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 been wrestling all over the world for 15 years, and I had been a mainstay in Ring of Honor for almost 13 years.
I started wrestling when I was 15 years old, and back when I was world champion, I was wrestling 7 nights a week.
It's been a real sort of juxtaposition in my life because I've gone from wrestling for the past 15/16 years to this new role where I'm essentially running a wrestling company so, during the week, where I used to train and work out and go tan, now I'm working 24 hours a day.
My family has been in the wrestling business for over 70 years. I'm a third-generation wrestling promoter, and years ago, when I fist started, there was a wrestling audience in the United States in 22 regions.
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.
My body had given up on me at one point. And as many injuries as I've had over the years, I truly believed that my body needed to rest and not be on the grind like it's been for the last 15 years.
Yes, pro wrestling is damaging on your body. It hurts.
I've been training in martial arts since I was a baby running around the school. Everything from wrestling to muay thai. I started wrestling when I was 15.
Pro wrestling is so physical and taxing and just hurts your body; it's very aggressive entertainment.
Life hurts at times. It hurts to have a body at times, hurts to be born, hurts to live, hurts to die, but it can be ecstasy beyond comprehension. You can know that ecstasy. It is inside of you.
Wrestling hurts. Your body's not meant to take that abuse. I've closed that door, but I don't know that I've locked it for good.
After intensive body building for eight years, I went to the U.S. for training. There, I learnt the art of wrestling. Later, I went to Japan and joined a wrestling group.
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.
At 15-years-old, I always wanted to do professional wrestling, and at 15, I started training as a professional wrestler. It was always the plan to become an entertainer, a sports entertainer.
When I was Cedrick Von Haussen, the champion of Liechtenstein, I was only 18 years old. I was super, duper young. I started traveling around for wrestling when I was 16, so I had only been wrestling a few years at that point.