of The Year, King Of The Ring, everything but the heavyweight title. I would hope that, somewhere down the road all the differences would be put aside and allow me to come back and at least get a shot at the heavyweight title, and I hope Brock Lesnar has it, cause I'd like to come after him.

When I was little, my father was one of the biggest names in Hollywood. Suddenly - and how it happened to him was always a great mystery to me - he wasn't a star anymore; he was on the fringe. From the time I was 14, I was always conscious of a sense of worry, of terrific insecurity - agents, phony talk, the waits for the phone to ring.

It's really funny to me that I get called a workhorse or somebody who's really good at making other people better in the ring. I feel like I'm good at every aspect of this. I feel like I'm a great talker; I feel like I'm a great representative of the company. I broke records in college. I have an amateur background with fighting skills.

My hats off to anybody filming action, because you get beat up. If I'm going to get the crap kicked out of me, I would love 15,000 people on hand to tell me that I'm doing good or I'm doing bad. So, if I'm going to be in any physical duress, I'd really like it to be in a WWE ring, which is why I was so amped to be a part of 'Trainwreck.'

I remember Wrestlemania VI, being in my locker room painting my face, about halfway done, and the production guys came, and they knocked on the door, and they came in. I was looking in the mirror at them, and they said, 'Hey, Warrior, we've got a cart to take you to the ring.' I just looked at them, and I said, 'I'm running to the ring.'

The coolest thing, and I have it at home, is a huge Hulk Hogan, normal-sized pinball machine. When people come over they play it for hours. When you hit the bumpers and the bells ring it goes, 'Oh yeah!' The whole time you're playing this machine it's yelling and screaming at you, 'What you gonna do, brother?!' I think that's the coolest.

My brain can form thoughts that come out through my mouth. The problem is sometimes I stumble the words because I speak five different languages - we know all that - so the thing is, I like to speak the language that everybody speaks all around the world, that the WWE Universe loves... that's the language of wrestling that I do in the ring.

I'll get out and do Pilates. I'll get in the ring and do some rounds of kickboxing and grappling and MMA conditioning. There's a lot of unique stuff that I do, too, that a lot of people wouldn't imagine or think about doing, like box jumps. You get a 42-inch box and dumbbells and practice working on your explosion jumping up on those boxes.

All of my life had been spent in the shadow of apartheid. And when South Africa went through its extraordinary change in 1994, it was like having spent a lifetime in a boxing ring with an opponent and suddenly finding yourself in that boxing ring with nobody else and realising you've to take the gloves off and get out, and reinvent yourself.

I have a septum ring that I always keep pushed up in my nose, but if I put on a dress and think it's just a little girly for me, - boom! - I pop out my septum ring. Or I might throw on a big pair of hoop earrings - or a diamond choker. That's fancy, but not too proper or elegant because it's still a choker! It's all about making it your own.

I want to be remembered as the man who changed the pay scale for featherweights, who put the sparkle back in boxing after Muhammad Ali left, the man who took risks with his ring entrance, the man who, before the fight, would do a front flip into the ring without even thinking about turning an ankle, and then knocking his man out. I mean out.

I call my ring Procter and Gamble, because David paid for it through his first commercial from Head & Shoulders. When I met David, he was waiting tables. He was below broke, in deep debt, but I followed my heart. When you're looking for a mate, don't look at his current status, but his present potential that will become a part of his future.

My first match was against Sputnik Monroe at the Amarillo Sports Arena. It was scheduled for only ten minutes. Sputnik got me down and was on top of me for the first eight minutes. My father came running down to the ring and yelled for me to get up. I don't know how I got up but I did. I was a lot more scared of my father than I was Sputnik.

I know people are going to be surprised to hear me say this because they think I'm such an advocate for women's wrestling... But I truly believe that the best time in wrestling, for me, was when I first got into WWE and they had a strong women's division and they also had girls who strengths weren't in the ring and were more for entertainment.

I said, 'What I'm going to do is dress as plain as humanly possible.' I'm not going to wear anything fancy, I'm not going to have fancy music, I'm not going to have fancy pyro - I'm literally just going to be a dude walking into the ring. I'm going to look like I just got off work from a construction site, and I am now punching you in the face.

If anything, I'm overacting in the ring because of the facials and the body language. I want the guy in the cheap seats to be able to see what I'm thinking, the expression on my face. But when you're filming a movie, it could be a two- or three-camera shot, and you're doing it over and over and over again. It's not live TV; it's a lot different.

As a gay man, there are certain places that I avoid. When I go to China, I lie and pretend I'm not married, which is really sad - I leave my ring at home. But I'm not willing to risk my safety in a country that could cause me no end of problems or where it's illegal to be gay. I'm very aware of the places I can travel to safely and where I cannot.

Boxers risk a lot in the ring. That's one of the things that attracts me to it. You want to see a knockout but I also really don't want to see people get hurt. It's this constant dilemma when I'm watching boxing. The only times I get nervous is watching a really big fight or when my brother is playing. I get to the stage where I'm actually shaking.

When I first got my ring name as Carmella, I knew I was just going to do whatever I could to create this over-ridiculous, over-the-top character that would just help me get my face, and I don't even know what I'm trying to say, but just get me out there and just show, like, 'OK, wow, we need to pay attention to this girl because she has something.'

At the end of the day, I write down an 'L' or a 'W,' whether or not the day was a 'Loss' or if it was a 'Win.' It really bothers you to have to write down an 'L.' An 'L' looks like a day I ate a lot of junk food, or I didn't work out when I was supposed to or train when I was supposed to train, or if I felt that I had a bad performance in the ring.

Seth Rollins was just leaving Ring Of Honor when I was coming in, so I've heard him say very nice things about me in interviews and stuff. I always say nice things about him because of that respect I have for him. I watched him when I was working the independents while he was wrestling at Ring Of Honor, and I used to be blown away by his work then.

Adrian Neville, who's my best friend, I rode with him on the road. He was the most crisp, athletic, poignant guy - never missed a step. It was insane. I had never seen anybody who could move in a wrestling ring like him; it was like second-nature to him. Flips - name it - agile jumping in and out of the ring effortlessly to the top rope like crazy.

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