Football is at least as ‘gay’ as rugby, Greco-Roman wrestling and the film ‘300.’
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.
I reached a point where nothing scares me in this industry, mainly because I grew up in it. My earliest memory is 4 years old, getting in a wrestling ring.
I’ve always loved the showmanship of professional wrestling. While I love making movies, I love that platform, too.
If it took professional wrestling for people to recognize me as a person, then all the other endeavors I embark upon will explain me as a person, define me as a person, but wrestling will not define me.
There was a time when people were like, ‘Oh my God, Sheamus’ character is boring.’ Well, when you’re just in wrestling matches all the time, and you’re not doing character stuff, then it can be a bit monotonous.
In my era of wrestling, there were no guaranteed contracts, so it was inherent that you draw the crowd in to make money.
Jiu-Jitsu is the bond or styles all between all the other styles. Take Jiu-Jitsu out, a boxer is just a boxer, a kickboxer is just a kickboxer. Take Jiu-Jitsu out of the wrestling – what is he going to do, take the person down and? There’s no finishing holds, there’s no striking.
Everything’s relative. I don’t think any new pursuit will be as difficult as trying to break into wrestling 25 years ago.
There is an abundance of good sports talent in India, and wrestling needs a strong support of a very big brand to endorse the sport.
There are no tough guys in wrestling.
People love to be entertained and love the different storylines that go on in pro wrestling.
I like to compete in everything – I like to compete in jiu-jitsu, I like to compete in wrestling and Muay Thai, and if I have a chance to compete in boxing one day, why not?
With wrestling, we’re still athletes. I train like we’re an athlete as opposed to a body builder. Some people still have that body-builder mentality. But not from me. I do a lot of agility work and stuff like that.
I put myself in a position where I made wrestling an option for me. I don’t have to wrestle. I don’t have to take another shot for the rest of my life if I don’t want to. I have good enough hands, good enough boxing, good enough timing to strike with anybody in our division.
I will tell you what, the Rock was my nemesis. We did enough for each other; we put each other over to be famous. If we didn’t have that feud with each other, we wouldn’t have had the success we both had in pro wrestling. We really did build each other. I’m very thankful we had those opportunities and those matches.
I lived, ate, breathed, slept Shawn Michaels. I wouldn’t call it pro wrestling back in the day when I was a kid. I just called it Shawn Michaels.
I’ve been wrestling since I was 18 years old. And within the first five months of my wrestling career, I’d already had three concussions. And for years after that, I would get a concussion here and there, and it gets to the point that when you’ve been wrestling for 16 years, that adds up to a lot of concussions.
I had watched wrestling grow up. I found it amazing. I loved watching wrestling.
The Ultimate Warrior character relative to professional wrestling or WWE, he’s definitely a Hall of Famer. He’s a Hall of Famer whether he gets into the Hall of Fame or not.
It was only supposed to be on WCW compilation; on that wrestling compilation. And for that I thought it was good. And then we threw it on our record as well.
I have an older brother and older sister. My older sister is the girliest girl on the planet, so I just hated everything about that. I did anything my brother did. He actually got me into wrestling. I watched it because he did, and I played video games because he did.
I’m really, really close with Kevin Owens. We talk practically every day. He was a guy who really, really helped me, both in Ring Of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.
One thing you gotta take into consideration is that it’s professional wrestling, and you know it going in. There’s dangers to every profession, and our particular profession, concussions is one thing.
When I started wrestling, I sucked. I hated losing, so I started doing pushups and more squats, and then I did summer wrestling and learned different styles.
A lot of coaches in MMA focus on MMA wrestling. My coach, his high school team is ranked 10th in the nation. Izzy Martinez is very connected to the wrestling community.
I do work incredibly hard. I eat, sleep, and breathe pro wrestling with all of my heart, and I’m always committed to giving this my all.
Even though wrestling is getting more popular – wrestling being more popular than it was five years ago is like being the nicest guy in prison, it’s not a huge compliment, but it’s still taking place.
