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.
'Lucha Underground' is the evolution of wrestling. It's high-style, high-flying, fast-paced hybrid style wrestling, and we're actually paying homage to lucha libre for the first time.
Wrestling has its own culture. Every culture - Japan, Samoan, Indian, Korean - has wrestling, and wrestling is a worldwide mix.
I am into professional wrestling. Only Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling can qualify in Olympics. I chose professional wrestling for fame and limelight and good money.
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.
'Lucha Underground' is like a combination of Lucha Libre, American Pro Wrestling, and gridy action films. It's got a lot of things I like - action, wrestling, and really good storytelling.
I was told I have to work 10 years to get a doctorate. Well, I have worked all that time to become a doctor in professional wrestling. So to speak, I have a Ph.D. in professional wrestling.
When anyone talks about lucha libre and that style of wrestling, the first person they think of is Mil Mascaras. The other man the true wrestling fan will think of is El Santo. These were the names that came to me when I was growing up.
If you go back in time to the '60s, the '70s, probably the early '80s, British professional wrestling was the most respected region of professional wrestling on the planet, and somewhere along the way that got lost and wrestlers were forced to America or Japan or even Mexico to make a living.
Lucha libre culture was part of my wrestling upbringing. I'm Filipino, so it wasn't a part of my normal upbringing, but it's what gave me my start. I get a lot of my technical and high-flying wrestling from that.
'Lucha Underground' really is the first episodic professional wrestling show. There are storylines in every promotion, but the way 'Lucha Underground' is crafted really is more of a TV show than your traditional wrestling show.
There's not as many passive wrestling fans as people would think. There are a lot of fans who just can't get enough, and they're almost more interested in what's going on behind the scenes and the business of wrestling then they are, necessarily, of what's going on inside of the ring.
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.
I was always a fan of wrestling, right from the time I was nine or so. But eventually I decided I wanted to do professional wrestling myself, not just watch.
And so it's sort of a fine line where you want to be recognizable as professional wrestling but you also want to set yourself apart from what some people consider the standard of professional wrestling, which is the WWE.
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.
I'm going to make an appearance in professional wrestling, but it won't be for the WWE. If I put wrestling boots and wrestling trunks on one last time - and I'm going to - it's going to be done by me and me only.