The great thing with wrestling, independent wrestling more considerably, is that you can be who you want to be. There's no-one there to tell you what to do.
'Lucha Underground' is a combination of new psychology, new moves, and a new take on wrestling: an evolution of wrestling. In my opinion, it is entertaining. It is the kind of wrestling I want to watch. It is the kind of stories I want to tell, which is why I intend to be part of it.
Wrestling can be anything... There's some forms of wrestling that I'm not too big a fan of, but I'm not going to say it's not wrestling because it is wrestling.
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.
I run my wrestling school, SyDojo, I do independent wrestling events all over the world.
Wrestling has positively impacted my life in many ways, but perhaps the one singular thing that I gained from wrestling that stands out the most is wrestling provided me with the opportunity to learn mental toughness!
The Rock now the hottest thing. He come from wrestling background. Father, mother, grandfather all from wrestling business: 2-3 generations. I watch his movie. He great movie star, and I be wrestling with his father Rocky Johnson. I love them.
I remember when I had just left WWE and I was wrestling in England and Germany, I could just tell that this influx of this new wave of wrestling was coming much like it felt when I began wrestling back in '99.
Give me a sport that is greater than wrestling, that's more dominant than wrestling and with more champions in fighting than with wrestling. There isn't. The sport that's king is wrestling.
I feel more a part of the wrestling community than I feel I belong to the community of arts and letters. Why? Because wrestling requires even more dedication than writing because wrestling represents the most difficult and rewarding objective that I have ever dedicated myself to; because wrestling and wrestling coaches are among the most disciplined and self-sacrificing people I have ever known.
Here's the thing: Tanahashi has this idea that wrestling has to be a certain way. There are borders that you shouldn't cross. Wrestling should be wrestling; there's a 'classic' way. But the thing is, when I watch a Tanahashi match, I feel nothing.
You go from Olympic wrestling into pro wrestling, and it's a very difficult transition, but if you make it, you can earn a great living while at the same time giving amateur wrestling a lot of exposure by being on TV every week. Fans know where you came from.
A lot of people think that comedy is sort of a cop out to not wrestling seriously, but I actually would argue that comedy is much more difficult than wrestling seriously because you have to be creative in almost everything that you do if you want the comedy to make sense within the realms of pro wrestling.
The sport of wrestling is a tremendous builder of the values and characteristics which are needed to succeed in any walk of life. Much of what I have managed to achieve in life I owe directly to the years I spent in the wrestling room, as an athlete and a coach. Wrestling is a great educational tool.
I was just lucky to be there ahead of the curve to be the driving force behind bringing this amazing style of wrestling from Japan that combined Lucha Libre, American professional wrestling, Canadian professional wrestling and Japanese wrestling all into one beautiful mix that fans worldwide absolutely can't get enough of.
I used to be weak - as did all British fighters - with wrestling, because we don't have high school wrestling or college wrestling here.
I see it as my responsibility to start trying to help wrestling because if I don't do something, wrestling is going to die - like, wrestling as we know it.