Since the day I was born, wrestling has sustained me and my family. It's the way my father fed me; it's the way I feed my kids. More importantly, wrestling is my greatest release. It's been such a blessing for me. I can step into the ring and let it all go - all my anger, all my frustration, all my pain.
In my first fight, I acknowledged it. I'm a professional wrestler, this is who I am, who you know me as. But guess what, I've also been wrestling since I was 5 years old - real wrestling - amateur wrestling, Olympic wrestling.
Wrestling has been a way of life with me day in and day out. I won't get too far away from it. I might walk through the wrestling room once a week. I could go every day if I wanted. But just walk through, make sure it's still there.
Probably the biggest-kept secret about 'Ring of Honor' is that when you go to see a live show - I've had people in their 60s from down in North Carolina that have seen a lot of wrestling tell me that it was the greatest live wrestling show they've ever been to. The atmosphere is off the charts.
I always wanted to wrestle, but when you're a kid, how do you do pro wrestling? For me, it seemed like the easiest way for me was to get into amateur wrestling and go that route because it was a place where I was allowed to go.
ROH has been a great home for me. I've had some of my greatest wrestling experiences here. To me it has potential to be everything wrestling should be.
I've learned that football sometimes was an outlet. It was a way for me to release anger, release frustration.
It took me a few years to explain to my colleagues and my mentors and the people that I looked up to and I wrestled that I'm not in wrestling anymore. I'm in sports entertainment. Pro' wrestling doesn't mean that we're saying we're a step up above amateur wrestling, because there's nothing above Olympic wrestling.
I'm from a wrestling family, a wrestling dynasty. And as biased as that may be, I firmly believe I am from the greatest wrestling family of all time.
Kurt Angle was amazing. He was the person who got me into pro wrestling. He found me when I was at the Olympic training center just wrestling, amateur wrestling.
Johnny Wrestling, to me, isn't just a cool nickname or a fun thing for the crowd to chant. To me, it's a state of mind, and it's just who I am. I first stepped foot in a wrestling ring when I was 8 years old.
The personality aspect of wrestling has always been a struggle for me. It's not on my natural wheelhouse. It's also the part that I enjoy the least. My favorite part of the entire thing, of course, is getting in the ring and wrestling.
If you've never stepped in a wrestling ring, and you're with me, we can still have an excellent wrestling match, because that's how good I believe I am.
Wrestling is an opportunity to go to a show, be a part of it, and feel the emotions from anger to frustration to sadness to pain - everything that music can make you feel.
I know people are going to be surprised to hear me say this because they think I'm such an advocate for women's wrestling... But I truly believe that the best time in wrestling, for me, was when I first got into WWE and they had a strong women's division and they also had girls who strengths weren't in the ring and were more for entertainment.
Back in the day, when I was getting into the business, you could watch Pro Wrestling Noah. You could watch Ring Of Honor Wrestling, and a lot of people would say, 'the best wrestling in the world is actually at Ring Of Honor.'
I've been wrestling since I was 4 years old, so I have over 30 years in some form of wrestling, non-stop in my life. For me, it's who I am.