I've got my eye on Big Cass and Enzo Amore. I think they ooze everything that it takes to be a WWE superstar. They have so much energy. Those guys and the Vaudevillains are the guys I've been tipping my cap to on the viewership side.
WWE prepares you for everything in entertainment. It's the truth. You need a host? Get a WWE Superstar. You need someone for an action movie, a comedy movie, a drama movie, you get a WWE Superstar. Because these guys are the most well-versed, well-trained, and hardest working guys out there.
Guys like Jack Lanza, Pat Patterson, Bruce Pritchard, Tom Pritchard - those guys all helped me get a tryout. And I'd never been in the ring, so they went on a lot of faith and signed me and thought that they could help mold me into a WWE superstar. And now I'm glad they did, because that was a big turning point in my life.
I think any time you bring those guys in, one with a lot of playoff experience, with rings - those guys won - guys in the locker room gravitate towards those guys. Those guys have been there, so there's a lot that they can teach the guys.
When you think about the guys who started Twitter, and the Google guys, and the Facebook guys and the Napster guys, and the Microsoft guys, and the Dell guys and the Instagram guys, it's all guys. The girls, they're being left behind.
Being a WWE superstar is about giving, and I think there's a few guys who get that.
Actually, a person asked me if I was ever going to come back to WWE. I told them that if I came back, it probably wouldn't be as WWE Superstar, because the young guys are really what it's all about. Bringing me back as an announcer is a great position for me to actually go out and make the young guys bigger stars.
I love Enzo Amore, man. He's been one of my road dogs.
Being a manager for Enzo and Cass in NXT was great. I got a lot of experience with doing that.
I got to experience fighting some really good guys, like Demian Maia and Tyron Woodley who are top guys in the division. It was on a big stage, those fights. It gives me experience with top-level guys.
I got to play with the big guys, the Wrecking Crew. They just blew me away. I learned a lot of stuff from those guys.
I'm a big-guy guy. I look at guys like Shaq, Ben Wallace, guys who play inside and play tough. I don't pay much attention to the little guys; I like the big guys who do the dirty work.
If you think about 2Pac, Biggie, and Nas, all of those guys were teenagers or in their early 20s when they got started. Everybody acts like young people have to be silly and lack perspective. Those guys had incredible perspective, and everything that they said was before 25 years old.
You always think you're one of those players who will be in one place the whole time, one of those guys they'll never let leave because you play hurt, do what it takes. But it's a different age. A lot of coaches, they like having younger guys.
Big E, he's a strong dude. Ryback's a strong dude. But if you put Batista next to those guys, he was 6'6'', 320 lbs. Those guys are pushing 6'1''-6'2''. But Batista was wide. He was a big old dude. Those guys could beat him in a bench press contest, but I'd rather look like Dave.
I love most 70's song writers, not so much outlaw, but really those 70's guys. I'm a big fan of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, those guys.
I play in a league that's 70 percent black and my peers, guys I come to work with, guys I respect who are very socially aware and are intellectual guys, if they identify something that they think is worth putting their reputations on the line, creating controversy, I'm going to listen to those guys.