In-Ring Persona Quotes

The Heart Break Kid does not rest in peace. He can stay up ALL NIIIGHT!

There is a considerable amount of content to what made Tommy End Tommy End and what makes Aleister Black Aleister Black, but there are a lot of similarities. I sometimes feel like Tommy End shed his skin and became Aleister Black. I truly feel that in WWE Tommy End could become Aleister Black.

I think it's hard to differentiate between your wrestling character and your real character - you kind of end up being both. I've always been my wrestling character in and out of the ring and in and out of the dressing room, and I was always really respected in the dressing room by the other wrestlers.

The whole Aleister Black character is a creation of my influences, Triple H and NXT, and everyone combined.

That's why I like the indies: because I like being who I am. I get to be who I am in the ring, on the microphone, everywhere. It's great. I never have to get out of character because I am Matthew Riddle.

A lot of people don't know who they are as a wrestler. Even people that walk into the doors of the Performance Center. They might be world-class athletes or models, but they don't know who they are in the ring.

When you look across the ring at me, and you look into my eyes, you are not immmortal, you are not an icon; you are just like everybody else. You are an obstacle, and I will run you over. And that is not a threat, that is not a warning; that is just a fact! Because brother, I am THE GAME...and I AM THAT...DAMN...GOOD!

You will look into my eyes and you will know I am The Game and that I am that damn good!

From a backstage perspective, one of the things I always tried to do in wrestling was maintain that I was Adam. Edge was a character.

I think Finn Balor is more about confidence, a smarter version of Prince Devitt. Otherwise, they have the same core values, same techniques, and the same heart.

Working heel works different for me, being Dustin Rhodes for so many years and then a giant switch of a character and everything.

They say the best wrestling gimmicks are a heightened version of yourself and that's me!

That is the thing that wrestling is, we are who we are. Even when we are established we are not actors. We are wrestlers.

A lot of people ask me, like, how the characters are different between Nitro and Morrison and Mundo, and the biggest difference is just the names. Like, wrestlers are usually a version of yourself, and the versions of myself haven't really changed that much.

When I came up, it was Macho Man and all these other guys, and you had to come up with your own stuff. If you didn't come up with your own stuff, you weren't getting over.

I was a terrible actor, and that's why I got the job: I would allow myself to be so bad that I lowered and got down to WWF standards.

I can always be ruthless and aggressive in the ring, but I don't think I'll ever have the opportunity to be 'The Funkasaurus' again.

Part of what I've tried to do since I became 'Hangman' is try to give back to the world because I know I can make people feel a little more uncomfortable than maybe most wrestlers do.