In the old days, talent owned their costumes, their intellectual property, their gimmicks. They were not employees and could wrestle anywhere they wanted to, and that just is not case in today’s WWE.
WWE can say they don’t watch Impact and TNA but I know that’s a lie.
Do not try doing the things that we do one TV in WWE. We’re the entertainers, we’re the professionals.
Of course I will always be an ambassador for the WWE, so definitely anytime they need me for something, I’m only a phone call away.
I think one of the things that really endeared me to people was that people got to view more aspects of my personality than most because of the different things that I did within WWE.
I’m either doing a show or in the gym or studying WWE videos or eating. I have to eat a lot.
I’ve been very fortunate – not many people have left WWE and then had the chance to reinvent themselves.
‘Mean Gene,’ as he was universally known, made every WWE Superstar he interacted with appear larger than life. He had the gift of gab as one of WWE’s most tenured personalities.
My first remit when I came to WWE was to help build up NXT as a global brand. It was a mission that I took on fully and was more than willing to attack, and lo and behold, here we are.
As long as I can remember, I was a WWE fan. I wanted to grow up and be a WWE superstar just like my favorites.
In 1999, I had my back against the wall, and WWE had a ghostwriter working on an autobiography for me. He was halfway through, and it was awful, just boring. I took over as a way of trying to fix things, as I thought I could probably do a better job.
I loved WWE , but in the end, I was unhappy. It was just like planning an escape from a maximum security prison. I’d released a list of potential opponents online, so when the 90-day no-compete clause was up, I had matches booked on good faith. I thought about the follow-up.
In WWE, I focused more on Olympic lifting. I had to make sure that I was physically able to lift another human being at all times.
Being a part of WWE Evolution, to me, is one of my greatest accomplishments.
I started out thinking I was going to play in the NBA; now I travel the world as a WWE Superstar. Life changes.
I think when you come from a reality show, nobody really respects you from the movie industry or from the WWE industry.
I would definitely say the WWE superstars are underrated athletically. In fact, that’s one of the things that always attracted me to wrestling.
I wish WWE had their own creative team for the girls. They could have an even stronger women’s division.
In the WWF, or the WWE as they call it now, the one thing that I was not able to capture was that heavyweight belt. I’m telling you, I want a chance to be able to go after that belt, but only if Brock Lesnar has it, or The Rock has it, or Kurt Angle has it.
People really don’t understand how hard it is and what it takes to be a WWE Superstar.
I really don’t feel like just going to WWE is the absolute end-all, be-all in wrestling.
I affirmatively have watched WWE programming my whole entire life!
Everything changes from week to week in WWE, and that’s what’s cool about it. All it takes is one minute you’re smiling and the next minute you can be a savage.
What we do in WWE is not a sacrifice. Being out on the road all the time, and all the bumps and bruises, that sort of thing is difficult but also a joy and a pleasure. It’s brought so much happiness into my life. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Jonathan and Joshua Fatu, they are pretty much well secured there in WWE. I taught my kids everything they need to know in the industry, but I think they have nothing else to prove in WWE.
I have zero animosity with Samoa Joe. I found him my first day back at WWE after my injury and we had a very good heart to heart. I wish him nothing but the best.
Luckily, here in WWE, they have a mega-awesome medical group. They’re there at every show. If something is hurting even slightly, they’re gonna ice it or something. They take care of us so well.
If Brock Lesnar wants to fight in UFC, Brock Lesnar will fight in UFC. If Brock Lesnar wants to fight in WWE, he will fight in WWE.
I’ve done so much for the WWE. Everything I’ve done, any movie I’ve done, any notoriety I have, it’s because of them.
I remember seeing an action figure of The Rock and going, ‘You know what? I’m going to become a WWE Superstar.’
I would be up until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning on nights I was facing a wall. Because when I walked into WWE, I was told I was going to be fired ten times because I’m the smallest guy around.
Everybody in wrestling is looking at the information coming in on concussions. Everyone from the NFL to the WWE to TNA to the youth soccer groups around the country are realizing that there are dangers that weren’t previously known.
I’ll tell you right now, man, if WWE was to call me and say, ‘Hey, Book, we want you to do a match with ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin,’ I’d do it!
I got into wrestling to be a WWE superstar – that was my goal.
You wouldn’t have thought Paul Heyman and CM Punk would have been so effective with the WWE Title, but we were because we understood our roles to each and the audience.
When we started training with WWE, coaches were impressed and asked if we had had boxing training. I said no, it was all soccer. As a defender, I had to learn to stay on my feet, track backwards, and I feel all the movement I do in the ring was helped by my soccer background.
We knew that AJ Styles might be the best in the world. We didn’t realize that until he got to WWE.
I do not see Dean Ambrose leaving WWE to go somewhere else.
Being a WWE superstar is about giving, and I think there’s a few guys who get that.
I never was in a wrestling ring before I stepped foot into a WWE ring, so I am a product of NXT.
When I was growing up, I thought there was only WWE. That’s it. One promotion in the world. And then, as I grew up, I found that there’s local wrestling. There’s WCW, there’s ECW. In Mexico, there are the luchadores. And then, finally, I realized there’s wrestling in Japan.
One of my goals is definitely to motivate the youth towards sports. Whether it’s arts or academics, I just want to let them know that anything is possible. To think that I grew up as a WWE fan and now I’m a WWE champion proves that through hard work anything really is possible.
I’m the bad guy in WWE, which I find hilarious.
I feel as if I accomplished everything in Japan, so I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted something new, so I decided to come to WWE.
The fact that the WWE is so involved in anti-bullying, it’s really an honor to be involved with them.
Fortunately for me, I discovered Ring of Honor. And I saw guys who were much smaller in stature but were putting on these amazing matches that I had never seen in WWE before. So I thought, at the very least, I’d love the chance to be able to wrestle in a company like that someday.
I got my developmental deal first, and I got ‘Total Divas.’ Everything from there it just went, boom! I was living my life on reality TV. I had to perform for WWE as well as show that to the whole world.
I grew up a huge fan of the WWE.
I want to take that top spot in WWE, and I’m gunning for number one.
I’m not a ‘Yes Man,’ and I’ve always preferred to go back and forth and find something we both agree on so I can do it to the best of my ability. That was taken in WWE as trying to do what was best for me. In reality, I was trying to be different.
I hope that Ring Of Honor could one day sell out Madison Square Garden when WWE is not in town.
‘Smallville’ gig was another one of those things I got through WWE. At that point, I had absolutely no aspirations to pursue acting.
I don’t know why ESPN asked me to host the ESPYs. I think that they realize we, over at WWE, can engage a live audience. We certainly have an enormous following.
Two men that did treat me well from day one were Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon. Thanks to them being old pros and having the class of a pair of WWE Hall of Famers and true gentlemen, I was given a chance to prove myself to them as a human being.
What I think ECW presented was a big opportunity for a lot of WWE superstars. Definitely me. It revitalized my entire career when I moved to ECW.
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.
Hulk will always be a part of sports entertainment/professional wrestling history, and there’s nothing that’s gonna change that. His relationship with the WWE, whether it’s official or unofficial, is something that can’t really be erased.
I was really confident when I left WWE. I was confident that I would have a good time, and I was confident that I could wrestle differently than perhaps people saw me in the last few years with WWE, but I definitely wasn’t prepared for this level of everything.
Pro wrestling was there, and I was good at it, thank God. I started getting a lot of offers, but unfortunately, at WWE I was under a tight leash. I think it had a lot to do with The Rock making the transition, and me possibly being the next guy – you know, the company didn’t want to lose another top performer.
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.
