When people show loyalty to you, you take care of those who are with you. It's how it goes with everything. If you have a small circle of friends, and one of those friends doesn't stay loyal to you, they don't stay your friend for very long.
John Cena
If you don't learn from your mistakes, then they become regrets.
Be loyal to those who are loyal to you. And respect everyone, even your enemies and competition.
I admire the military. I guess in a world of villains and heroes, they're my heroes. Their dedication, their commitment, their discipline, their code of ethics.
I'm the one person who wears the words 'hustle, loyalty, respect' on my T-shirts and merchandise. My audience is children. It's very flattering to see a kid wear your T-shirt; it's even more flattering to have a dad come up to you and say, 'I watch you with my kid. Keep doing what you're doing. You're a role model for my son.'
You learn to laugh at yourself, and you also lean on comedy as a crutch to kind of take the edge off because comedians often are self-deprecating, and they cross lines that they shouldn't. Stuff like that brings a smile to my face every once in a while when needed.
Mark Wahlberg's, like, 150 pounds! I'm 250 lean. I look like Mark Wahlberg ate Mark Wahlberg.
I have certain things that I stand for, certain things that I believe in, and if you don't like it and you tell me to go to hell, I think that's your God-given right as a fan. It's one of those deals where I'm that one guy who is outside of that realm of good guy, bad guy. I'm just me, and it elicits a response both positive and negative.
At my age, I'm not trying to score cool points. I'm just excited when I can speak to younger members of our audience in the WWE. I just get to be a superhero to kids, but I'm not trying to be on the cutting edge of style or anything like that. Once you reach that point of deprivation, you don't mind it.
With any of the movies I've had a chance to do, or any of the TV shows I've had a chance to contribute to, people approach me and say, 'Hey, would you like to do this?' I laugh out loud and say, 'Yes, that'd be funny.' Or, I'm very moved by what I read and say, 'Yes. How can I help you?'
I don't doll myself up for TV because I want people to accept me for who I am.
Being able to swing in and host the 'Today' show when they call me, it certainly is a new experience that I have a lot of fun with, and it's different than being in the middle of the ring in 'Monday Night Raw.'
I was very unique as a child, dressed a certain way, acted a certain way, didn't fit in with everybody. So I immediately got picked on, especially around the age of 12 and 13, when you start going to junior high and start mingling with the older kids. To counteract that, strictly for self-defense, I wanted to get bigger.
To say Roman Reigns isn't connecting with an audience means you're not listening. I've watched a lot of Roman Reigns, and every single time I see him, I hear noise. He connects very well with our audience.
The 'Sisters' phenomenon was a byproduct of the 'Trainwreck' deal. I had to do the normal auditioning process for 'Trainwreck'. I was extremely nervous for it, because you plan for this one event, and you get the opportunity.
Paul Bearer was very influential in the early stages of my career. He constantly hounded me and I just think he realized the potential that was there. He convinced me that I was in the right place and doing the right thing.
Whether fighting or spitting, my discipline is unforgiving!
I think the way WWE Studios is going now - they're going away from action, doing more drama, more comedy - it will open a lot of people's eyes. Because a lot of people see big guy, big frame: action superstar. We've proven, especially with 'Legendary,' that that is not always the case.
Amazingly enough, athletic achievement is one of those things that seems larger than life at points. I think we all look to sport for inspirations.
I took the California Highway Patrol exam and didn't pass, so I tried to be a cop and failed.
I think that the potential of Total Divas and female athletes is that the sky is the limit. People want to know about these women, and in the WWE, we call it the Divas Revolution - it's a movement for women's empowerment.
I graduated from college with a degree in ex-phys and kinesiology, because it was learning to work out, and I already knew how to work out. So, I just wanted an easy degree. I'm sorry but that's just the way it was.
I don't know why ESPN asked me to host the ESPYs. I think that they realize we, over at WWE, can engage a live audience. We certainly have an enormous following.
My dad is the reason I actually started watching wrestling. My dad was never big into sports; we were all big into sports as kids, and he'd go to our Little League games or whatever and not really know what was going on, because he didn't know about sports, but he knew about wrestling.
You often hear when you talk to guys in our industry, that this is my personality, I just turn the volume up, but over the years, I've really become me. No volume turned up, no nothing. I've been able to go out there and just be myself. It's through solid performance after solid performance that people just take you for who you are.
