You don’t lose matches because the president lives elsewhere.
I’m more of a player that listens and focuses on myself in the dressing room; I don’t talk much before the matches.
I want to be known as A.J. Styles, the WWE Superstar that he is, and have amazing matches, make memories – I think that’s the goal.
My best tennis at my peak was when I played a lot of matches.
The team which I led to the 1992 European Championship Finals is the only one in the history of the entire competition to have won every single one of its qualifying matches.
My father pushed me to be a footballer. At every opportunity, he took me with him to play football. He came with me to matches.
Spanish League is very tough, especially away matches.
You gain know-how from playing matches because every moment of a football match has its own rhythm.
I remember the ’70s constantly being winter in Manchester and the Irish community in Manchester closing ranks because of the IRA bombings in Birmingham and Manchester, and you know the bin-workers’ strike, all wrapped up in it… They were violent times. Violence at home and violence at football matches.
Even I lost a series of Test matches as skipper.
Those big matches, when you go through so much, are the best thing. Those matches are why you play tennis.
You’re going to lose some matches, you’re going to have some bad weeks, for sure. It’s part of sport.
I was brought up in a football environment where we saw a lot of racism – whether it was abuse from other players or huge groups of supporters in away matches.
With ECW, I had a lot of time for matches. I could go out there and do a 20-25 minute match, where normally I’d get to do a 7-8 minute match.
Every day, I get up to hit the gym; the schedule is such that it gives me the requisite energy to last the entire day. I stress on cardiovascular exercises, and the workout is programmed with my sporting schedule. Most of the fitness schedule is based on what I require for my upcoming matches.
Growing up watching WWE, they used to have bra-and-panties matches or pillow fights, and that’s why my mom didn’t want me to watch wrestling. But when my parents divorced, I was able to watch wrestling again, and that’s when I started to really get into wrestlers like Ivory.
Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao was one of the worst boxing matches I’ve ever seen, but millions of people watched it because of the personalities involved.
Honestly, I just want to wrestle! Like, I don’t need to be in these crazy gimmick matches or always be working for the championship.
The Undertaker is the John Wayne of our business. I watched him come out and deliver some of the best matches night after night.
When training and matches are finished, we’ll all go out and have food together; we’re always in touch with each other.
Sometimes players can have some ups-and-downs after they have done well and then lose a few matches in a row.
The U.S. is just in a class by itself in military expenses. It basically matches the rest of the world, and it’s far more advanced.
I’ve played in a few Champions League matches and got into quarter-finals – sometimes unluckily knocked out – but you have to prepare like any other football match: you have to play the game, not the occasion. That’s been instilled in me since I was a kid.
Those five Rogers Cup matches were physically tough, and there were late nights, up until 2 or 3 A.M. – how could I fall to sleep after beating some of my heroes?
I travel nearly 200 to 300 miles a day for my matches and promotions and end up eating junk food, which is not good for me. Things are better when I am at home; my wife is a very good cook, and she makes rice, dal, and chapatis for me.
If I can win matches for the team, that will automatically help me personally.
International matches are competitive and challenging, even for a normal player.
I met a Shanghai photographer who finds these old streets and matches the French names to what they are today. I was able to find my grandfather’s block, and just walking the same streets and finding his house was deeply moving. I finally felt connected to China.
The regular things in my life now – training sessions and playing matches – will all fall away. That will leave a big empty space and it will need to be filled.
Everyone eventually matches or leapfrogs everyone else.
I think one big thing for me that I need to work on is being able to separate my feelings and emotions from my matches.
Looking back, in comparison, there wasn’t that much that you could do with a wooden racket. In my day, the matches were certainly much less demanding physically.
When I was in Portugal I hardly played six-or-seven matches. Although I would train daily to keep my shape. Even then it was really difficult when I came back to get in shape and represent my country.
I’ve been selling things all my life. I sold wrestling for a long time. I sold the talent and sold the matches.
I think the rating system is a way to open more discussion with wrestling fans about matches. To me, it’s just another outlet to voice their opinions, so that’s why I think they are so passionate about it.
You can’t win tournaments just with youngsters. In important matches we need experience.
I remember playing one of our first matches in Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United, and I remember that feeling of just being in that iconic venue.
Even when I played in club matches, I would take it to heart that I had got out early.
So I think, for me, playing matches – actually being in real matches – is the best way to get myself playing the best tennis.
With Ajax and Liverpool, you win about 80 per cent of matches.
This sounds like I’m a loser, but when I’m feeling down, or I need a bit of motivation, I do watch old NXT matches because they have some of my favourite memories as a performer in WWE.
For a football coach, there’s nothing that matches the pain of a team not playing up to its capabilities.
We’ll work hard every day to prepare for the matches and to do our best in every game.
I have always said that managers stay in a job when they win football matches.
I’ve been in opening matches of pay-per-views. I’ve been in main events of pay-per-views, and the same mentality is applied to both, and that is, ‘To this point, this is the biggest match of my life, and I’m gonna go out there and give it everything I have.’
I know the expectations are higher on me now because I’ve played more matches and done well. But I need to keep improving to make the supporters happy. I know I can improve.
I want to be a champion. I want to be a long-reigning featherweight champion. I want to be known in the history books: my name everywhere as a champion. And then, later on in my career, when I start getting good, then I can start doing the exhibition matches for money and stuff.
The tough matches never go my way, so I want to change that.
We want to win all of our matches and focus on ourselves.
Our two biggest rivals had adjusted their whole season to this one aim of beating us. Of course, it is a big compliment that they were so motivated to stop us but it was very tough to face two matches like that so close together. Suddenly three trophies are down to one.
I had eight consecutive years in the top 20 and five of those were in the top 10. That’s something I’m very proud of. And the way that I played some of my matches at Wimbledon was also very special.
Unlike tennis matches, Supreme Court decisions are tiebreaker-free, meaning the lower-court ruling stands without any high-court guidance.
I have the game for the pressure matches and now I just have to be consistent.
Can you do inter-gender matches? Ronda Rousey and our match at Wrestlemania – sure, it can be done. Women don’t need a man in their match to steal the show. They just need an equal platform and opportunity, and if the women have it, they will work just as hard, if not harder, than anybody else to steal that show.
Definitely I feel with more matches, I’m the type of player I win a match or few matches, then I get confidence right away and then I play better and better.
One of the great challenges of being a modern historian is interviewing multiple people who were all there for something, some event. No one’s version matches up 100% with other people’s, even if it’s three or four people on a conference call.
When you get older, 10 matches a year are enough.
With what I’ve already achieved in my career – winning trophies and playing in finals, important matches against Real Madrid and Barcelona, winning the Europa League and the Super Cup, and in the Champions League – sometimes you’ve earned the right to say something.
I’m not religious. In Spain all 22 players make the sign of the cross before they enter the pitch. If it works all matches must therefore end in a draw.
I think I have some advice for both the talent, and the ‘powers that be’ in professional wrestling. I would say let the guys say it their own way and let them put their own matches together.
I really enjoy everything about this profession. From the training I do preparing for my matches, to the time I spend in the dressing room getting ready, right up until I make my entrance to the ring and the final bell rings.
When I was in NXT, I never wrestled on a TakeOver. I didn’t have too many high-profile matches: I probably wrestled about 10 matches in total on NXT TV, including the one championship match against Bayley, which was so much fun and my favorite match in NXT.
