Creative satisfaction is highly underrated. When you don't have it, the money doesn't spend nearly as well.
Sean Waltman
You can get wider. You can't get taller unless Herman Munster's in your shoes.
When Vince McMahon did ICOPRO, that was ahead of its time. If it had came along five years later, it might have taken off because the products were good, but at the time, nutritional supplements weren't a thing back then.
My first memory of King Kong Bundy was on TBS, and he was a member of Legion of Doom.
I had a lot of people that were real big fans of mine behind the scenes.
The fans like a certain thing in certain areas. In Florida, they like the gaga.
Talking, being a better talker, wouldn't have been that hard. It was just, I was just naturally gifted at other things.
The Hart Foundation versus The Brain Busters, if you can find that match, it is fantastic.
I don't want to discount the nWo stuff because that was huge, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. And I'm grateful that Eric Bischoff gave me that opportunity. And I had a ton of fun there. But it was nothing compared to the fun and creative satisfaction and just to be part of something amazing that I got from that whole DX experience.
I did a lot of tae kwon do and branched off into other stuff later on, but tae kwon do is great. It was my equalizer. That was how I was able to survive in the land of the giants. Thank God for that.
Nobody is exempt from being respectful to the business and paying homage to the guys drawing money. We all have done it. Steve Austin did it; The Rock did it.
For me, I had that reputation as being a guy that did a lot of stuff early on in my career, but to me, at the time I needed to do that in order to be noticed. Eventually, my style evolved and started making it to where every match wasn't about a dive outside of the ring.
A lot of the best villains are the ones that think they are right. That think they are the good guy.
You hear the word 'fake' thrown around wrestling, but it doesn't get more real when you hear the sound of 20,000 people coming unglued.
My name was Lightning Kid; it was pretty much a copy off of Dynamite Kid.
Lars Sullivan and EC3 are made for the main roster, more so than NXT. Obviously, Lars because he's just freakish in so many ways. But EC3, I look at him, and I look at his mannerisms, his mic skills: he's tailor-made for a good push on the main roster.
I'm all about people being able to redeem themselves.
I like Wade Barrett a lot. I think he has tons of potential.
I've always been a big fan of Jim Neidhart.
The character of Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart added so much. He was solid in the ring too, really good. His role in the Hart Foundation - he was great. He was a really good, solid power guy that could move in there, too.
Here's the thing: I consider myself pretty well - for somebody that didn't go to high school, pretty well educated.
Actually, the only thing that I can honestly say I really regret now is the blackface thing. I did not understand.
We just get comfortable in our routines, and that's how it worked before, but now you can see wrestling from around the world and all the promotions, and everyone has something online you could see. And many years ago, you could do these routines, and they weren't routines to the fans because they didn't see them as much.
Not every time someone gets hit these days with a kick, they don't necessarily take a flat-back. Maybe less flat-backs add time to a career, but if they miss some of it, it just seems like you're done.
When you're not working with guys your own size and everyone is way bigger than you, guys aren't afraid to run right through you - and not even hit you in dangerous places, but just the collision alone - and sometimes it would ring your bell.
I just think guys should be mindful, 'Okay, this guy is a hundred pounds lighter than me. Maybe I shouldn't hit him full on,' even if it's in a safe spot.
The wrestling world lost Pedro Morales... I knew Pedro from all the years that I worked with WWE. From the time I first started there, he was always such a nice guy, very classy, and even later on, you could totally understand why someone would trust putting a world championship on a guy like that. And Pedro was ready for all types of action.
When I was in WCW, I was definitely like... kind of cutthroat, a little bit.
It was just, I was always contrarian. I was always, you know, 'We want to do this with you,' 'No, I want to do that.' In so many things, I wanted to do things my way.
I was a buzzsaw out there, high impact, high energy, I was quick.
My diet is probably better than just about anybody's.
I don't drink. I don't do any drugs.
It's hard to put yourself in someone else's head.
One thing I gotta say about this, about All Elite Wrestling, is so many people in the industry that are sure they know how it's done are all jumping in. I see so-and-so's advice, this person has advice... As nice of you and your advice, but these guys have come along because they kinda went their own way.
A win doesn't always come exactly how you want it to, but it's a win nonetheless. And anyone who doesn't think so, I don't even know what to tell them.
I've done things in my career, you know, accomplishments, and being in DX, NWO, the Kliq, all of that.
You have to know your crowd. And adjust accordingly.
My mindset, when it came to wrestling, was more the reasons why I could, not the reasons why I couldn't, which is how you should look at, like, everything in life.
I grew up in Tampa, Florida, and St. Pete, Tampa, the Tampa Bay area, and that was the home of Championship Wrestling from Florida with Gordon Solie, Dusty Rhodes, and it was just... I mean, for storylines and angles and promos, it was second to none.
I was always a contrarian.
I think, for me, I should have worked harder on my mic skills, and I should have been a lot easier to deal with, and I would have been pushed a lot better.
If I thought anybody was messing with me, I was difficult.
That first run in WWE, that 1-2-3 Kid run, definitely, that was my underdog cruiserweight thing, and Vince was behind it.
I think around the time that he signed with WWE, no one had more of a buzz in wrestling than Kenta, as far as this guy is, pound for pound, the best in the world. That's the kind of talk you heard about.
I can sing every single word of Honky Tonk's theme song. He was great. He might not be that cruiserweight-style wrestler or a Bret Hart-type of wrestler, but I thought he was great. He was such an over-the-top character, and it was a character on the peripheral of wrestling.
Eric Bischoff wanted to destroy Vince in the ratings, but we wanted them to stay in the game. We wanted it to be neck-and-neck. We didn't want to skunk the other team and spike the football every single time.
I wouldn't mind being a part of that 205 Live brand.
I think I had a lot to do with why there's even a thing such as 205 Live. In the past, when they started that, they didn't even acknowledge me. I've gotta lie to tell you that that didn't bother me.
The natural instinct when you get concussed, when you get knocked out, as soon as you come up is to get up and fight and keep going.
Trust me - he will be back. I promise you, at some point CM Punk will be back involved in wrestling.