Undertaker certainly is a cornerstone of WWE, and just as I say to myself that I really would have liked to been able to get to know and certainly get in the ring with Andre the Giant, just because of all the respect and folklore that went around with Andre, I think The Undertaker has that same sort of respect and folklore around him.
I'm not trying to brainwash my critics. If they're critics, they're critics, and that's their job to be critical, but I certainly enjoy the involvement I have with my fans. I enjoy the time I get to spend with them, and I don't waste time with someone stubborn who is not going to come around.
Oftentimes, WWE lives in its own bubble because it is forever moving. Oftentimes, a motion picture will live in its own bubble because they have a certain amount of time to get everything done. It's just, when you connect the two and get everything straightened out, truly, it may take a little elbow grease.
I really, really, really love my job, so it's not like I'm trying to quit wrestling to do movies. They just all seemed like cool things to do. I mean, I'd love to be the bad guy in an action movie because then people would get to see another side of me they don't get to see.
The Wonderful pistachios campaign is a great example - I don't involve myself with a project I don't feel passionate about. I could talk your ear off about internal statistics for WWE and what we have planned for the future. Why do I know that stuff? Because I like to do all that stuff.
I'm actually a fan of all of the EA Sports titles like 'Tiger Woods,' 'Madden,' and I'm really looking forward to buying 'NBA Street V3.'
Being a pro wrestler can be kind of difficult sometimes. We have a perception about what we do - and I totally understand the perception, because we're a weekly episodic program, and we're having fun all the time, so people think that's kind of the most talented thing I could do.
Whether you like me or you don't, I still dig showing up for work.
I don't have any elaborate uniforms; I come to the ring in a T-shirt, a pair of sneakers and some shorts.
I eat well. I don't really, I guess, like, steam my own food and cook my own food in advance. I enjoy food, but I just don't make bad decisions.
What I really like about 'Grit' - especially being the guy who goes on TV every week and says 'Never Give Up' and who truly tries to live his life to that credo - we recruited 16 people who said, 'I will never give up.' And the only way they can leave the contest is by doing the one thing they said they never would.
The coolest thing to me, and especially now that our program is PG-friendly, and we advertise that to the hilt, but fathers and mothers come up to me and tell me to keep doing what I'm doing because I'm a good role model for their kids.
My favorite thing about 'Saturday Night's Main Event,' it was that one time where I could stay up late with my dad and four brothers, and we would all beat the tar out of each other while the show was on, and it was all okay because my dad was a wrestling fan.
When I was first starting to achieve success in the WWE, I got to be surrounded by the last class of true greats, and they all had little tips and secrets. You learn a lot from watching somebody work.
I hang out with a lot of the people I did when I was in high school, when I was in college, and I have a strong unit of people around me, whether it be friends or family, and if my head gets too big, they will definitely check me immediately.
I guess my mission statement is now to let the world know on a global scale that WWE certainly is a wonderful form of entertainment, but its superstars are more than just superstars inside the ring. They do so much more outside the ring and have so much more to offer.
As a company, the best that we can do is not only penalize but rehabilitate. Speaking for myself, I've always been strong. I don't need that club to put in my bag. This is a choice of the athlete, not the sanctioning body. We do substance abuse testing, impact testing, cardiac testing, so we try to sniff out these problems before they even start.
As soon as I found out there was a school you could go to to become a WWE superstar, I was immediately hooked.
My favorite anime movie is 'Fist of the North Star'.
WWE has a very strong affiliation with Make-A-Wish, and we can provide a great experience. It's extremely flattering that for one wish, a family would like to hang out with you. There's nothing more flattering than that.
Ric Flair is one of the most entertaining guys to sit down with and by entertaining I don't mean he has catchy phrases, but that he's been through so much and his experiences are so genuine I could listen to him talk all day.
I used to like to see The Millionaires versus The Hulkamaniacs. That team versus team atmosphere where you have 10 guys or 8 guys, and it comes down to 3-on-1 - that got exciting for me.
Every member of the U.S. Armed Forces knows what they signed up for, and they know what their job is, and they are proud of their job.
I think the greatest hip-hop artist of all time is Jay-Z, without a doubt. He just keeps amazing me with his performance, and since '96, that guy has been producing at least one hit every summer and every winter. That's a pretty good resume.
I think with any challenge or any matchup, I can have my own personal feelings of what I want, but it really all depends on our audience. Our job is to give them the best entertainment that we feel is right. If it's something that they want to see, they'll be loud and vocal about it, and we'll do it.