I did a year and a half of independent wrestling before I got into the WWE. It was nothing really. I didn't make the towns. I don't even say I was an indy wrestler.

The fans of the U.K. are tremendously supportive of the efforts of the WWE Superstars, which is why every wrestler I know loves to be a part of the tours to the U.K.

You have to consider, I'm a full-time professional wrestler, and Stephen Amell is a celebrity, and yet we still managed to beat two full-time professional wrestlers.

Everyone thinks of me as some weird swamp trash pro wrestler, and that's okay - think what you want - but I'm an intelligent person, and I have my own views on the world.

I like to think of Christopher Daniels as one of those who's a great professional wrestler, but I like to think of myself as one of those people that's great at everything.

People dream to be in the WWE, but my dream is to be the best in the WWE. They can have the money and fame. My dream is to become known as the greatest wrestler of all time.

I think being the only Pakistani wrestler in WWE will bring some attention from the country as well. I'll do my best to do Pakistan proud and give them something to cheer about.

The Hardys were a huge influence on me becoming a wrestler. Not so much the moves themselves, but the concepts behind the moves: trying to be innovative and just being exciting.

I always had a much softer approach to my interviews and promos. I was not so much that wrestler that was yelling at the screen; I was always the one that was talking to my fans.

I was never the most technical wrestler. But my coaches definitely instilled in me the belief that if you can push yourself and practice smarter than the other guy, you can beat him.

I was a Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes guy. Ric Flair continues to be my favorite wrestler of all time. I loved Harley Race and Nick Bockwinkel and all of those guys, but I'm a big Flair guy.

I think it's human nature to say, 'You're a wrestler. That is what you do.' I think it can be hard sometimes for people to understand that you can have more than one thing you like to do.

My dad was a wrestler back in the early '90s, so it just brought everything full circle with my dad's background and my love of performing and entertainment, and now here I am in the WWE.

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.

When you become a wrestler at 35 and your career takes off at 40, nobody believes in you. But there are some people out there who watch how I did it, and I did it through intense work ethic.

I remember having the opportunity to meet Ivory, as a kid, and she was the first woman's wrestler that I met. She looked at me and said, 'I'm going to see you in the ring one day, aren't I?'

For me, I like to be different. I didn't want to imitate another wrestler. I always try to find something from other genres, like movies, books, art, and musicals. That's how I made my style.

I think I had a really hard-working and authentic wrestling style, so people liked the way I was - that I was a 'no-quit' kind of wrestler - and I was very realistic and credible in my style.

If it wasn't for finding out that my right leg could kick a ball really far, which is what I did, I am 100 percent certain that I would be attempting to be or would be a professional wrestler.

Being resourceful and creating is a big part of my Lithuanian culture. My grandfather is part of who I am, too. He was a professional wrestler. He had a very functional, very slick, long frame.

You want to earn respect in your old age. You want to walk into a restaurant and have people say: 'There's Mickey Rourke. He was great in 'The Wrestler.' You don't want them jumping out of windows.

Clearly, I wanted to be a pro wrestler, but I got laughed at. I was kind of the runt. I was never the tallest kid or the biggest kid or the strongest kid, so I would get laughed at when I'd say it.

I was the first wrestler ever in the history of wrestling to star in a major motion studio picture that became #1 box office of the weekend, and that gave the itch to I don't know how many wrestlers.

I mean I had accomplished a goal I had set at 10 years old, I told my mom at that time that I was going to be a wrestler one day, and I was going to be champion, everyone looked at me like I was crazy.

I'm a wrestler with nine toes. I'm a wrestler who has been through a lot of battles. I get to do a lot of motivational speaking, and people are blown away and say, 'You never quit. You keep coming back.'

Being able to fight a guy like Brock Lesnar who is a wrestler, who has very limited skills in striking, in my prime and him in his prime, he doesn't have a chance. How can you beat me? You can't beat me.

As a kid growing up in Montreal, I wanted to become either a hockey player or a wrestler. Since my family didn't have a lot of money, my parents never put me in a hockey league because it was so expensive.

I wanted to win an Olympic medal for my country but because of circumstances, I had to become a professional wrestler. I will have fulfilled my dream if I can support even one kid who wins a medal for the country.

