But whether or not I deserved being called 'King of the Indies,' I've wrestled in many promotions across the US because promoters put a lot of credence in that title.
Based on paper, because of my size, a lot of promoters and hole-in-the-wall indies will book me against the local big guy.
I wrestled a lot with self-doubt. I've always had such a strong desire for what I wanted for my career, and as I go through it, I'm watching it change and morph into something a little bit different. So there was a lot of confusion as to whether I really wanted to do it, whether I wanted to go for it, because I put so much energy and effort into it, and it's hard.
Market-cap based indexing will never be driven from its deserved perch as core and deserved king of the investment world. It is what we should all own in theory and it has delivered low-cost equity returns to a great mass of investors... the now and forever king-of-the-hill.
The first novel I wrote was a monster - clocking in at 180,000 words - but it died a death, a death it deserved. It was called 'The Gods First Make Mad.' It was a good title, but it was the only good thing about the book. I didn't let that put me off.
Whether it's the NXT title or the United States title or the Intercontinental title or the World title, if I have that title, then that's the most important one.
Promoters saw the potential in me and the value in me. It was because of companies like Evolve, PWG, Progress, and Beyond Wrestling. Those are the big ones that gave me a push and made my name worth something on the indies.
You reason like the king, who, being sent across the frontier, called out, 'What will become of my poor subjects without me?'
We are the best team of the tournament and deserved the title but luck did not favour us. I think the future of this team is good. If we play more friendly matches and target the SAFF Championship, I think this team can deliver that title.
I wrestled my guys growing up. I've wrestled with Hulk Hogan. I've wrestled against Shawn Michaels. I've wrestled against Ric Flair.
In 1494, King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy. Within months, his army collapsed and fled. It was routed not by the Italian army but by a microbe. A mysterious new disease spread through sex killed many of Charles’s soldiers and left survivors weak and disfigured. French soldiers spread the disease across much of Europe, and then it moved into Africa and Asia. Many called it the French disease. The French called it the Italian disease. Arabs called it the Christian disease. Today, it is called syphilis.
An insult is mean or unkind. Milton Berle called me the Sultan of Insult, and I was called the King of Insult. But the guy that gave me the best title - and I use it to this day - was Johnny Carson. He called me Mr. Warmth.
I had a lot of my success due to appearing at the Garden. I wrestled there over 200 times, it's where I won the title, and it's where I picked up 630-plus pounds of Haystacks Calhoun.
I am prouder of my title 'The Children's Friend' than if I were to be called 'The King of the World'.
The movie is actually from a book by Stephen King called The Body. When they were gonna put it to a motion picture, they found the story was a bit too strong for the title The Body, based on a young kid's movie. It would be too heavy.
When I choose the title [for my book], which was my favorite title, I felt sure there was going to be a dozen books maybe with that name already because it's so obvious to me that that's the message. I was surprised it hasn't been the title of a single book. Well, there is a Shel Silverstein children's book called Falling Upwards. But no one has chosen Falling Upward as a title and I'm very happy it's right on the cover.
Being the United States champion, it makes me elevate the title even more because, at the end of the day, that is what I wanna do. I wanna elevate the title, whether it be the world championship, the universal championship, any of these titles.