I told everyone through high school and junior High I guarantee by time 24, I'll be signed with WWE, and that's exactly what happened. I didn't go on to main even WrestleMania obviously, but the whole WWE accomplishment was checked off, and I got to experience that and it's cool.
I acted in junior high in the junior high school group, and then when I got into senior high I was, you know, the main actor of the senior high school.
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.
One of the reasons to come to the WWE was to wrestle at 'WrestleMania,' but to main-event 'WrestleMania?' Wow! I live for this.
With music, you've got to find ways to get paid again, 'cause all the cool kids in junior high school and high school, they think you're wack if you pay for music.
When I first arrived in WWE after having a somewhat high profile on-air role in WCW, it was WrestleMania season. In a way, I was perceived to be the voice of WCW after the Ted Turner/TBS buyout of Jim Crockett Promotions. That 'claim to fame' did not endear me to many WWE personnel.
Think, for a moment, about our educational ladder.
We've strengthened the steps lifting students from elementary school to junior high, and those from junior high to high school.
But, that critical step taking students from high school into adulthood is badly broken. And it can no longer support the weight it must bear.
I came to WWE to be on 'WrestleMania' and to be in a 'WrestleMania' main event.
My earliest thought, long before I was in high school, was just to go away, get out of my house, get out of my city. I went to Medford High School, but even in grade school and junior high, I fantasized about leaving.
If you go back and look at WWE Magazine, they asked me when I was going to win my first world championship and I told them WrestleMania XXVI, so I was only a couple days off.
One thing I've learned from years of working in WWE is that the road to WrestleMania always starts at the Royal Rumble. That's why it's so important to win the Rumble: because it's your chance to secure a championship match at WWE's biggest event of the year - WrestleMania.
I was young; I signed with the WWE when I was 24. I was up on the main roster when I was 26 and 10 years later that is a lot of learning and a lot of growth.
From elementary school on up through junior high school, I loved to perform. But I put it all away during high school and college. I thought, "That's not actually something you do with your life." But then I was compelled to try it after college. I just got overcome.
I had some amazing opportunities through TNA, even my time in WWE. Just to be able to go out there and walk out there in a WWE arena is an opportunity in itself but I don't think I was ready to capitalize on that.
I feel like I was born to do this. When I signed with the WWE, the newspaper and TV stations in my high-school community of Alexandria, Virginia, were like, 'Oh my gosh, this is so perfect.'
It's cool cause my sister is older than me and we went to the same high school, so by the time I got to high school, I got the lowdown on all the teachers and everything.
When I was in junior high, a foreign-history teacher started a theater class. So I got my feet wet there and through high school, so I was very fascinated with acting as a means of expression.