I have passion for music just like I have passion for wrestling, just like I have passion for creating and acting.
Metal fans have a connection. There is something there; just like the wrestling world, they are die hard about wrestling, and it's that passion that makes you enjoy what you do. That is why I go to metal shows; you watch these dudes on stage just shredding and letting loose. You can't help but love it.
I don't have a passion for TV or movies or acting. I have a passion for wrestling and I find it hard to leave that for TV and movies. But if it is a thing that is a short amount of time I would consider it, but wrestling is what I love to do!
Wrestling is my passion and that's something I embrace. The wrestling world needs me and I'm going to enjoy it.
I started doing wrestling just as a fun thing and I ended up getting some breaks and made a job out of it but I never had a real passion for it. I met a lot of great people and enjoyed doing what I did but wrestling wasn't something I lived and breathed.
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.
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.
Wrestling used to be interesting. There was a bit of sham involved, of course, but there was some real wrestling involved. They're just characters now. It's unrecognizable. There's no fighting in American bloody wrestling. They just yell at each other and jump around like overweight ballet dancers.
Passion is what convinced armies that had no chance to win - it's believing that something can happen. Reality is what you make it to be. And when you're the only one who can see the way the future is going to be, you can be the tool that bends, rips, shapes and paints the future the way you want it to be. That's true passion!
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.
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 got my Wrestling With Whiskey kind of side passion project and I'm kind of turning into more content and stuff like that... You know just exploring everything in front of me and just trying to spread my grass.
While wrestling in college as a junior it came to a point where wrestling just wasn't enough for me anymore. I love wrestling, but I felt like I was missing something, and so the striking part about MMA, the boxing and kickboxing, was what got me really interested in MMA. I saw it on TV and I just knew that I wanted to do it.
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 quit wrestling in 2006 because I just got lost. My mom didn't want me wrestling. I was wondering if I was going to make it in wrestling; I got injured in a match. I was 19. I was away from home, living in Florida, and I just got lost. I couldn't face it, so I stepped away.
The wrestling world is unique. There are things that happened, and there are things that didn't happen, but in wrestling, you just say they all happened. Some of it's fun to let stay out there - it adds to the mystique and wrestling lore.