I already knew a lot about the ground aspects of MMA, being a wrestler, but there was so much more. There was kicking, punching, and other things I wish I could have done as a wrestler. It really stoked my interest.

My grandmother started as a ticket-taker and basically became the CFO of my dad's company. It was a very important first impression for me - I've always looked on the business with more eyes than just as a wrestler.

I like to go surfing because I want to feel the ocean and experience nature, and nature fixes my balance, and this life is crazy sometimes, so it helps a wrestler's life because a wrestler's life is crazy sometimes.

Instead of diving further back to the fandom as a child, more recently when I was training as an independent wrestler, that is really when women's wrestling took to the forefront and really started this upward rise.

I have this dream of directing. But as a child, I wanted to become a wrestler. Like, in childhood, we used to watch WWF; I was inspired by all of that. One of my favourite wrestlers was Rock, who has become an actor.

I would love to have gotten into it with Harley Race. He was such a good wrestler and rough and tough. We wrestled at the same time but never each other. And wrestling Sting would have been something I would have enjoyed.

When you're an independent wrestler, committing a lot of time and effort into honing your craft as much as possible in as many different places as possible will catch the WWE's interest as far as the independent level goes.

I think people would like to see Kurt Angle and myself get in there and perform with one another. I think he's an amazing athlete, a talented wrestler, and it's a match people probably don't think that they're going to see.

I just love sneakers. When I first started wrestling, I was wrestling in boots, and I felt like I was trying too hard to play a wrestler. I just wanted to be myself. So when I started wearing sneakers, I felt so much better.

In my first fight, I acknowledged it. I'm a professional wrestler, this is who I am, who you know me as. But guess what, I've also been wrestling since I was 5 years old - real wrestling - amateur wrestling, Olympic wrestling.

When I came to WWE - I got signed when I was 23. When I was on 'SmackDown' roster, the main roster, I was 24. I wasn't ready for those responsibilities. I wasn't - I wasn't seasoned enough as a wrestler, as an in-ring performer.

I was ordained into the ministry through my local church in February of 2000. I had already been doing a lot of speaking. So basically, my vocation in life changed and I went from a professional wrestler to a itinerate preacher.

'Superstar' Billy Graham was someone that my dad taught from A to Z, from tying up to submission wrestling. Billy was more of a showman than a wrestler. My dad used to love tying Billy in knots, and Iron Sheik would be watching.

These wrestlers aren't organized. They have no union, no pension and no insurance. You meet wrestler after wrestler who sold out Madison Square Garden ten years ago, basically running on fumes today. There's a lot of drama there.

Okada and Tanahashi, they don't mind being the wrestler that approaches everything day-of in the ring. I like to go in-depth, to tell the human side of Cody Rhodes, the human side of Kenny Omega. That's why Being The Elite exists.

I'm not the strongest, I'm not this amazing wrestler, but I believe the skills I've honed over a period of time - my stand up, my takedown defence, the way I position myself on the ground - I just believe I can be the full package.

I had three intentions when I became a wrestler. One was to keep my integrity. Two was to give pro wrestling a more respectable image. And three was to be a role model to Jewish kids, who may not have thought they could do what I do.

I could fall in love with a sumo wrestler if he told stories and made me laugh. Obviously, it would be easier if someone was African-American and lived next door and went to the same church. Because then I wouldn't have to translate.

For me, Philadelphia was always kind of that city you traveled to as an independent wrestler. I traveled there once or twice a month, doing that seven-to-eight-hour drive from Cleveland to Philly just to try and make a name for myself.

Growing up, of course I was the coolest girl in the 3rd grade because I told everyone that my dad was a wrestler, and I would bring in these wrestling magazines of him, and every Saturday morning, he would be body slamming me on my bed.

I was a 19 year old kid; I was 170 lbs soaking wet. I didn't have an identity. I didn't have a look. I didn't have the proper gear. I was just a young guy trying to be a wrestler. So, to be honest, WWE didn't even give me a second look.

Although not considered a martial art, boxing is really a martial art. It's a very limited martial art as long as you agree to just box... but in an actual physical fight against someone who's just a wrestler, you're going to get killed.

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