My first match was against Sputnik Monroe at the Amarillo Sports Arena. It was scheduled for only ten minutes. Sputnik got me down and was on top of me for the first eight minutes. My father came running down to the ring and yelled for me to get up. I don't know how I got up but I did. I was a lot more scared of my father than I was Sputnik.
I remember when I first walked into an American locker room, and no one had ever seen a 130-pound wrestler before. Those guys thought I was such a joke.
When I started, I just put my nose to the grindstone, had great trainers and opponents like Fit Finlay, Arn Anderson, Booker T, Umaga and Bob Holly, and good things started to happen.
I've wrestled Rich Swann countless times. I've faced Akira Tozawa in Japan and America. Zack Sabre Jr. is another guy I've faced many times.
I'm still the guy who shared the ring with The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Triple H when they were still actually active. And I'm aware, as my wife loves to hear. It's not different than any sport in the world where the best wrestlers are gonna get the best spots. That spot is for me, because I've earned it.
My dad wrestled The Rock, and I heard the people screaming and saw just how much they loved seeing my dad perform. It gave me chills.
When I made my debut, I had that weird one-off at 'Battleground' where I was, like, Sasha's partner. And that was an amazing night.
I listened to the veteran wrestlers that had tons of experience, like Leo Burke.
The dojo system in Japan is something very unique. It prepared me not only for wrestling in the States and around the world, but it also prepared me for how to handle myself as an adult in the real world.
Leo Burke was an unbelievable trainer. Him and Tom Prichard. Tom Prichard was not a big guy. And I learned a lot from him.
It's no easy job being a World Heavyweight Champion; these guys like Cena, Sheamus, these guys are modeled around that and are champs for a reason.
From the beginning of my career, when I first started on the independent circuit, when I went to Global Wrestling Federation in Dallas and then to WCW, all the way through it seems like titles have been around my waist for some reason, and I always give credit to the fans.
You're wrestling seven days a week for four months straight. It's a great way to learn.
I've had my day in the sunshine with wrestling.
All the times they put tag titles on me, Intercontinental titles on me, or the world title on me, the only time I couldn't defend the title was when I had to forfeit the belt when I quit WCW and retired from wrestling forever.
Going from The Shield to singles competition, it wasn't a really big transition for me. Before we were The Shield, we were all singles wrestlers. And we were wrestling a bunch of guys all the time down in developmental.
I get to watch Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode and Tye Dillinger and all these huge names in NXT wrestle on TakeOver. Then I got to wrestle alongside them.
It was an unbelievable experience to be in the ring with Jerry Lawler, one of the biggest wrestlers of all time.
I spent most of my time wrestling looking up at the lights.
I think all The Shield boys will tell you we hold The Shield very dear to our hearts. That was our vehicle to where we are now, and to get out of developmental and out of that hot Tampa warehouse.
Wrestlers tend to do good in MMA because they tend to be just some tough guys. It's not a karate situation where they grew up their whole life punching the air; in a wrestling situation, you grab a hold of another human being every day.
I feel like I have chemistry with every girl but I don't know what happened with Awesome Kong. I never even saw her work before our very first match. I just heard so much about her and then we brought in this whole women's division.
There was a match in Alaska that I had with Beth Phoenix at a house show where we had a standing ovation from Ric Flair, Triple H, John Cena, and Arn Anderson. I got to work with her so much that we knew each other's body language. Got a standing ovation from the entire locker room. It was amazing.
You've got to stay in pretty good shape to be a pro wrestler, and all the TNA wrestlers get a bit nervous when I wrestle them because they're afraid I'll tire them out, but the Olympics is a whole different level.
For the fans to be able to enjoy a lucha libre match between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio, I think, I don't want to be flattering myself, but that's probably some of the best lucha libre matches that I had throughout my career, and we were able to demonstrate it to the fans around the world.