I knew how to upset the people, and I did it in such a way that it was believable. That’s how I made a living at it for 20 years. I don’t regret a thing I done or said in wrestling. Nothing.
I can’t remember a time when wrestling wasn’t my thing that I watched. As far back as my memory goes, I was already obsessed with wrestling.
I think the biggest difficulty from transitioning from professional wrestling to the acting world is generally toning down your performance.
WWE asked me to be in the Hall of Fame, and I turned it down. You know why? They put Pete Rose in the wrestling Hall of Fame. This guy can’t even get into his own Hall of Fame.
I love wrestling, and I think there was something in me that needed to come out, and I was very fortunate to allow it to come out in the WWE and make a living doing that, and I enjoyed every second of that.
Know what is in your heart. But definitely go to school and learn as much as you can, and if wrestling is still what you want, find a good wrestling school and kind of learn as much information about it as you can. If I did it, this tiny thing, anyone can do it.
Everyone that watches wrestling as a kid dreams of being a wrestler for WWE.
It is very rewarding to be allowed to have my broken universe fill the two hours of Impact Wrestling.
When I was a kid at four years old, that’s when I started amateur wrestling with my dad and family. And when that’s instilled in you, it never goes away.
Obviously, wrestling is a lot of fun, and I love it. But on the mic is where I have the most fun.
Ultimate Warrior had a hell of a gimmick, but wrestling is about so much more than that. You have to be consistent, work main events every night and have matches that people really believe in and want to see.
I considered wrestling at a young age, but I never could relate to any of the Divas. I have always been a bigger girl, and I did not think that WWE would want a girl my size, so I never expressed my dream to wrestle.
The cool thing about pro wrestling is we do a lot more acting as far as characters in general than MMA. I know a lot of people like the MMA fighters because they like the rugged look.
I love tag team wrestling, and it’s different than all the other matches.
I try to keep up with everything – all wrestling across the board. I want to know what the competition is doing, what the up-n-comers are doing.
From wrestling, I learned that I was capable of much more than I thought I was.
I went to college. I had a double major in biology and physical education, but my major was wrestling.
When I saw that Wrestlemania had broken an indoor attendance record, I just walked into a wrestling office, Championship Wrestling in Florida, during the offseason, and they introduced me to Hiro Matsuda, who became my mentor… and the rest is history!
I have never seen a wrestling match or a prize fight, and I don’t want to. When I find out a man is interested in these sports, I drop him.
I do not think wrestling is going to save the world.
I’m not here if Bill Hunter never forced my hand in wrestling. It was a pivotal point in my life.
WWE style is a much different platform than other wrestling companies. Each wrestler wrestles under strict rules that fans never know.
I want the ankle match with Kurt Angle… or I want Brock to see who is the best from MMA and pro wrestling.
Wrestling needs to be about the art form again. It needs to be about painting a picture and having a really good match.
My passion is the wrestling.
Whether it’s MMA or wrestling, I try to find the best people and go after the best people.
Most parents were, like, Little League coaches and all that. My dad was a wrestling fan. Instead of going out and playing home run derby with my old man, we just watched wrestling together.
It’s been my long-cherished dream to bring a wrestling league to India.
I lived in Alabama for a while during the dying days of the Continental Wrestling Federation. I lived in Montgomery and traveled all over Alabama.
Typically, in a live-action format, when you watch a wrestling show, you’ve got wrestlers in a ring in front of a thousand, five thousand, ten thousand people, and they’re playing to large crowd, so you never really get that intimate, close and personal dialogue with them.
That wrestling ring is home for me; it’s my passion. I love what I do.
Here’s the thing: Tanahashi has this idea that wrestling has to be a certain way. There are borders that you shouldn’t cross. Wrestling should be wrestling; there’s a ‘classic’ way. But the thing is, when I watch a Tanahashi match, I feel nothing.
